Why Indie Bookstores Matter - Indie Bookstore Day 2023

This weekend is Indie Bookstore Day and we are so excited for you to share this with us. For us, here at Rediscovered Books, every day is Indie Bookstore Day. But once a year, we pull out all the stops.  This year we have gathered amazing exclusive limited edition swag (cool stuff to give away and buy), hidden a Libro.fm Golden Ticket good for 1 year of Libro.fm audiobooks somewhere in the bookstore, curated some amazing Blind Dates with a Book (that you did not know you needed), and we will reveal our 2023 #ReadFreely books.  And while all this is fun and joyful, there is also a more serious side to Indie Bookstore Day.

That being a chance to reflect on why we do what we do and why our space matters.  Books are books and you can buy books anywhere--the airport, the grocery store, a big box store.  So why shop with us?  Other than the fact that we are cool, we pride ourselves on the relationships that we develop with our bookstore customers.  Whether we interact with you for 5 minutes, 5 weeks, or 5 years, the opportunity to share our love and passion for books and reading is a gift for all of us who work in the bookstore.  The chance to hear what you say and, hopefully, offer you your next "best read" or find the book that sparks something inside you is why we come to work every day.  

Books matter, words matter, people matter.  In this last legislative session, we joined with our librarians to fight book banning and the criminalization of librarians and school districts.  We firmly support the "right to read" and the "freedom to read".  One only needs to  look at our Banned Book displays to see whose voices are being silenced--LGBTQ+, POC, and women.  All of whom have stories that we need to share and experiences that we need to try to understand. The "right to read" means that everyone has equal and unfettered access to these stories, not only in bookstores, but in our most valuable and democratic of institutions--the school and public libraries.  

So on this Indie Bookstore Day, swing by your local Indie! Pay us a visit, check out our swag, chat with our booksellers, and if you have time, drop a postcard to your favorite local library at our Action Station.  We appreciate you all for your continued support and look forward to sharing more great reads with you!