Welcome to Indie Book Store Friday

Welcome to "Post a Picture of an Independent Bookstore Friday" for lack of a better title! 

 To show our support for independent bookstores, I'm asking fellow bloggers to post a picture  of a bookstore with the store's website and/or contact info. After you've created your post, add your url to Mr. Linky so we can all sample various bookstores. The bookstore can be your own bookstore, the store where you work, your favorite place to buy books, or maybe it's a bookstore in a far away city that you've always wanted to visit. It can be in Toledo, Toronto or Timbuktu. It's totally up to you. Libby at Libbysbookblog told me about this site called fearlessbooks.com which lists indie bookstores if you need ideas. You also don't have to write as much as I've written but Libby got her post ready early and wrote so beautifully about Shakespeare & Company that I had to at least take up some page space!

Vroman's Bookstore 'Once Upon a Time'

Vroman's Books
695 E. Colorado Blvd
Pasadena, CA 91101
626-449-5320
Vromansbookstore.com

I must admit I wish Vroman's Book Store in Pasadena looked a little more ramshackle and disorganized. I like the charm of teetering shelves. But Vromans, while stuffed to the gills with bookish goodies, is exceedingly well run and everything, in fact, is in its place. Which may be part of the reason why this bookstore which opened its doors in 1894 is still here over 118 years later!

Adam Clark Vroman, an avid book collector, sold his colection in order to open up his first bookstore. When things took off he started collecting again. He donated that extensive collection to the Pasadena City Library when he died. That's another thing ; just as Clark was concerned about his community Vroman's has a long  HISTORY of being involved in the community and giving back. There is a story in the Vroman history that once upon a time Clark loaned money to a rival so that he could open up a competing bookstore. That may or may not be true - I like to think it is - what is true is that in 2009 when the owner of Hollywood's Book Soup died and the store was in danger of closing, the Vroman stepped in and kept its doors open. And Book Soup does have the crazy tottering shelves that appeal to me.

It seems like independent book stores need to be pretty special places in order to survive these days. Vroman's has author readings and signings almost daily in their spacious upstairs space - and oh, I'm sorry to say I missed Jodi Picoult last week but hopefully I will catch Jacqueline Winspear who is going to be there April 9th reading from her new book in the Maisie series, Elegy for Eddie. They have friendly booksellers who love books, a blog, book groups, writing classes and even a knitting group.Of course they can ship books and you can also purchase google e books through Vromans.
Okay, show me what you've got!