Bookstores Nationwide Ready for Saturday’s Celebration of Independent Bookstore Day

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The first annual nationwide celebration of Independent Bookstore Day is this Saturday, May 2. In cities and town across the country, independent bookstores will feature book-related activities, special promotions, prizes, and signed prints and literary merchandise from well-known authors created exclusively for Independent Bookstore Day.

In New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, and New Orleans, area stores are banding together to celebrate the event, and many stores throughout the country are garnering local news coverage for their exciting Independent Bookstore Day events and offerings. See a  roundup of local media coverage via Google News search here.

HarperCollins has teamed with car service Lyft and booksellers in Chicago, Seattle, and San Francisco for a special promotion: Customers at participating bookstores who can show a receipt for a ride to the store booked through the Lyft app on their phones will receive a free HarperCollins goodie bag.

Here is a look at what stores in some major cities are planning for the first annual Independent Bookstore Day:

New York City

Bookstore Day NYC is bringing together 26 bookstores across three boroughs for a day of festivities, including a party sponsored by Literary Hub, Tumblr, and Book Riot at Brooklyn’s POWERHOUSE Arena to cap off the day of celebration. 

  • Community Bookstore in Brooklyn will offer free Sixpoint beer, a kids-only mad scientist extravaganza with Jon Scieszka, and a party featuring Paul Auster, William Corbett, and Felix Harr.
  • Astoria Bookshop in Queens will host the literary trivia game show “Wait, Wait…I’ve Read That!” modeled after NPR’s Wait, Wait...Don’t Tell Me! The game will be led by Tony Hightower of Trivia NYC and will include audience participation, book-inspired cocktails, and prizes.
  • Housing Works Bookstore Cafe in Manhattan is teaming up with CoverSpy for Operation Indie: “spying” on New Yorkers supporting Independent Bookstore Day. Book buyers who let themselves be anonymously spied on and photographed behind the cover of their books for CoverSpy’s blog will receive one free raffle ticket per purchased book toward a literary giveaway that includes a gift card to Housing Works.

Seattle Area

Seventeen Seattle-area booksellers are collaborating to crown their most dedicated customers — those visiting all 17 stores on May 2 — as Indie Bookstore Champs as part of #SEABookstoreDay.

  • Queen Anne Book Company in Seattle is offering 20 percent off all books with the word “book” in the title, hourly prize drawings, and prizes for kids from the Indie Treasure Chest.
  • At Island Books on Mercer Island, customers can type up their tales on vintage typewriters, play Mad Libs, or take the Beat the Boss gift-wrap challenge. Shoppers spending $50 or more can spin the Wheel of Fun and Fortune for a chance at prizes and gift certificates.
  • Phinney Books has created an exclusive poster, “A Partial Inventory of Guastave Flaubert’s Effects” by Joanna Neborsky, that depicts many of the items M. Flaubert left behind when he died. 

San Francisco Bay Area

On top of all of the goodies and fun the Bay Area bookstores are giving away, readers can print out an Independent Bookstore Day passport and earn prizes for every three bookstores where they purchase something.

  • Mrs. Dalloway’s Literary and Garden Arts in Berkeley will host a Kids’ Joke-A-Thon, a hands-on pruning workshop with Grow a Little Fruit Tree author Ann Ralph (Storey Publishing), and the Elwood’s Got Talent! show.
  • Also in Berkeley, Moe’s Books will be promoting the documentary New Mo’ Cut: David Peoples’ Lost Film of Moe’s Books, which uses 16mm footage found at the Berkeley dump to chronicle the bookstore’s opening night party in 1965. Free movie posters will be available.
  • Readers can get a temporary tattoo designed by illustrators Tad Hills and Alex Beard, sample treats from Jill Donenfeld’s cookbook Better On Toast (William Morrow), and take part in a Bookish Scavenger Hunt at Rakestraw Books in Danville.
  • In addition to all-day refreshments and prizes, Pleasanton’s Towne Center Books is welcoming readers to come by for a book swap in front of the store and to stay for events with children’s author Mitali Perkins and bestselling author Greg Iles.
  • Dave Eggers will edit readers’ dating profiles at San Francisco’s Books Inc. in the Castro, and author and poet Michelle Tea will offer an hour of tea sipping and Tarot reading.

