Treasuring Local Bookstores

I was helping my mom clean out some of my dad's old stuff recently (he passed away a year ago) and came across a small collection of bookmarks from local bookstores. My dad loved reading and, while traveling, always visited the local bookstores. These stores are community anchors, often referred to as third spaces (not your home or your workplace) where people connect over a coffee, conversation, good book, or book talk.

Amazon (and other online corporate retail) have taken a toll on these community gems. Among other tactics, the fact that Amazon could sell products without sales tax for over twenty years allowed it to take considerable market share from local bookstores. In 2018, the Supreme Court finally overruled this unfair tax advantage.

Although many independent, local bookstores have had to close down, I was delighted to learn that all but one of the stores from my dad's bookmark collection are still in business. In a society that continues to shift our lives to the digital realm, there's still value and hope for in-person community and our local economies. It requires us to resist the temptation of one-click shopping, get out in our communities, and perhaps pay a couple of extra dollars for a good book.

One of the lessons I learned from my dad is the value of making time to get to know a place, including its bookstores. He didn't necessarily frequent local bookstores for the reasons I listed above or out of some moral obligation. Instead, he simply enjoyed and cherished them, adding satisfaction and further meaning to his life. I will treasure his collection of bookmarks.

P.S. Bookshop.org is a good alternative to Amazon, as part of its proceeds go to your local bookstore. I sometimes use bookshop.org, but mostly, if there is a book I want, I email my local bookstore, Fabulosa Books, and place an order for pickup if they don't have it in stock.