‘Support Independent Bookstores’ Essay by 12 year old Bookosmian from Kolkata

Essay: Support Independent Bookstores

Amidst the pandemic, many of our activities are in a hiatus. One of that is
browsing books in bookstores. Not many readers like to visit a bookstore,
which is leading to the forfeiture of the independent bookstores around the
world.

The emerging e -commerce companies like Amazon and Flipkart are selling books, leading to the extinction of our million year old tradition of visiting bookstores. Some indie bookstores in India are the Storyteller Bookstore in Kolkata, Pagdandi Bookstore in Pune and Literati Book shop in Goa, Rachna Books in Gangtok, Lightoom in Bangalore, Trilogy Bookstore and Library in Mumbai, and Dogears bookstore in Goa.

After facing a lot a decrease in sells, they have now joined the IBAI or the  Independent Bookstores Association of India. There is not only IBAI, but many more supportive associations around the world like Bookshop.org and many more. According to a report, after Amazon started selling books in America,  more than 1000 Indie bookstores had to throw down their shutter.

There can be many such indie bookstore supportive associations, but except the customers, rather ‘readers’, no associations are of use.

Hence, the conclusion is YOU have to support independent bookstores!