Bay Reads - June 20`15

Indie Bookstores the Mark of Vibrant Towns

This month, a look at the qualities of independent bookstores - which are making a comeback across the country - and on the coast!
- by Carole McKellar

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Best-Selling author Greg Iles at a book signing event at Pass Books

Books have excited me since childhood, so bookstores and libraries are high on my list of favorite places. I feel the thrill of possibility when I walk into a bookstore. I admit I’m immoderate when buying books, but a house filled with them just feels like home. This month I’d like to discuss bookstores.

Independent bookstores fight for market share. Their total demise was predicted over a decade ago, The big box bookstores and online giants seemed poised to annihilate small, locally owned shops. Do you remember the finale of the movie, ‘You’ve Got Mail’?  Meg Ryan lost her lovely little book shop to Tom Hanks’ megastore, but she managed to fall in love with him. Real life has not always offered that consolation to booksellers.

Encouragingly, the American Booksellers Association reports that the number of independent bookstore in the U.S. has grown by 19.3 percent since 2009. However, the current total is slightly less than half the number at its peak in the 1990s. Recent gains are partly due to the ‘shop local’ movement, but the advantages of independent bookshops are real and numerous.

Bay Reads
is sponsored by

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Local Author Events

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Cat in the Stacks author to speak at Library program
The Cat in the Stacks author, Dean James (pen name Miranda James), will be the speaker at the next Authors & Characters @ Your Library program Tuesday, June 2 at 11:45 a.m. at the Bay St. Louis-Hancock County Library. Lunch is available for $10 payable at the door. Reservations required. Call 467-5282 to hold your spot.

Mississippi Moonshine Politics by Janice Branch Tracy
Bay Books
Saturday, June 6th
12-2
131 Main Street
Bay Saint Louis
228-463-2688

Independent bookstores are usually owned and operated by people who are passionate about books. They find book selections to suit every taste and make informed suggestions to customers. They enrich their community by hosting book clubs and author events. Local bookstore owners are actively engaged in our community and support the local economy.

Browsing small, intimate bookshops is satisfying on several levels. They are generally warm and inviting visually. Books are colorful and artistic. Reading the synopsis and reviews on the dust jackets promises riches within. Holding books in your hands invites you to participate in something that has enthralled humans for hundreds of years. It is impossible to have the same experience visually and tactilely surfing the web.

Arts Alive Literary contest in Bay Books

When I travel, I seek out bookstores and tend to judge communities by the quality of their independent bookshops. We on the Mississippi Gulf Coast are fortunate to have Bay Books on Main Street, Bay St. Louis, Pass Books on Scenic Drive in Pass Christian, and Southern Bound Book Shop in Biloxi. All of them help make our communities unique and thereby richer.

Mississippi has two bookstores that regularly gain national attention. Lemuria in Jackson is one of the finest bookstores I’ve ever been in. Square Books in Oxford is a ‘must’ for Oxford visitors. Nearby New Orleans has three independents that are regular stops for me. In addition, the French Quarter has three used book shops that are treasures. To find their names and others in each state, go to www.newpages.com or www.indiebound.org.

Successful small businesses make vibrant towns. Shop our independent bookstores to keep dollars and this valuable service in our community. Our local bookstores deserve our support because they enrich all of our lives.

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Jeff Kinney, author of the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series, is opening a bookstore. “If one kid’s life is changed because of this bookstore, then the whole thing was worth it,” he says.