For the Love of the Local Bookshop

Admit it – sometimes you go right by those little bookstores that line the road and never look back.

You think, “I have no time to stop and heck – I can just order it online.”

Sometimes the knee-jerk reaction is that the book will cost more at that quaint little Shop Around the Corner which, when you think about it, is ridiculous. Books have a set price, whether sold by an empire or a family’s shop.

But here’s the thing – that set price means a heck of a lot more to that little shop you just drove by, than the behemoth that lives online. That one book sale, when made at the Shop Around the Corner, supports a family that has devoted their heart and soul to their business. That online empire? It doesn’t feel anything when you click “BUY.”

In the realm of the online universe, books sit huddled on cold warehouse shelves waiting for someone, hopefully, to buy them. Books want to be held, to be seen, to have a finger trail over their colorful spines by a browsing buyer – not shuffled by a forklift and gathering dust from the various imports lining the shelves higher up.

Books have a life. A purpose. A burning desire to be tucked into a reader’s hands while snuggled into a fluffly blanket with its owner on a cold night. To become laced with the smell of hot chocolate and cinnamon scones, while their delicate pages are folded on the tips to mark a great scene.

Books live and they live best on the shelves of those little Shops around the Corner.

But to survive, readers, book lovers, and yes, even writers, MUST shop at that little store peeking out from under the willow trees.

So I, as writer and avid book addict, ask you to kindly shop at your local, privately owned bookstore whenever possible. I understand that sometimes there is no option to access that petite, wonderful shop, and you will turn to your computer screens. But whenever possible, buy from your local Shop Around the Corner.

Because, in the end, the dragon online will never starve, but that little bookshop just might.

Please visit these wonderful, local sellers who have UNDERTOW on their shelves:

TITCOMBS, EIGHT COUSINS, and BOOKS BY THE SEA.