Bookstores are back — and they're our new culture centers

Yahoo

25-03-2025

Booksellers are not just selling products anymore; they're providing experiences.
The independent bookstore industry, once suffering under online seller Amazon, has begun to thrive. There are enough bookstores in Central Indiana to fill 27 locations for the Indy Indie Book Crawl, a second-year event that took place over four days last week.
Even people who may not be enthusiastic about reading are noticing — Indianapolis' new bookstores are cultivating a stronger sense of belonging in neighborhoods and suburbs across the region.
'People want to engage with their community and with their small businesses, and do it with their friends,' said Jake Budler, owner of Tomorrow Bookstore on Mass Ave., which created the book crawl.
From hosting author visits to book clubs, the book crawl is an extension of what the Indy bookstore scene does year-round. Through the interactive book crawl, Budler and other booksellers are pushing the boundaries of what traditional bookstores look like.
Tomorrow Bookstore, for example, is trying to foster civic engagement through a new event series called Troublemakers for Tomorrow, offering resources for Hoosiers to engage in the political process.
'We wanted to provide a space where people could come together and actually learn and then actually do something,' Budler said. 'Our first one … focused on learning how to contact your representatives, and we focused on a bill that was immigration focused to have folks actually call reps and write letters. And we wrote 60 letters in that evening. So it's a little bit of information, but really it's about taking action.'
Indy Reads, a literacy nonprofit and bookstore in Fountain Square, has been working for decades at the intersection of community building and bookselling.
"We create a space that we hope everyone will see themselves in one way or another, and that we hope people feel welcome and wanted," Indy Reads CEO Ruba Marshood said. "We kind of foster voices and the sharing of ideas and sharing of the experiences and backgrounds, and the diversity that is in Indianapolis."
Though Indy Reads offers a brick-and-mortar bookstore, the organization has an emphasis on providing access to resources and classes that allow Hoosiers to increase their literacy and English proficiency, while also providing a few workforce certification opportunities.
For Marshood, language is foundational for communities.
'One in six adults in Central Indiana have less than a fifth grade literacy proficiency,' Marshood said. 'We're essentially the on ramp for a lot of adult education and workforce training programs, and we're proud to be that, because we realize that we are unique in that way.'
Indy Reads views itself as a place where people can discuss difficult topics through events where people can feel comfortable asking questions they may not ask anywhere else. Indy Reads hosts more than 250 events and programs per year with a focus on creating safe and supportive environments.
Events include Lit Stages, which are monthly open mic nights, and the Black youth author fair, featuring a Q&A and panel with local young Black authors from ages 6 to 14.
At the same time, though, bookstores are also places for finding comfort. Tiffany Phillips, owner of Wild Geese Bookshop in Franklin, said she knows her customers by name, emphasizing locally owned bookstores become part of patrons' lives.
'Everybody's a VIP in my store,' she said. 'I just want people to come through the door and feel that they're welcome and that they're enough, and that they don't have to change anything while they're here with us. They can just be who they are and feel supported to follow their curiosities."
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Wild Geese and other Indy bookstores are helping book lovers meet and make new friends, something that might otherwise feel difficult during our 'epidemic of loneliness and isolation' as declared by the U.S. Surgeon General's Office.
Through programming and access to resources, Indiana bookstores are providing Hoosiers with opportunities to connect with others through language, civic engagement and culture. When life feels chaotic, local bookstores provide solace.
'I go to books when I'm in any kind of crisis, when I'm looking for answers or comfort or connection or a way to feel less alone,' Phillips said. 'I do think books help build community, too, for people who are feeling that frustration. There's always hopeful language that we get from books that helps us kind of recenter and hopefully remember what being human really is about, and how we can be better for each other.'
The world around us can feel difficult to navigate. Let bookstores help us find our way.
Contact IndyStar opinion fellow Sadia Khatri at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: How Indianapolis' independent bookstores are beating Amazon | Opinion