I ♥ Van Island Bookstores

On our way to celebate our birthdays at Chesterman Beach (December 8 and 9), Richard and I stopped in Victoria at  Bolen Books,  Munro’s Book’s and Ivy’s Bookstore because Richard’s always saying how fabulous—and plenty—Vancouver Island bookstores are. We walked in to these shops, found their “BC” sections, and looked for Richard’s newest, Home Truths, and for my book, All Roads Lead to Wells.  The booksellers were happy to see us and delighted when we offered to sign copies of our books. They promptly put “Signed by Author” stickers on them and returned them to the shelves, face out.

There are more than a dozen indie bookstores on the Island, and most of them carry a healthy selection of books on BC and by BC writers. That means these works are sold, are talked about, are known. The happy triumvirate of author/publisher/bookseller still exists on Vancouver Island. In comparison, Vancouver has very few indie bookstores (that sell new books), and I’m sorry to have learned that they don’t all do a good job of supporting local (i.e., British Columbia) writers.

If you live near an indie bookstores, consider supporting it by buying some of your Christmas presents there this year. Yeah, that online gargantuan thing that shall remain un-named is cheap and easy and convenient, but indie bookstores support small presses, and small presses support local authors and new authors. If that matters to you, please vote with your dollars at your local bookseller.

Thanks!