When I was really little - pre-reader - those books were mostly Golden Books. When my mother went shopping "downcity" (which was Worcester for downtown), she would always bring home a couple of them for us to share. They were magical! The stories well-told, the illustrations brilliant. I have a few Golden Books on my bookshelves, and just picking up, say, The Tawny, Scrawny Lion, and looking at the cover fills me with immense joy.
Then there were library books. Once a week, my father took us to the Main South Branch of the Worcester Public Library, where you could check six books out. Once I could read, this supply was augmented by Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew books, bought for fifty cents a piece at the Woolworth's in Webster Square Plaza. Then there were our book club books - Vision Books with their lives of saints, and the Landmark series focused on history.
Once I outgrew these sorts of books, I was still a library regular, but was also reading the grownup books my parents got from the Book of the Month Club and the Literary Guild.
But once I got to high school, I started frequenting an actual bookstore.
The commute to my high school required a bus transfer downcity. And downcity was where Ephraim's Bookstore was located.
I adored Ephraim's. Other than being encased in an MRI, shopping at Ephraim's was the most claustrophobia-inducing experience of my life. But what a pleasure to browse for required non-textbook reading and for stumble-upons. I still frequented the public library. But if I had a few bucks extra, it was a tossup whether to buy a record album or drift over to Ephraim's.
In college, there was the campus bookstore, but it was more fun to take the Red Line over to Harvard Square and shop at the Harvard Co-op and the Harvard Bookstore.
Fast forward a few years, and my bookstores of choice became the Barnes and Noble and the Borders in downtown Boston.
This was pre-Internet, and I didn't spend a nanosecond worrying about whether B&N and Borders were putting indie bookstores out of business. When it first opened, Barnes and Noble was a revelation, an out-of-this-world experience. So many books, so little time. I remember standing in line, waiting to check out, already diving into my purchases. I remember being proud of carrying my books home in a Barnes and Noble bag.
During this period, I also bought a lot of books at Wordsworth in Harvard Square, especially when I worked near The Square. Harvard Bookstore was also a favorite. But once I no longer worked near The Square, getting there was an every-couple-of-months schlep.
A trip to Worcester to see my mother always meant a trip to the Tatnuck Bookseller. This store - which opened well after I fled Worcester - was just terrice, and it also had a super restaurant.
Closer to home, Barnes and Noble closed and Borders became my go-to. For years, I made weekly stops at the Borders on the corner of Washington Street and School, and especially loved their bargain table, with its half-priced paperbacks. I cried when that Borders closed.
Off and on, throughout the years, I'd semi swear-off book buying and do most of my reading via library books. (I'm mostly back on, but I'm currently in a library lull working my way through my backlog of bought books.)
But bookstores are always going to be at much my thing as libraries are. Once B&N and Borders decamped, I started going to Trident, a wonderful indie on Boston's Newbury Street, where I am a frequent flyer buyer. I think it's 10% off the next purchase after earning $100 points, but I may be mistaken. I don't really care. I'd shop there anyway. I love grazing, Trident - like Borders once did - has an excellent mark-down table, and the folks who work at Trident are very helpful. Ask someone where a certain book is, and they'll walk you there and find it on the shelf.
Porter Square Books is another great local indie, but they're further afield than Trident, which remains my bookstore boo.
Admittedly, I do occasionally order a book on Amazon if I absolutely have to have it overnight for some reason, and it's going to take a week or so for Trident to get it in.
But - honestly, I swear to God - I mostly buy books at Trident.
I know that the Internet (i.e., Amazon) put a lot of indies out of business. Among the victims: Wordsworth and Tatnuck.
But others, like Trident, have not been crushed and continue to thrive.
And there's new indie kids on the block, too:
About 422 new indie bookshops opened in 2025, according to the American Booksellers Association, a 31% rise from 2024. Countless independent restaurants, coffee shops, fitness centers, movie theaters, clothing stores and other small businesses also continue to thrive even in this era of ever-bigger retailers, fast-casual restaurants and massive e-commerce platforms. (Source: The Guardian)
What's behind this resurgence in indie bookstore (and other small businesses)?
The reasons are obvious.
At least they're obvious to Gene Marks, who wrote the article I'm citing here.
- The US is big - population and geographic - and diverse. Plenty of people out there want something that caters more to their particular wants and needs.
- Big businesses may scale efficiency, but "small businesses scale relevance." Barnes and Noble might not carry the quirky author from a small, independent press that only a few people are interested in. But Trident just might.
- We have an entrepreneurial spirit in this country. "For the past few years, there have been between 400,000 and 500,000 new business applications filed every month!" Obviously not all of them are for indie bookstores, but there certainly are a ton of folks who want to be their own boss.
- A lot of people prefer to work for smaller businesses. The pay and benefits may be less than what big business can offer, but they're less bureaucratic, they're friendlier. Working in a small business, you're less of a cog in the wheel.
- Small businesses have closer ties to their communities.
So a lot of folks are deciding that, although they may pay a bit more for products sold in smaller, local businesses, it's worth it. These days:
Consumers don’t just tolerate small businesses – increasingly, they choose them as a reaction against big corporations.
I haven't sworn entirely off Amazon for books or for anything else. It's just too convenient. And a lot of times, what I'm looking for is nowhere to be found nearby. Generally, I do try to find something in a local non-chain store - I have a great indie drugstore and a great indie hardware store in my neighborhood, just around the corner. If they don't have something I need, I'll turn to Amazon. (I recently tried to get the knee brace my PT recommended at my indie drugstore. Alas, they didn't carry it, so I had to resort to Amazon.)
But I've very much pared back on book-ordering on Amazon.
Once I make some more headway with my backlog of books, off to Trident I go!
Yay indie bookstores!!!
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