Chicago Area

Customers shopping at the 12 bookstores participating in Chicago Bookstore Day will have a chance to collect book pages from each store to compile a limited edition chapbook of a previously unreleased story written by Stuart Dybek and illustrated by Dmitry Samarov, which was designed and printed specially for Independent Bookstore Day.

  • Anderson’s Bookshop locations in Naperville, Downers Grove, and La Grange will host activities that include sparkle tattoos for children, visits from Curious George, raffles of author-signed posters, and dinosaur-themed bingo and story time.
  • The Book Cellar is inviting customers to start off their day with a Bloody Mary or a mimosa. Book Cellar’s bar will be tended by local authors Samantha Irby and David Stuart MacLean.
  • At Open Books River North, Kat Barry and Jo A. Kaucher of Chicago Diner will be serving slices of cheesecake from The New Chicago Diner Cookbook (Agate Midway) and local authors will greet customers at the door throughout the day.
  • Paula Haney of Hoosier Mama Pie Company will serve pie and sign copies of The Hoosier Mama Book of Pie (Agate Midway) at Unabridged Books.

Boston Area

  • At Porter Square Books in Cambridge, local chefs Jeremy Sewall and Joanne Chang will give cooking demonstrations.
  • Harvard Book Store will host literary critic James Wood talking about his new book, The Nearest Thing to Life (Brandeis University).
  • Jamaica Plain’s Papercuts J.P. will host readings, live music, bookstore bingo, and a spelling bee.

St. Louis

  • The Book House’s celebration will feature a raffle and prize drawing, Improv Shop show, an open mic poetry slam, and book warehouse tours.
  • At Left Bank Books, every two hours, the first 20 customers will get treats including Strange Donuts, handmade tacos, Spike pops (chocolate in the shape of the bookstore’s cat), and mug cakes.
  • Main Street Books is giving out free advanced reader copies and coffee and will host an author advice booth with Auntie Heather, steampunk crafts with YA author Brad Cook, and ghost stories with Dr. Michael Henry.
  • The Novel Neighbor will host preschool yoga, a 24-hour Harry Potter read-a-thon, and Kentucky Derby-related giveaways in honor of owner Holland Saltsman’s home state.
  • Subterranean Books will let customers spending $50 draw from a discount jar to receive an immediate five to 30 percent discount.

Jackson, Mississippi Area

  • Square Books in Oxford is offering T-shirts designed by Laurie Fisher, author of Where Do They Go on Game Days?, as well as refreshments and raffles. Customers spending $50 or more will receive a free Roz Chast tote bag.
  • Lemuria Books in Jackson will offer the first 50 customers a free tote bag with their purchase, and five percent of all sales throughout the day will go toward supporting future Mississippi Book Festivals.
  • Lorelei Books in Vicksburg will treat customers to a slice of cake baked by Rouxsters Home of Faydra Cakes.

Tucson, Arizona

  • Antigone Books will host festivities all day, with a new party beginning every two hours. Kids can have their faces painted, participate in a sidewalk chalk extravaganza, go on a scavenger hunt, and read stories to greyhounds up for adoption.
  • Mostly Books is discounting autographed books and books by local authors by 20 percent, and giving 40 percent off book-themed T-shirts.
  • Clues Unlimited is offering a 20 percent discount on all items throughout the day.

New Orleans

  • Independent Bookstore Day will be held a week later in New Orleans, on Saturday, May 9. The delay is due to Jazz Fest, which runs from April 24 to May 3. The New Orleans Gulf South Booksellers Association will operate its traditional book tent at Jazz Fest, with proceeds going to literacy causes around the city.
  • Customers visiting all three participating New Orleans bookstores — Garden District Book Shop, Octavia Books, and Tubby & Coo’s Mid-City Book Shop — will have a chance to win $75 in gift certificates. The stores are also giving away a limited number of New Orleans city notebooks, produced by Blackbird Letterpress in Baton Rouge.

And…Canada!

Independent bookstores in Canada will also celebrate on May 2 with the country’s first ever Authors for Indies Day, which will feature 655 Canadian authors hosted by 122 independent bookstores. The event’s website features guest blog posts from Canadian authors and a promotional video from fantasy author Guy Gavriel Kay.