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Time to celebrate indie bookstores

Maria’s Bookshop plans full day for Independent Bookstore Day
Celebrate Independent Bookstore Day on Saturday at Maria’s Bookshop.

For the past few years, a day has been put aside to celebrate independent bookstores. What started out as a day for just California stores has grown to encompass indie bookstores across the nation.

Maria’s Bookshop in Durango will host activities Saturday for its second year celebrating Independent Bookstore Day.

One of the highlights of the Maria’s celebration will be the Authors as Booksellers event, which takes several local authors and puts them out on the sales floor in two-hour shifts. Customers will have the opportunity to mix and mingle with them, and the authors will get the chance to recommend their favorite books (including the ones they’ve written). If customers buy a book or books one of the authors recommends, the customers will get a 15 percent discount.

“We do a lot to support local authors around here,” said Roger Cottingham, events and community relations manager for the store. “It’s kind of a cool thing, and these guys (the authors) love it because they get to meet each other. They form friendships ... they read each other’s work that they’re working on and stuff like that, so they learn a lot from each other.”

It’s also a chance for community members to learn more about their favorite local authors.

“You can talk to them, you can pick their brain: ‘Who are your influences?’ or ‘I have your book, I love it. Can you sign it for me?’” Cottingham said. “It’s for the community, they’re the ones who make this place.”

Along with the authors event, Maria’s will also be assembling a Poetry Flash Mob at 1 p.m. to celebrate National Poetry Month.

Cottingham said the plan for the flash mob is to get as many people as possible into the store to read two poems by local poet (and former Fort Lewis College president) Joel Jones.

And there’s one more reason to celebrate Saturday because, despite what you may think, not all shops are on the chopping block.

“There are a lot of cases of bookstores that have not survived. But we’re part of the bigger national organization, the American Booksellers Association, and there are a lot of success stories,” said Peter Schertz, co-owner of Maria’s. “There are a lot of new bookstores opening every single year, so this is not an anomaly. It’s funny how it gets perceived that way, and there’s also this perception that e-books are just killing us, Amazon is killing us. The competition is changing, the dynamic is changing, but there are a lot of successful bookstores out there.”

The residents of the area play a role in that success, Cottingham said.

“The community has shaped this here to make it more than viable,” he said. “It made the decision, ‘We’re going to buy here. We’re going to buy local so local businesses can thrive.”’

That’s why Saturday is about the community, not the shop, Cottingham said.

“It’s just a fun event, and it’s great for the authors, it’s great for the customers who come in, and that’s what it’s all about to us,” he said. “Independent Bookstore Day is not a ‘Hey, look at us, we’re an independent bookstore’ – it’s offering this stuff up to the community because they’re the reason that we’re here. They’re the ones that have made everything work for all these years – 32 now.”

And Maria’s has the community in mind year-round.

“It’s a big obligation for us to serve this community that has high expectations,” Schertz said. “We take it seriously.”

katie@durangoherald.com

Authors as Booksellers event

To help celebrate Independent Bookstore Day at Maria’s Bookshop, local authors will be hitting the sales floor to meet customers and give their book recommendations.

10 a.m.-noon: Esther Greenfield and Shelley Walchak

10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.: Phil Duke

11 a.m.-1 p.m.: Chuck Greaves

11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.: Many Mikulencak and Shaila Van Sickle

Noon-2 p.m.: Scott Graham and Katrina Blair

1-3 p.m.: Mike Maddox and Rick Ryan

2-4 p.m.: Andrew Allport and Robert Allen Wendelborn

If you go

Maria’s Bookshop, 860 Main Ave., will be celebrating Independent Bookstore Day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the store. Local authors will be available to meet, and there will be giveaways, refreshments and a poetry flash mob at 1 p.m.

For more information, call the store at 247-1438.



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