Musings: Where books still flirt with curious minds

According to the American Booksellers Association, an organization that tracks the growth of independently owned bookstores, the number of independents has increased by 70% since 2020. Last year, more than 400 such stores opened their doors.

That’s great news for book lovers — including me.

Spending an afternoon in a bookstore has been a favorite activity for much of my adult life, going back to when I was a college freshman and first visited the Paperback Bookseller in Hempstead.

To a wide-eyed 18-year-old new to the world of ideas, the Bookseller was unlike any bookstore I’d ever seen. There were paperbacks everywhere, shelves and shelves of them, devoted to every imaginable subject. People of all ages browsed the stacks, sometimes standing in an aisle — or sitting down — to read something that had captured their interest.

It didn’t take long for me to become a regular at the Bookseller and other local bookstores. At Oscar’s Literary Emporium in Huntington, I bought Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” a novel a professor of mine had talked about in class. Bookstores and I were becoming fast friends.

It’s a friendship that’s endured. While I still like shopping at my neighborhood Barnes & Noble, I’ve a special fondness for stores that are independently owned. Many provide spaces where people can chat over coffee about what they’re reading. Some sponsor author talks, children’s programs and fun activities for adults, like “A Blind Date with a Book,” where customers can buy a book whose title and content remain a mystery until unwrapped at home.

When my wife and I travel, we almost always look for a local bookstore. We buy books for the grandkids and peruse the stacks, sometimes making cool discoveries.

At the Inquiring Minds Bookstore in New Paltz, I found a signed copy of “Downtown: My Manhattan,” Pete Hamill’s engaging take on old New York. Along with his signature, Hamill added some inspiring words: “Whatever happens, don’t slow down.”

In the age of Amazon, running an independent bookstore can be challenging. But that hasn’t stopped enterprising folks in Huntington, Oyster Bay, Sayville, Northport, Wading River and elsewhere on Long Island from launching their own stores. Good for them and good for us.

— Rich Conway, Massapequa