Around Indies

DIESEL Gives Thanks

With Thanksgiving around the corner, DIESEL, a bookstore, which has locations in Oakland, Brentwood, and Malibu, is holding its annual Thank You Party in the Oakland store on Sunday, November 18. The celebration will include pie and pottery, a raffle, and a 20 percent discount on anything in the store.

The invitation to customers in the DIESEL newsletter noted: “It’s our way of saying THANK YOU to all you passionate, avid, and occasional readers who cross our threshold, talk with us about books, and support us, the authors, and the culture at large by shopping at an independent bookstore. Thanks for keeping it local, and keeping it real, these 23 years — it’s a pleasure and we look forward to keeping it up for many years to come.”

Five Washington Bookstores Host a “My Bookstore” Lit Crawl

To celebrate the November 13 publication of My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop (Black Dog & Leventhal), a collection of essays in which more than 80 authors pay tribute to their favorite independent booksellers, Seattle’s University Book Store and Elliott Bay Book Company have teamed up with Village Books in Bellingham, Eagle Harbor Book Company in Bainbridge Island, and Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park to host a lit crawl.

Store events will take place from November 12 - 20 and will include readings by five authors featured in the collection: Ivan Doig, Tom Robbins, Jonathan Evison, Stephanie Kallos, and Timothy Egan

 At the first stop, attendees will receive a My Bookstore passport, and at each stop thereafter, they will receive a stamp in their passport. Customers with three or more stamps will be entered for a chance to win prizes sponsored by the lit crawl consortium, including gift cards to Third Place and University Book Store, copies of My Bookstore, and a prize pack of participating authors’ most recent work.

 ”We’re so pleased to be working with other area independents on hosting this lit crawl, as we’re calling it,” said Stesha Brandon, manager of PR and Events at University Book Store. “We’re all honored to be toasted by such respected authors, of course, but as a whole we also view the publication of My Bookstore as a celebration of not only the wonderful authors who stock our shelves but our customers as well.”

Northshire Closer to Second Location

After reaching its funding goal, Northshire Books in Manchester Center, Vermont, is one step closer to opening its second location, in Saratoga, New York, by next year.

To supplement bank financing and Northshire’s own funds, owner Chris Morrow appealed to the local community. The public appeal was not only a straightforward way of raising funds, but also a way of “testing the waters so to speak,” Morrow told the Saratoga Wire. “It’s a way for me to find out how strongly the community is behind this endeavor. For a good independent bookstore to survive and thrive in this day and age, the community needs to be supporting it.”

The Saratoga store, which will be a separate entity from its Manchester counterpart, will operate under a business model known – widely in Vermont, and gaining traction elsewhere – as a Community Supported Enterprise (CSE). Based on Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), which is commonly used by farmers to ensure economic stability during slower months, the store’s community investors will eventually have the option of converting their contribution to equity, therefore becoming partial owners of the store.

With several nearby universities and other institutions devoted to literacy, Morrow is confident he will be able to serve many local readers. The time he has spent in Saratoga has “reinforced the feeling that this would be a strong place to open a bookstore,” he said, “given the quality of people here in terms of their interests, leading interesting lives, you know, most of them are readers and writers, and it’s a demographic a good bookstore needs.”