Date With a Bookstore- A COVID Love Story

I know I’ve talked about them again, but I’m going to gush about my local indy bookstore, Literati. At the beginning of the pandemic, they were doing $1 shipping in the US and I abused that. They’ve stopped, but their shipping is still reasonable- I paid $7 to ship to Texas. They also have curbside pickup so I’m able to get the books for people in my family in person.

But they’ve introduced something else that I took advantage of and just love. They do an appointment-based tête-à-tête with a bookseller. I was able to set one up to help with my holiday shopping and I loved the experience!

After I found a time and date, I got an email with a short survey to talk about what kind of books I liked, genres I was looking for, and recent books I’d enjoyed. I was feeling difficult and didn’t fill it in. I was shopping for my niece, nephew, mother-in-law, and father-in-law so instead I described each of them, books they’d enjoyed before, and the kind of book I was looking for to get each. I was assured this was no problem.

At the time of our meeting, I was having some major internet connection problems but the bookseller was so patient with me and while I couldn’t share my video, she shared hers which was very helpful when looking at books for my 5-year-old nephew! She made a recommendation for a series he’d never heard (according to my sister-in-law), the InvestiGators, crime-solving alligators. This sounds adorable. For my 9-year-old niece, she recommended a book called Stargazing which is a graphic novel. My niece is super creative and loves art so graphic novels have been a big hit with her!

I’m always nervous about buying my mother-in-law books because she’s usually read any bookmarked ‘Target Book Club’ at Target. I asked for something a little more unusual and they delivered! I have a copy of The Grammarians on order for her and the description sounds like something she’ll enjoy. For my father-in-law, I knew I wanted to get him Moby Duck after I loved it so much this summer. They didn’t have it in the store but have ordered a copy from the publisher for me. She recommended the new John Grisham, A Time for Mercy, and I declined at first. Even though it was a signed copy, we usually get people just one book for Christmas.

I was raving to my husband about the experience and he recommended we get the Grisham anyway. Who can pass on a signed copy? We also picked up A Darker Shade of Magic for one of my husband’s friends. So now I have four books being sent to Texas for my nieces and nephew and four waiting for curbside. I’m so impressed with the services this store has offered and how they’re overcoming the shelter-in-place and lockdown orders we have here in Michigan. I’ve strived to purchase as many of my Christmas gifts as possible from small businesses and I’ve been overjoyed with the experience. If you are in the US and need to order some books, please consider supporting Literati or another indy bookstore instead of a giant company that doesn’t care about you.

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

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