Why Independent Book Stores Rock

Hemingway once quipped, “There is no friend as loyal as a book.” A good book is there when you need it, and it can provide advice when troubled that’s as sound as anything you might hear from a friend. It can make you laugh when you’re down, and make you cry when you need a good emotional lift.

However, the journey you take with a book does not start when you open its pages. It starts when you look for it.

Online book stores promise convenience, but is it worth the lack of human contact? Is choosing a book through an electronic device better than physically browsing in a book store? Of course not. You can try to choose books in a multi-level book complex, where the ambience is as cold as a mall, or you can head on to your nearest independent book store where everyone knows your name and the atmosphere is as cozy as a cottage in a dark forest.

Here are the reasons why the independent book store is much more worth your time and business than any online or massive book complex.

Staying connected

One reason to visit an independent book store is the added value of staying connected, and not in a digital sense. Shopping for a book online or in a big commercial book store deprives you of the opportunity to connect with fellow book lovers. Whether they are book buyers themselves or the book sellers, independent book stores give you the chance to talk, discuss, and discover literature.

Discover and explore

You can discover and explore in any online store or book store, but to do the same in an independent book store is much more satisfying. When you pull a book from a shelf, leaf through it, and ask questions with a fellow book lover, that experience is rare in a commercial book store, and non-existent in online stores.

A book lovers haven

In an online store, to read a book before buying is near impossible. Sure there are sample pages, but you can’t leaf through other pages to check if the whole book offers the same gripping readability, or if the sample pages are the best the book has to offer. In big book stores, most are encased in plastic and to rip it off can earn you disgruntled looks from the staff, or even outright ejection from the premises.

In an independent book store? You can read and browse at your leisure. Sometimes while sipping coffee. It’s a place to relax, an oasis from reality, a haven for bibliophiles.

Personal service

Perhaps the one thing independent book stores have that online stores and commercial book stores don’t is personal service. With most independent book stores, the moment you walk in, you can strike up a conversation with the owner, with an employee, or with a fellow book lover, and you won’t feel out of place.

These helpful individuals can help you find the perfect book for you after just a few minutes of chatting it up. In commercial book stores, you’d have to wait for an employee to go through its catalog of titles, and the most info you can get from them about any book is the same info written on the back cover. With online stores? Forget about it.

Online stores and commercial book stores may be fine for those times when you are in a hurry, but if you want to savor the whole journey, from searching for a book, leafing through it, purchasing it, reading it, then discussing it with other book lovers, independent book stores can’t be beat.

The service, the people, the ambience, and the general quaintness of it all, are those that no large commercial establishment can ever duplicate.

If you want to experience “The Journey,” visit The Book Rack at 204 S. 1st Ave., Arcadia. Or you can visit bookrackarcadia.com or call (626) 446-2525 for more information.