Saluting Local Bookstores and Local Libraries

I’m as much a fan of online commerce as anyone. It is convenient, it is a few clicks away, and it is firmly imbedded in our daily lives. The buying of goods has been forever altered by the presence of E-Commerce giants, and in many ways, that is a good thing.

But I hope we never lose touch with or sight of the local stores we can see and touch, the local businesses who make our communities better, and the local institutions that keep our communities vibrant. That’s especially true of those businesses and institutions that give us a shop to go to and a door to stroll through for reading books.

So consider this my shout-out to local bookstores and local libraries which add so much texture, personality, and Main Street charm to the communities we call home.

With respect to my debut book, Hero Redefined, I’m forever grateful that these bookstores opened their arms to me, and to my book, for events that allowed me to connect with readers of the book: Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, WA; Browser’s Books in our state capital city of Olympia, WA; Maria’s Bookshop in Durango, CO; and Village Books in Bellingham, WA. Next month, I will also be at Book Soup in Los Angeles (Hollywood) next month and partnering with Turns & Tales in Chatham, Ontario, Canada in September. And other bookstores like Kepler’s in Menlo Park, CA, and Word After Word in Truckee, NV, have featured Hero Redefined in their collections, too.

Libraries, as well, have always been a wonderful pipeline to books and to the power of reading. I was over the moon when two nationally renowned libraries in my area – the Seattle Public Library and the King County Library System (KCLS), saw fit to include copies of Hero Redefined on their shelves. And on July 30, The Community Library in Ketchum/Sun Valley, Idaho, will feature me and Olympic Women’s Marathoner Gabriele Andersen-Schiess speaking about Hero Redefined – especially the Chapter 2 part that profiles the amazing heroism of Gabriele at the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

I’ve included the event banners for my July 23 bookstore event upcoming at Book Soup in LA, as well as the July 30 event forthcoming in Ketchum/Sun Valley. And to bookstores and libraries around the country and throughout the world, I say “bravo!”