In Which I, Once Again, Rant About the World and, Then, Find Hope in a Small Bookstore

Apparently yesterday was Australia's National Bookshop Day (thank you, Louise at A Strong Belief in Wicker!)  I'm not in Australia and I'm a day late to the show, but I'd love to use Australia's holiday to share a bookshop story of my own.

I often feel sad when I consider my great state of Texas (see my rant...that is, my blog post Book Sale? Or Gun Show? You Decide! or take a look at any of Bill Crider's Once Again, Texas Leads the Way posts, especially the recent link to a story about a new $60 million Texas high school football stadium).

So much potential.  We are Texas, after all.  But we could be so much more than we are. Must we take pride in our many Texas citizens who find themselves in the People of Walmart videos? Is that all we've got these days? Sadness.

And then I take a trip with four of my fellow librarians to the amazing Blue Willow Bookshop in nearby Houston and my hope is restored.

You wouldn't know Blue Willow was there if you weren't told about it. From the street it's just another tiny little space in a strip center. But don't let first appearances fool you.

Blue Willow is all about books. And reading. And authors. And good writing.

My four librarian friends and I spent Friday chatting with the wonderful owner of Blue Willow, Valerie Koehler, and the events coordinator, Cathy Berner. What a great day!  Hope in the universe restored!

Now I must prod all of you out there to take action. Visit an independent bookstore. Visit it often. Buy something there. Buy one more book. And another.

We must show our love. We must not let the bad guys win.

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them,and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go.

Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....

That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book. Click here to join the Salon.