Last week I posted a story about the closing of College Park Maryland’s Vertigo Books(“Shopping Online is Seductive, But…”), and later pointed out a column by the Washington Post’s Marc Fisher on the store’s demise.
At the end of Fisher’s column, he polled his readers asking “What’s your obligation as a customer to support local bookstores?” As of today, Bookselling This Week reports the results were as follows:
* Some–if they create an enriching place, I’ll pay somewhat higher prices to support them — 43%
* Serious–great local bookshops are foundations of community, well worth the price to keep alive — 31%
* None–they either win me over on price and service or they deserve to die — 12%
* Don’t know–locally-owned bookstores already vanished from where I live — 12%
Which category do you fit in? Do you still have a great indie bookstore near you? Tell us about it, with a link if you’d like.
hyde park, chicago
We have a few in my neighborhood (we are very lucky). There is an antiquarian bookstore, O’Gara and Wilson, whose website is http://ogarawilsonbooksellers.blogspot.com/
There is a wonderful used bookstore that I try to frequent at least once every week or so to find lots of good books. It’s called Powell’s (http://www.powellschicago.com/)and there are a couple of branches in Chicago. I’ve only ever been to the one in Hyde Park and it is fantastic.
We also have two bookstores that are owned by the same folks. It’s a Co-op and you can pay 30 dollars to buy in (and you can get those thirty back if you decide not to be a member) and you get 10% off your purchase every time. One branch is called the Seminary Coop Bookstore and one is called 57th Street Books. You can search their inventory at http://semcoop.booksense.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp and even order online. They are both really amazing bookstores as well with lots of academic titles as well as mainstream books.
All four of these bookstores are less than a mile apart. That’s why I love Hyde Park in Chicago!
Book City, Toronto
I order all my books through an independent book store, Book City because I do believe it is worth it to support them, despite paying more. There are also a number of second hand stores not far from me and I support them as well.
That said, I still get most of my books from the library.