Celebrate California Bookstore Day!

Saturday, May 3 is California Bookstore Day! Across the state independent bookstores will be celebrating by hosting events and selling special items available only on that day.

Because I’m going to be in Southern California for my 30th college reunion on that day, I went on the website www.cabookstoreday.com to see which bookstore near my alma mater I could visit. I was delighted to find Mrs. Nelson’s Toy and Book Shop, so I visited the store’s website to get more information, where I found this:

We are honored to have shared our love of children's literature with you....We recognize that the retail business is changing and now has an emphasis on "big box" discount stores. Additionally, the surge in popularity of online sales and e-books has resulted in enormous changes in the book market.  Mrs. Nelson's is unable to compete with these trends, and we recognize that closing our store is the necessary course of action for us to take.

I’ve never even been to Mrs. Nelson’s Toy and Book Shop, which opened up 28 years ago, but I was heartbroken to hear of another indy bookseller biting the dust, especially one that specialized in children’s literature, which holds a special place in my heart.

An Independent bookstore isn’t just a place to pick up the latest cookbook or graduation gift, though it is that too. It’s a place where booksellers actually love, read, and know books. It’s a place where you can browse titles and flip pages, reading bits to see if it is indeed a book you want to own. It’s a place where you run into neighbors and chat about favorite books. It’s a place where you can hear authors read from their books and then talk with them afterward while they sign your copy.

I’ve had so many rich experiences over the years in independent bookstores hearing and meeting authors— Gloria Steinem at Cody’s; Anne Lamott at Black Oak; Mary Roach at Pegasus; John Irving, David Sedaris, Barbara Kingsolver, Khaled Hosseini, and Ann Patchett at Book Passage in Corte Madera; Kristen Caven at Laurel Bookstore in Oakland; and more. Pegasus on Solano even hosts book events with music and creative variations of readings involving multiple people. No, they won’t have every single book on site, but they will order anything in print and get it to you just as fast as Amazon would, and you don’t pay shipping costs or end up with packaging peanuts (destined for landfill) and another box with an arrow on it that’s just going to go in the recycling bin.

We in the Bay Area are so lucky to have as many independent bookstores as we do. But they won’t be around for much longer if we don’t support them. Even if you don’t usually buy books from your local bookstore, please consider doing so this Saturday to show your support. Otherwise, some day soon you’ll discover that the local bookstore that you were sure was always going to be there will go the way of Mrs. Nelson’s Toy and Book Shop.