Jon Lee, manager of River City Books, wrote a blog entry recently called “Ode to the Independent Bookstore”. In many ways, I thought it could be called “Ode to the Locally Owned and Operated Business”. After all, it’s about having a variety of options available and the freedom to make independent decisions.
It was based on an acceptance speech by Libba Bray, whose Rebel Angels recently won the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association’s award for children’s literature. It’s a great little statement, you should read it, but I’ll summarize it by saying that she argues that independent booksellers promote independent reading, independent thinking and independent people. In fact, she takes it back to the American Revolution and reminds us that this country was founded by independent readers, thinkers and people.
So celebrate our nation’s independence (after all, last Monday was Patriot’s Day) and celebrate the three independent bookstores in Northfield: Bookfellows, Monkey See, Monkey Read and River City Books.