In Praise of Bookstores, Booksellers

Don’t Let Them Go the Way of the Dinosaurs, Support Your Local Bookstores. Why?

It’s a living, a career. A bookstore owner’s passion, even when competitors’ doors have closed for good, hinting that theirs could be next. They press on. Die-hard bibliophiles keeping literature, authors, and community spirit alive. Coffee and books, sometimes pastries too. Plenty of recommendations. Drop in. Stop by. Peruse, touch, flip through pages, watch your eyes happen upon a book and story you might otherwise pass by. Hit the jackpot when they elevate you to a whole new world of possibilities and landscapes. Sit opposite an author reading from her work—at the bookstore.

Their numbers in the U.S. have dwindled, down from 12,363 in 1997 to 10,800 today, yet bookstores are going to be all right. Anytime The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore becomes a 2024 New York Times bestseller, it’s evident that bookstores will indeed remain in the land of the living for some time to come. We still want them, engage with other book buffs in them, which is why I encourage you to get your copy of Seven Days in Usha Village: A Conversation With Dr. Sebi 20 Years Later from your local bookstore. Several bookstore owners have online catalogs as well. Build your home library. Let bookshops help you.

IngramSpark is the distributor/printer of Seven Days in Usha Village: A Conversation With Dr. Sebi 20 Years Later.