Canadian Independent Bookstore Day gathers bookworms across the country

Saturday is Canadian Independent Bookstore Day, the annual event encourages readers to support and celebrate their local, standalone bookseller.

Mary-Ann Yazedjian is the manager of the Book Warehouse on Main Street in Vancouver, and she says indie book stores are an important part of the communities they serve.

“We love recommending books to people, we love uniquely curating and carefully selecting the books that are in each of our independent stores. So we provide a space where people can find a new favorite book or learn about something that they’ve never experienced before. We introduce people to local authors that they may never have heard of.”

Related stories:

• Lost and found: A new book shines a light on four caretaker Canadian prime ministers

• Richmond Night Market returns for another season

• Celebration of Light returns to Vancouver with Canada, Japan, Spain

This year’s celebration will be the first since the pandemic, and Yazedjian says it’s exciting the somewhat niche group has a day to come together and appreciate a common passion.

“We’re actually thinking that over 120 bookstores indie bookstores across Canada are participating. So wherever you live, your independent bookstore has probably got something going on.”

Yazedjian says at the beginning of the pandemic, many independent bookstores were unsure if they would survive and how they would continue business. She says over the past two years, they have come a long way making this Independent Bookstore Day more special than ever.

“At the beginning of a pandemic, everything was up in the air and confusing and we we shut our doors for a while and our mall stores particularly suffered because they were forced to close but we switched pretty quickly to an online ordering system. Our customers are amazing, they really came out to support us. We are so grateful to our customers.”

Events and celebrations will run all Saturday long at independent bookstores across Canada.