1 week Ago By Jen Zoratti
In the 1998 rom-com Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) owns an adorable independent bookstore facing an existential threat — a big baddie corporate chain bookstore that has moved in across the street. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * To continue reading, please subscribe: *$1 will be added to your next bill. After your 4 weeks access is complete your rate will increase by $0.
00 a X percent off the regular rate. In the 1998 rom-com Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) owns an adorable independent bookstore facing an existential threat — a big baddie corporate chain bookstore that has moved in across the street. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? Opinion In the 1998 rom-com Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) owns an adorable independent bookstore facing an existential threat — a big baddie corporate chain bookstore that has moved in across the street.
Problem is, Kathleen falls in love with Joe Fox, the big baddie corporate chain bookstore’s owner (Tom Hanks), only she doesn’t know he’s the big baddie corporate chain bookstore’s owner at first because they have struck up an anonymous relationship over AOL (I love how ’90s this movie is). I don’t know how would be adapted for 2025 — we’re too online and know too much about each other for the identity caper piece of it, and Amazon has already plunged the dagger into the heart of brick-and-mortar retail — but I do know the ending would be the same: the independent bookstore would close. (The big baddie corporate chain bookstore would probably close, too, or it would start selling candles and “reading socks.
”) Today is Canadian Independent Bookstore Day, an annual day when readers, writers, illustrators, publishers and book lovers celebrate these pillars of the community — the same people independent booksellers support every day. I love indie bookstores. As with art galleries, I make a point of visiting them when I travel.
Books are Magic in Brooklyn, Magers & Quinn in Minneapolis, Parnassus Books in Nashville — these are all places I’ve spent time in and have supported. Parnassus and Books are Magic were both opened by novelists — Ann Patchett and Emma Straub, respectively — and it’s still my (now deferred) dream to one day make it to Judy Blume’s Books & Books in Key West, Fla. Indie bookstores are third places.
They build community. They form the cultural DNA of a place. Imagine Winnipeg without McNally Robinson; I’ve been buying books there since I could read, and I still harbour the dream of one day having my portrait among the local authors (just gotta write that book first).
They support authors in all stages of their careers. They are places where we can access knowledge, ideas and stories. Indie bookstores — and their siblings, libraries — are especially vital in an age when book bans are on the rise.
That might seem like an American concern, but we all know how sentiments can creep northward. In 2022, the Durham District School Board in Ontario banned r, a book by Winnipeg-based Swampy Cree author and graphic novelist David A. Robertson.
Indies can sell whatever they want, allowing critical physical access to books that may have been pulled from shelves elsewhere. But indie bookstores also have an important role to play as a counterbalance to e-commerce sites such as Amazon, which have been flooded with AI-generated slop. A lot of these scam books rip off legitimate authors which, as many affected writers have pointed out, not only has the potential to harm their sales, but their reputations — especially as technology gets better and the fakes get harder to detect.
Besides, ordering a book is just not the same. Browsing the shelves — at your indie, your used bookstore or your local library — reading the blurbs, asking for recommendations, attending readings and signings, all of these things make you feel cosy, like you’re part of something: an experience, a community. In our increasingly online lives, indie bookstores make you feel like you’re in the world.
[email protected] Jen Zoratti is a columnist and feature writer working in the Arts & Life department, as well as the author of the .
A National Newspaper Award finalist for arts and entertainment writing, Jen is a graduate of the Creative Communications program at RRC Polytech and was a music writer before joining the in 2013. . Every piece of reporting Jen produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print – part of the ‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism.
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Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support. Jen Zoratti is a columnist and feature writer working in the Arts & Life department, as well as the author of the .
A National Newspaper Award finalist for arts and entertainment writing, Jen is a graduate of the Creative Communications program at RRC Polytech and was a music writer before joining the in 2013. . Every piece of reporting Jen produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print – part of the ‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism.
Read more about , and . Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider .
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support. Advertisement.
