This week marks the launch of Love Your Bookstore, “the first and only retail holiday that celebrates all brick-and-mortar bookstores during the holiday season.” The event, which runs from November 10 through November 16, features the Love Your Bookstore Challenge. Book buyers go into a bookstore and “take a picture of the book you are most excited to gift this holiday season or a book you love or want to receive”–or a picture with a local indie bookseller. Pictures should then be posted on Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #loveyourbookstore. The participants who post will be entered to win “bookish prizes” and are encouraged to challenge three to five friends to “go love their favorite bookstores too.”
One of the Love Your Bookstore organizers, Dominique Raccah, publisher and CEO of Sourcebooks, said last week that the response has been “overwhelmingly inspiring” and includes a range of partners “signing up every single day.”
On its website, the campaign wrote: “As a booklover, bookstores have shaped you, whether you were a child learning to read or an adult looking for connections through the written word. We want to celebrate bookstores from coast to coast because we know that booklovers are in every city in the country. From Kodiak to Key West, from Seattle to Sarasota, there are readers everywhere! Celebrate your favorite bookstore by posting a photo from inside the store with a favorite book (or bookseller!) and use #loveyourbookstore in the caption to share the love!”
You can find more information and materials at Love Your Bookstore’s website.
