The Small Bookstore Rises Again

Borders left downtown Silver Spring a couple of months ago, and it was sad to see it go. Many times, I had enjoyed browsing through the store’s shelves of books and discovering something new. Even when I was simply walking by the store, I liked the view through the windows, of people looking at books–this view promised to give anyone else the opportunity to come in and browse. Now, though, an empty space can be seen through the store windows.

I’m getting adjusted to this new view, I’m hoping an interesting store comes to fill it the empty space.

What about an independent bookstore?

The Washington Post (August 18, Style section) recently had a piece about independent bookstores on the rise. To back up this move, the Post offers statistics from the American Booksellers Association: membership in the association has seen a 7-percent increase in 2010, with 400 members joining since 2005.

Okay, not exactly a meteoric rise, but a rise nonetheless. To me, the growth looks especially good when compared to a 30-percent drop in ABA’s membership earlier in the 2000s. The Post gives several culprits to this decrease: Amazon, Kindle, Nook, and big box stores. But all of those are still around. Well, not one of the big box stores, with Borders leaving the scene. Yet, Barnes & Noble is still standing.

So what’s behind the increase of small bookshops? They still have those culprits to deal with — and a recession that started after their rise since 2005. The Post article mentions the charm that a small store with a big personality can hold. Sure, big box stores and Amazon have tremendous inventories. But they just don’t have the charisma of their smaller counterparts. The comfortable chairs and that particular book smell and crammed shelves and stacks of books in an unorganized mess.

And then there are the owners of independent stores. Those who love books and bring their passion to their store, breathing a life into it that a big box store could not replicate. Workers at bigger stores can be helpful and friendly and bring a joy of reading, too. But that’s not the passion of an owner.

I’d have to agree with the charm of small bookstores, as they offer a personality that’s different than big box stores. When the big boxes, you know you’ll get the same look in every one of them. But each independent has a personality all to its own.

I’ve enjoyed several smaller bookshops in the DC-MD-VA area:

• Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe (DC)
• Second Story Books (DC and MD)
• Politics and Prose (DC)
• Busboys and Poets (DC, MD, and VA)
• Barstons Child’s Play (DC and MD–more a toy store, but they have a section of books, too)
• Silver Spring Books
• At the Fenton Street Market in downtown Silver Spring on Saturdays, a couple runs a booth with a cool, weathered sign reading “Books & Art”

Beyond these, I also fondly remember some great stores from trips, with two springing immediately to mind: The Lion and Unicorn Bookshop in Richmond, England and Shakespeare and Company in Paris. These are just a couple among many stores who’s names I have forgotten; however, the good times spent in them are still there.

For photos of jaw-dropping bookstores, check out Mirage Book’s “Most Interesting Bookstores of the World”. The shots of the staircase and stained glass ceiling in The Lello store in Porto, Portugal stopped me in my down-scrolling tracks.

I must admit that I’m terribly biased when it comes to independent bookstores. I grew up working in my grandparents’ bookstore: Gingerbread Square Books in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The store was seasonal, only open in the summer as the beach crowds poured into the small town to play in the Atlantic, get a tan, and shop in charming stores in a state with no sales tax. Working there had many tedious hours of sitting around, but I filled much of those hours by reading. My love of reading flourished in that place. And I saw others with that same love, as many customers would show up summer after summer and say hi as they set a stack of books on the checkout desk.

While we’re (okay, me) talking about books, I must add a note about libraries, too. My family frequents these more than bookstores, and we also have a deep love for these places. Thankfully, there are some really nice ones in our area. A noteworthy one is in Rockville, Maryland, with its large windows letting in waves of sunlight and the curving staircase with glass risers, giving the steps a floating effect. A new library is being built in downtown Silver Spring, so it will bring a great opportunity for browsing when it opens.

Still, it would be positive for another bookstore to move into the space where Borders has departed. Maybe another Busboys and Poets or Kramerbooks?