The preposterously popular Seattle Independent Bookstore Day Passport Challenge is coming back this year!… Here’s how it will work: beginning on Independent Bookstore Day (Saturday, April 30), you can pick up a Bookstore Day Passport at any of the 24 participating Seattle-area stores. And then, unlike in usual years, when you had only a single day to get your passport stamped at every store to become a Bookstore Champion, this year, to keep our stores from being quite as crowded as they have gotten in Bookstore Days past, we are allowing ten days (through Monday, May 9) to complete that daunting (but for many, highly enjoyable) task. Those who turn in a completed ballot by May 9th will receive (in a month or so) a Champions Stamp Card, granting a 25% discount good for a single use at each participating store.
Pretty great, right? Like everyone else, we’ve had a hard time planning a big, in-person event in these still-uncertain times, but we hope this plan will let folks make their visits on less-busy days if they choose, while still keeping the spirit of local book (and bookstore) love alive. And we are glad to report one sign of the continued health of local bookstores: we’ve added three new stores (in Tangletown, Burien, and Poulsbo) to our route! For full details, visit the SIBD home page, or visit our new phone-friendly page, which should be especially helpful with store hours and locations while you’re on the road.
(From the April 14 Phinney Books weekly newsletter)