Saturday April 29 marked the third national Independent Bookstore Day and the third Seattle Bookstore Day. In Seattle, the weather held and bookstore love was out in full force. The Seattle Bookstore Day Indie Challenge increased to 23 participating stores, with a visit to 19 stores required to achieve Indie Champion status (and a 25% discount for a year at the participating stores). Passports had to be turned in that day, but the 23 stores are still counting their champions and will be picking prize winners at random from the passports with three or more stamps. Stay tuned to #SEABookstoreDay social media for the final tally of Indie Champions for 2017. (Last year there were over 100; we’re guessing there are even more this year.)
Third Place Books bookseller Emily Adams documented her team’s Indie Champion quest again this year. Enjoy these photos from some of their 21 (!!!) bookstore stops in one day. (And for coverage from past Seattle Bookstore Days, click here.)
Team Snack Pack became Indie Bookstore Champions for a third year in a row! This year’s car-full of fun: Emily Adams (Third Place Books), James Crossley (Island Books), and Katie Mehan (Random House).
What a great line at Liberty Bay Books! We spot some favorite folks from the Seattle Public Library and Shelf Awareness (including two former booksellers)
Eagle Harbor used old school crafting to encourage social media.
Authors Jennifer Longo and Mark Holtzen gave advice at Island Books.
Fantagraphics has been a big part of Independent Bookstore Day/ Seattle Bookstore Day as well as the national Free Comic Book Day (on Saturday May 6 this year– two big weeks in a row for this shop!).
The Neverending Bookshop was a new participating bookstore this year.
The team ran into Shawn Donley of Portland, OR at Seattle Mystery Bookshop. Shawn is President of Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, a Hachette sales rep, a former Powell’s bookseller, and part of last year’s Team Snack Pack.
It was the penultimate day of Poetry Month, so there was lots of browsing happening at Open Books: A Poem Emporium. (I spy those library folks again!)
I guess that answers the “Are we having fun yet?” question! Staff from University Bookstore got in on the selfies.
Ada’s Technical Books was busy, but Katie and James found a semi-quiet spot.
These champs made it to 21/23 bookstores in one day!
They are the champions!! Here’s a victory photo at the final stop: Elliott Bay Book Company.
What a blast of a day!