Happy Friday, dear readers! I hope you’ve had a good week and have a lovely weekend ahead. Just a few notes from me today as this week has flown by. Lots of workshops, meetings, and on-the-fly design work that I should share in the not-too-distant-future. But today, let’s talk about Independent Bookstore Day!

Tomorrow, Saturday (April 28th) is Independent Bookstore Day! This is one of my favorite days of the year (really)! If your Saturday plans at all allow for it, get yourself to your favorite indie bookstore and enjoy the fun. There’s often author readings, music, and swag that you can only get on Independent Bookstore Day tomorrow. This year’s offerings look particularly awesome. A couple of years ago I got a wonderful pencil case illustrated with bookstore cats (which often have the best literary pun names).

But more than that, it’s a day to celebrate and thank your local independent bookstore. And I do hope there is one in your town. Indie bookstores really are so much more than bookstores. They are community centers and great places to find books you never knew you needed but speak to you. So, step away from your computer (after you finish reading this post, of course), put down your mouse for one-click ordering, and go to your local indie and support it. Indie bookstores really are magical.

I’m completely, utterly, 100% biased on this, of course, and really don’t care. I love indie bookstores. We buy our books at our lovely indie bookstore, Books on B, which is run by the ever lovely and wonderful Renee. I even got my library to okay purchasing the books for our popular reading collection through Renee’s store this year, which was another way to support our local community.

So go forth and discover your indie bookstore. You never know what great conversations about books you might have actually standing in a bookstore versus staring at your screen and what fabulous new worlds you might discover in a book you’d never have picked up without the recommendations of an indie bookseller.

And, you don’t have to take my word for it. Check out Chuck Wendig’s post on his love for indie bookstores. Or, of course, there is Neil Gaiman who wrote, “What I say is, a town isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it’s got a bookstore, it knows it’s not foolin’ a soul.”

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, full of discovery at your local indie bookstore, and come back refreshed to your work with new creativity and inspiration. I’ll be back soon. Allons-y!