independent bookstore day
I was in the great city of Chicago this past weekend and Saturday happened to be Independent Bookstore Day. Because I have a wonderful sister who indulges my crazy requests when I am there visiting, I was chauffeured all over the city to visit six (six!) independent bookstores.
And what a day it was. I snagged a copy of Austin Kleon's zine, "Read Like an Artist" at The Bookstore of Glen Ellyn that he made especially for Independent Bookstore Day. I stopped in at Quimby's (a bookstore that specializes in zines) which I have been wanting to visit for a few years. I visited the awesome Semicolon Bookstore where I bought the book New Kid -- one of the many books* that have been challenged by school districts lately for ridiculous reasons! (So, I had to have it, of course).
Here's a list of the stores I was lucky to visit:
I recommend all of them. So it was a great day.
I think I'm going to declare Independent Bookstore Day a Personal Holiday and celebrate it every year! I urge you to support an independent bookstore near you. We need these wonderful stores to keep going.
Many thanks, sweet sister!
And as always, dear reader, thanks for being here.
May 6, 2022
*note: for more on this crazy and frightening trend of banning books, see the American Library Association's State of America's Libraries Special Report. Patricia Wong, President of the ALA has an excellent piece about how this trend is not OK.