For the past few years, my family and I have celebrated Independent Bookstore Day (coming up on April 29th) with a bookstore crawl. Each year, we try to incorporate a new (to us) bookshop amongst our favorites. Sadly, this year we’ll miss out on visiting a former favorite, BookBar, as it closed this past January. Thankfully, there are plenty of other bookstores with unique personalities and missions. We’ve decided to expand our tour this year to include shops in Boulder as well, like Trident Booksellers and Cafe and Boulder Bookstore.
If you’ve never celebrated the day, I highly recommend giving it a try. In our experience, the stores have not been as crowded as one might expect (or perhaps, hope). Often, the store owners are on hand to answer questions about inventory, history and the highs and lows of managing a small business in the age of online mega-retailers and free or reduced-price digital content. Many stores offer special discounts, events or activities. We’ve amassed quite a collection of bookmarks, buttons, tote bags and stickers. I take them to writing conferences and find it’s a fun way to connect with other writers who recognize the stores’ names.
Some of our favorites around Denver include Bookies, West Side Books and of course Tattered Cover. We’ve also visited Capitol Hill Books and Mutiny Information Cafe. When hitting multiple stores in a day with children in tow, we’re most drawn to the ones with drinks and snacks!
I’ve always preferred independent restaurants and retails shops to chains. Ever since my brother took over three bars and restaurants in downtown Grand Forks, North Dakota, I’ve gained even more appreciation for the tremendous effort it takes to make small businesses profitable or simply sustainable. Supporting independent bookstores is important every day (after all, they are some of the biggest champions of local writers) and I’m happy to be a small part of the annual celebration. I hope you will join me this year. Please share some of your favorite spots in the comments to kick things off!
What a great way to celebrate! I’m inspired to do a bookstore crawl next year. I hope your day was wonderful!