Indie bookstores turn pages and spark joy
Illustration by Zoë Luis.
Maeve Bauer, Contributing Writer
Richmond independent bookstores celebrated themselves on April 26 as part of National Independent Bookstore Day. Readers could grab a “bookstore passport” and go on a tour of local bookstores throughout Richmond, Midlothian and Petersburg, according to IDBRVA.
Nine various Richmond bookstores with a multitude of aesthetics were on display, according to Book People Richmond.
One of which was Fountain Bookstore, which has been a staple of Shockoe Slip since 1978. Switching ownership throughout time, they have stayed independent, according to Richmond Magazine.
Fountain Bookstore was bustling on Independent Bookstore Day, with people in every corner of the store and conversation flowing between customers and store clerks.
Kate Towery, general manager of Fountain Bookstore, spun a wheel filled with genres, setting guests up on a blind date with a book.
Bookstore enthusiast and local chef Hunter Mass has been to Fountain Bookstore several times and said the staff is passionate about their job and makes an effort to connect with customers.
Mass said he shared personal experiences with the staff at Fountain Bookstore and said he appreciated how they took extra measures to ensure a book he wanted to read was delivered to the store.
“The people that helped me and did their own part, they were very nice about it. We laughed about the situation,” Mass said.
Though he wasn’t participating in the passport activity held across bookstores in the area, he said he is still an avid supporter of independent bookstores and enjoys supporting Richmond’s book scene.
“I think Amazon is controlling too much of the book market, so I like to at minimum support Barnes & Noble and then further support independent bookstores. I think just the experience of coming out to a bookstore with staff that seem really interested in what they do or try to connect with people that come into bookstores,” Mass said.
Abi’s Books & Brews, a bookstore and coffee shop combination owned by husband and wife Keith Duffin and Mallie Duffin, recently opened near VCU’s Monroe Park Campus in Nov. 2024.
Mallie Duffin said that Indie bookstores reflect Richmond’s unique and varied culture and community events.
“You don’t have to agree with everyone. Different groups come in whose experiences are different than ours,” Mallie Duffin said.
Another thing special about Richmond is the percentage of people who strive to shop small and avoid big businesses, according to Mallie Duffin.
Being so close to VCU, Abi’s Books & Brews gets a lot of students, but also a lot of locals, according to Keith Duffin.
“We see a lot of students and older members of the community interact with each other,” Keith Duffin said.
Keith Duffin said he tries to encourage interactions between customers. When it’s busy, he suggests that patrons share a table. He said this also prompts conversations between tables, overall supporting the community.
“With all the online stuff there is not a substitute to looking someone in the face and seeing a smile,” Keith Duffin said. “How do you replicate that if you’re not physically here?”
