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Support Independent Booksellers! Today is Buy Indie Day!!
Post by Willy Blackmore, Special to LAist
Los Angeles, as many metropolitan areas around the country, has lost a number of independent bookstores over the past few years. They have closed for a variety of reason—many spurred by financial difficulties or other unavoidable events, such as Long Beach’s literary institution Acres of Books which met its end after being forced out by a redevelopment project.
Regardless of what brought them to closing their doors, the loss of a bookstore is a loss to any neighborhood. Despite all of the cries of the death of book and the end of reading, independent bookstores are treasured by their customers as refuges of ideas and quite, an integral part of a community where one can browse for hours, finding countless new books to read or sharing recommendations with a clerk or another customer. If you’ve only ever had a Borders or Barnes & Nobles close at hand, you don’t know what you’re missing. And for those that have lost their local store, we feel your pain.
To support and celebrate the many indies that are still in business around the country, Indie Bound, a non-profit affiliated with the American Booksellers Association, has put together Buy Indie Day
Sponsor
Indie Bound has a convenient map that will help you find which independent bookstores are located closest to home. We’re thinking of picking up our book at either Skylight Books in Los Feliz or Small World Books in Venice. Where will you go? And what book do you plan on buying?
Photo by Lori Nyx for LAist
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Your support for independent local news is critical. With federal funding for public media gone, LAist faces a $1.7 million yearly shortfall. Speaking frankly, how much reader support we receive now will determine the strength of this reliable source of local information now and for years to come.
This work is only possible with community support. Every investigation, service guide, and story is made possible by people like you who believe that local news is a public good and that everyone deserves access to trustworthy local information.
That’s why we’re asking you to stand up for independent reporting that will not be silenced. With more individuals like you supporting this public service, we can continue to provide essential coverage for Southern Californians that you can’t find anywhere else. Become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Thank you for understanding how essential it is to have an informed community and standing up for free press.
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