50
Used, New, and Out of Print Books - We Buy and Sell - Powell's Books
Cart |
|  my account  |  wish list  |  help   |  800-878-7323
Hello, | Login
MENU
  • Browse
    • New Arrivals
    • Bestsellers
    • Featured Preorders
    • Award Winners
    • Audio Books
    • See All Subjects
  • Used
  • Staff Picks
    • Staff Picks
    • Picks of the Month
    • Bookseller Displays
    • 50 Books for 50 Years
    • 25 Best 21st Century Sci-Fi & Fantasy
    • 25 PNW Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books From the 21st Century
    • 25 Memoirs to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Global Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Women to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books to Read Before You Die
  • Gifts
    • Gift Cards & eGift Cards
    • Powell's Souvenirs
    • Journals and Notebooks
    • socks
    • Games
  • Sell Books
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Find A Store

PowellsBooks.Blog
Authors, readers, critics, media − and booksellers.

Original Essays

How to Be a Patron of an Independent Bookstore

by Helen Ellis, January 14, 2016 2:36 PM
Helen Ellis, American Housewife
American Housewife: Stories by Helen Ellis

Walk into an independent bookstore. Marvel at its coziness.
It's like you're in someone's living room. A living room walled with bookshelves. Maybe there are sofas! Maybe there are chairs with armrests as soft and as fat as two loaves of Wonder Bread. 
Sometimes there are several rooms of books. Sometimes there are several floors of books. Sometimes there's a basement or an attic. Exploring an independent bookstore can be an adventure. It feels like you're snooping. Everybody likes to snoop. 

When you see someone creating a display table with books that fit a theme (for example: books about scorned lovers for Valentine's Day), say, "Hello."

This is an independent bookseller. An independent bookseller knows all. Maybe she doesn't know all there is to know about what you're looking for — say, perhaps a mystery with a hairdresser for a detective — but she knows someone who does.

Watch! Observe the independent bookseller in her natural habitat. She will lead you to another bookseller who knows about amateur detectives. 
Or, she might lead you to a regular customer who's just come back from a mystery lovers' convention. Perhaps that regular customer is adorable. Perhaps you start a beautiful relationship, or a book club with the book that you buy. 
Ten times out of ten an independent bookstore will have a book club of its own. Join the club. Every month, buy the club book. Read it. Dog-ear the pages. Write in the margins. You bought it. It's cool. 
Attend the book club at the store. Often there is wine and cheese. Sometimes there is cake! 
If you are not fortunate enough to have an independent bookstore close enough for you to visit, log onto the worldwide web.
Open an Instagram account and follow a bookstore that has a cat. This cat will have its own Instagram account. The booksellers will pose the cat next to books the cat is "reading."
They will place the cat in the arms of authors who visit on book tours. 
Be sure to like the photo of the Civil War historian who held the cat like a musket.

Buy the historian's book about field surgery without anesthesia. To numb your seasonal cold or flu, take a mild antihistamine and wake up refreshed to see what independent booksellers are tweeting about.
Twitter is a virtual playground for readers playing word games.

Would you like to add a word to a book title in honor of the return of The Walking Dead?

American Housewife Zombie!

You are hilarious.

Congratulations, you are a patron of independent bookstores. And a personal hero of mine.
÷ ÷ ÷
Helen Ellis is the acclaimed author of the novel Eating the Cheshire Cat and the new short story collection American Housewife. She is a poker player who competes on the national tournament circuit. Raised in Alabama, she lives with her husband in New York City.



Books mentioned in this post

American Housewife

Helen Ellis
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##

Most Read

  1. Best Books of 2022: Fiction by Powell's Staff
  2. The Big List of Backlist: Books That Got Us Through 2022 by Powell's Staff
  3. 25 Books to Read Before You Die: 21st Century by Powell's Staff
  4. Powell's 2023 Book Preview: The First Quarter by Powell's Staff
  5. 7 Essential Authors Recommend Their 7 Essential Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books by Powell's Staff

Blog Categories

  • Interviews
  • Original Essays
  • Lists
  • Q&As
  • Playlists
  • Portrait of a Bookseller
  • City of Readers
  • Required Reading
  • Powell's Picks Spotlight

6 Responses to "How to Be a Patron of an Independent Bookstore "

MLynette February 21, 2016 at 11:44 AM
I died laughing reading this!! I live near and regularly visit 3 of the 5 Powell's locations and still follow a half dozen bookstore Instagram accounts because of their Bodega Cats :)

Kristina Harper January 21, 2016 at 03:57 PM
The highest and best calling for any book lover -- being a dedicated patron of an independent bookstore. I'm lucky enough to have three to patronize, even though two of them are long-distance relationships: Powell's, the mothership (of course!); Book Passage in Marin County; and The Avid Reader in my hometown of Sacramento. While it's certainly best to be able to physically enter the independent store of your choice, you can have a perfectly satisfying relationship with one (or more!) remotely located establishments. And like Maya Walls, who commented above, I'm planning my own relocation to Oregon: the only nonnegotiable requirement for my new city is that it be within comfortable driving distance of Powell's!

Maya Walls January 20, 2016 at 05:51 PM
I have been reading as long as I've been swimming! And that's no joke. I visited Portland twice in two years ago, and I never got to Powell's!! I fixed that.in nine months now, I will be relocating from sunny SoCal to live by the best independent bookstore in the world!!!! (And some seriously good food!)

ted garrett January 20, 2016 at 01:45 PM
loved the article. the old pictures are wonderful.

Robert/Cornelia Strohmeier January 19, 2016 at 12:20 PM
Hello, we would like to ask a question about a book. May I have a listing of book about The Films of _________(movie stars)? Thank you. Robert/ Cornelia Strohmeier

Laurie Watson January 16, 2016 at 01:31 PM
From your pen to the public's ear - if they can take their e-book or, more likely, audiobook earplugs out long enough to cast their eyes on the beauty that was the independent or used bookstore. We finally got one in Storrs, CT for just a few years, but it's being threatened by the BIG BOOK STORES. It was sweet while it lasted!

Result(s) 6

Post a comment:

*Required Fields
Name*
Email*
  1. Please note:
  2. All comments require moderation by Powells.com staff.
  3. Comments submitted on weekends might take until Monday to appear.
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

  • Help
  • Guarantee
  • My Account
  • Careers
  • About Us
  • Security
  • Wish List
  • Partners
  • Contact Us
  • Shipping
  • Transparency ACT MRF
  • Sitemap
  • © 2023 POWELLS.COM Terms