Canadian Independent Bookstore Day celebrates ‘pillars of the community’

April 27 is Independent Bookstore Day in Canada, and an opportunity to support at least a dozen community shops in Vancouver.

Local bookstores will open their doors Saturday for celebrations including discounts, exclusive product sales, readings, giveaways, and more.

The event is an annual initiative by the Canadian Independent Booksellers Association (CIBA) to raise awareness and help drive sales to retailers it calls “integral to Canadian culture.”

“Indie bookstores are pillars of the communities in which they reside,” says a statement on CIBA website. “Their staff are actively involved in the neighbourhood and provide an inclusive space where people can connect over shared interests. Local booksellers also play a vital role in the Canadian literary ecosystem. They are conduits of discovery, championing Canadian creators at all career stages and introducing Canadian readers to a diverse range of voices from across Canada’s rich cultural landscape.”

The owner and operater of Cross & Crows Books on Commercial Drive in Vancouver, Nena Rawdah, says it’s a special day in the city.

“To me, it means an opportunity for my very young, ‘baby’ bookstore to meet a wider public —people who may have not encountered us yet, but are generally interested in bookstores and so, on that day, are going to be looking for bookstores to visit, kind of making a list for a little bookstore crawl,” said Rawdah.

“And, for the first time, we’re going to pop up on their radar.”

As an independent, attracting customers away from major booksellers is consistently challenging, she says.

“This is a chance for us to make our case, again and again, every year, to the folks who just habitually maybe don’t come to an independent bookstore, who pop into Indigo, who go to Amazon for the convenience and don’t necessarily know what an independent bookstore can offer them.”

Cross and Crows Books is one of 12 Vancouver booksellers in the association.