Can you hear the pages rustling, credit cards swiping, and contented sighs of book lovers? These are the sounds of Independent Bookstore Day, coming up this Saturday, April 26. Across the country, bookstores will offer activities from treasure hunts to mimosas to story times to celebrate the occasion.
Indie Bookstore Day, a “national one-day party,” is organized by the American Booksellers Association with the goal of encouraging shoppers to head to local businesses to pick up the titles they’ve been most eager to read. Amazon is out, foot traffic is in. The annual celebration started small in 2014 in California stores. By the following year, it was nationwide.
This year, some shops are using the event as an opportunity to highlight local artists, merchants, and designers. In Portland, Oregon, Annie Bloom’s Books will partner with Street Books, an organization that provides books and journals to unhoused people through mobile libraries. Stop by Annie Bloom’s to buy books and donate journals. At Booksmith in San Francisco, tarot, love letters, and bingo are on the agenda—as are cocktails at the Alembic, the store’s bar next door. Nearby, Green Apple Books will have mimosas flowing at two of its locations, plus an author happy hour at the Inner Sunset store with local writer Daniel Handler, novelist Colin Winnette, and cookbook creator Bebe Black Carminito. And in Salt Lake City, Utah, queer bookstore Under the Umbrella will host bookmark-making and tie-dye stations for anyone feeling crafty.
In Seattle, check out Seattle Cider Co.’s partnership with Beguiled Books—a mobile bookstore specializing in romance novels that will be stationed at the cidery, so readers can simultaneously enjoy a pint and a steamy novel. For those lovers of love in Southern California, Heartbound Bookshop in Orange County will be serving matcha on tap and inviting a stacked lineup of romance authors for signings throughout the day.
To spread the local business love, some bookstores have organized neighborhood crawls. Fresno will host its first-ever bookstore crawl, with stops at A Book Barn, Bookish 520, Friends of the Fresno Library Store, Hart’s Haven, Judging by the Cover: A Bookstore, and Petunia’s Place. Farther north, 11 powerhouse bookstores in the Sacramento area, including Beers Books and Underground Books, will offer a special as part of their crawls: Spend $10 at one bookstore and get a passport that can be stamped every time you spend money at a participating shop. Stamps can be redeemed for prizes like gift cards and merch. In San Diego, crawl passports will be accepted at 14 establishments. Bring a date to Meet Cute Romance Bookshop or get together with your most intelligent friends at the UC San Diego Bookstore (remember to reserve your spot on the Book Shuttle to avoid the parking headache). Go find former California Book Club author Dave Eggers, who will be signing books at participating stores all weekend long. Bookstores in Seattle and South Sound will also open their doors for crawlers—find out if your favorite store is participating here.
To round out the weekend, the American Booksellers Association and audiobook dealer Libro.fm have partnered with hundreds of stores to host exclusive deals and giveaways. This year’s Indie Bookstore Day merch will be available at participating stores, including this Late Night Book Club hat and matching tote bag. Also, Libro.fm has distributed 800 golden tickets to indie bookstores across the country, encouraging staff to hide them in the stacks. Each ticket is redeemable for 12 free audiobook credits—enough to get ahead on summer reading.
Plus, don’t miss the ultimate celebration of books and springtime: the L.A. Times Festival of Books, which this year conveniently overlaps with Indie Bookstore Day. Pack your day with panels, but save some time to walk through the multitude of booths set up by bookshops, including Vromans, the Ripped Bodice, and Skylight Books. Overwhelmed by the panel options? We recommend checking out “The Literary Life: Connecting the Creative, Critical, and Personal” on Saturday and “Friend of My Mind: Essays on Finding a Home in Literature” and “The Call Is Coming from Inside the House: Novels About Writers” on Sunday. Hoping to spot a celebrity? Keep an eye out for Roy Choi, Chelsea Handler, and Stacey Abrams. And of course, there’s Alta’s favorite part: meeting readers and setting up new memberships at our booth in the festival exhibitor space. We’d love to meet you at booth 111, right by Tommy the Trojan.
P.S. Not sure what book to pick up? Check out these recent recommendations from our Monday Book Review and our list of anticipated April releases.•
Jessica Blough is a freelance writer. A former associate editor at Alta Journal, Blough is a graduate of Tufts University where she was editor in chief of the Tufts Daily.
