Something Good in the World: Let’s Celebrate Independent Bookstore Day This Weekend

I was going to write something else for today’s column, something complain-y but righteous that would allow me to get some stuff off my chest and maybe even get some rage clicks. Shit is bad. But I’m so tired. Maybe you are too. So why don’t we celebrate something nice that’s coming up instead, just for a little change of pace?

This Saturday, April 26th, is Independent Bookstore Day. Each year at the end of April the American Booksellers Association runs the event, with 1,600 bookstores across the country participating in 2025. I implore you: if you live near an indie bookstore (and I know that many of us still don’t and I hope one day we all do), you must go.

Ten years ago I received an email from the then-head of events at Housing Works Bookstore in Manhattan explaining that she was helping to organize New York City’s first effort to go all in for national indie bookstore day. It would be a collective effort with Housing Works joining workers from Greenlight, WORD, McNally Jackson, Community, and BookCourt (BookCourt is the only one that no longer exists, but former BookCourt bookseller Emma Straub opened Books Are Magic on Indie Bookstore Day in 2017).

There would be fun events and special guests and exclusive merchandise at each store and readers were encouraged to visit them all, with an afterparty at Powerhouse Books co-hosted by Jami Attenberg, Emma Straub, and Angela Flournoy. Indie Bookstore Day has been a much anticipated annual tradition for me ever since.

Here’s more good news: this is not just a New York City endeavor. Despite Amazon’s best efforts to obliterate small local businesses, we’re seeing a resurgence in bookstores across the country. According to Publishers Weekly there were 1,409 indie bookstore members of the ABA in 2009, down from 5,500 bookstores in 1995. But in 2024 USA Today reported that membership in the ABA is coming back with 2,500 independent bookstores registered and membership growing by 11 percent in 2023 with 291 new bookstore openings.

Forgive me for being one of those people who gets a little over enthusiastic about indie bookstores. I know that they’re not uniformly Good for the World. I know some shops have their problems, which I hope will be ameliorated as more and more indie bookstores unionize. But there’s nothing like a thoughtfully curated bookstore—even if it’s a little cluttered—to make me want to read everything.

There are shops where I know exactly which table in the front left side of the store will have books that will appeal to me that I haven’t heard of, and there are stores where I trust the staff recommendations implicitly. There are stores where I can linger over a book with a cup of coffee, or, increasingly, with a glass of wine. There are indies where I know I can show up around 7pm for any kind of reading or event and know I will be entertained and even enlightened. What a lovely way to build a social life.

The merch this year for Indie Bookstore Day is great, with tote bags and T shirts designed by celebrated cartoonist Adrian Tomine. There will also be plenty of other exclusives at various stores. And for readers who don’t live near a bookstore that speaks to them there’s Bookshop.org for online orders and Libro.fm for digital audiobooks.

Need recommendations for what to buy at your local bookstore? Here are just a few books published this April that you should check out: Fish Tales by Nettie Jones, Searches: Self Hood in the Digital Age by Vauhini Vara, Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory, Fair Play by Louise Hegarty, and To Save and Destroy by Viet Thanh Nguyen. But don’t take my word for it; ask your nearest bookseller IRL!

If you’re like me, the past 100 days have been brutal in just about every way imaginable and it’s difficult to ward off feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. At this moment Amazon can’t help you, but your indie bookstore can, or even your local library (I totally get it if you don’t have a dollar to spare for books!), or really anywhere you can go and speak to your neighbors. If you’re not sure what you can do right now to make a difference in the trajectory of our country,  this is an easy win. Go out on Independent Bookstore Day and look around, support a local business and maybe even read a book or two.

This year 26 stores near me are participating in a Brooklyn Bookstore Crawl with events leading up to Indie Bookstore Day on Saturday. Four new stores are joining for the first time. I have been looking everywhere for hope, and I am fairly certain I’ll find it in one of them.