📚Every Day is Independent Bookstore Day
Support your local/indie/queer bookstores today - Books! Bookstore Crawls! List your favorite in the Comments!
Happy Independent Bookstore Day - April 26th!
In it’s 12th year, this holiday is celebrated on the last Saturday of April to honor the commitment to reading and writing of indie bookstores.
As the internet continues to gobble up brick-and-mortar’s market share, many bookstores defiantly promote a culture of sharing literature, culture, and the arts in the face of mounting headwinds.
YOU can help this vital cause!
Buy your books at independent bookstores. Don’t see the book you want? Ask them to order it from their sources. A good book is worth the wait—a good bookstore is worth your time and patronage.
Queer bookstores in particular have long been a meeting place for our community that’s reached deep into our best interests, providing safe spaces, readings, and other events that cater to us. They’ve given visibility to queer writers, and provided a broad range of relevant material that is often not carried in other bookstores.
Here is a link to 65 queer-owned bookstores by state, courtesy of OprahDaily.com:
And a very short list of a few more queer/progressive bookstores—check them out!
Fabulosa Books - San Francisco, CA (formerly known as A Different Light Bookstore during my go-go Castro days—a favorite haunt!)
Moe’s Books - Berkeley, CA (since 1959—THE used bookstore on Telegraph Avenue I frequented while attending UC, and mentioned in Chapter 7 - “The Stranger” - in my novel, Lamb)
Walden Pond Books - Oakland, CA (on Grand Avenue since 1973, the closest bookstore to our house in Oakland—not queer, but very progressive with a fabulous selection of new and used)
Little District Books - Washington, DC
Common Ground Books - Tallahassee, FL
The Little Book - Des Moines, IA
Loudmouth Books - Indianapolis, IN
High Five Books - Florence, MA - Kids/middle gradebooks
The Nonbinarian Bookstore & Book Bike - Brooklyn, NY
Help! The Nonbinarian’s Book Bike went missing on April 2nd! There’s a GoFundMe to replace their signature pink cargo tricycle—help if you can, or go to their website to see all the great opportunities for community engagement they offer
Little Gay Bookstore - Columbus, OH
- Portland, OR LINK
Philly AIDS Thrift @ Giovanni’s Room - Philadelphia, PA (since 1973 - the oldest continuously operating queer bookstore in America)
Queer Haven Books - Columbia, SC
Charlie’s Queer Books - Seattle, WA
INTERNATIONAL -
Gay’s the Word Bookshop - London (since 1979- the UK's oldest LGBT bookshop and a touchstone for the broader LGBT community)
If you absolutely positively need to buy a book online, all profits on sales through Bookshop.org are directed to your favorite indie bookstore - LEARN MORE
ALSO if your commitment to independent booksellers knows no bounds, here’s a link to all U.S.-based bookstores participating with bookstore crawls this weekend, by city:
https://www.indiebound.org/independent-bookstore-day/map
Not seeing your favorite queer independent bookstore listed? Add yours in the Comments or in a Restack!
Want to watch a heartbreaking flick centered on an independent bookstore to celebrate the day? Look no further. Starring the inestimable Bill Nighy, Emily Mortimer, and Patricia Clarkson, based on the novel by Penelope Fitzgerald.
Happy Indie Bookstore Day everybody!!
Incredibly, there is no independent bookstore in my town or the towns surrounding me - only rare books suppliers in a town a bit further out, so not quite the same thing. Should I open one? (please don't encourage me to open one, I can't afford it ahaha)