With the cold weather and short days, it’s the perfect time of year to curl up with a good book. I’ve had ample time to do just that recently as I had jury duty this month. Those of you who have served before know that there is a lot of hurry up and waiting involved, which provides the perfect time to read. I also recently saw two friends post on social media that they were celebrating Jolabokaflod. According to these friends, Jolabokaflod (pronounced “yo-la-bok-a-flot”) is an Icelandic tradition where people exchange books on Christmas Eve and spend the night quietly reading them while drinking hot cocoa, which sounds like the perfect evening. If you are an avid reader, or even aspire to be one if you had the time, I bring you good news to round out 2025. Good news can be hard to come by these days, but a recent headline caught my eye. In this digital age of social media, streaming services, and a million other draws on our attention, the bookstore is making an unlikely comeback.
It’s interesting to me, because whereas Barnes & Noble (and Borders, which no longer exists) used to be the enemy because they threatened independent booksellers, they are now welcome in communities that wish to have a brick-and-mortar bookstore. What caused the change in attitudes? A common enemy: Amazon. That’s why while it may not have been welcome news in the 90s, the fact that Barnes & Noble opened nearly 70 new stores this year and plans to open another 60 in this upcoming year is cause for celebration.
The CEO of Barnes & Noble, James Daunt, was asked about the causes of this recent success. He said that the cynical answer is that books do well in a recession, referencing the recent COVID-caused economic troubles. But he said he didn’t buy into that; he believes that the credit is due to good books being released and a growing demand for physical books. In this regard, the cause may be related to COVID, but not necessarily the recession. COVID gave many people leisure time that they hadn’t had in their busy lives, for many it seems that they used that time to reignite a love of reading.
Those of you who are readers know that reading is a habit, and once you pick it up, you are likely to become a lifelong reader. So, when people started reading during COVID, they didn’t stop once the world opened up again. In addition, tariffs haven’t had the same impact on the book industry that they have had on many other industries.
It isn’t just the big box stores like Barnes & Noble that have benefitted from this reading renaissance, independent sellers have also benefitted. According to the American Booksellers Association (ABA), more than 420 new independent bookstores opened this year. I have personally seen the results of this boom. Ripon had a bookstore on Watson Street (our Main St.) for many years, but it closed as the world became more digital. But just within the last month or so, a new, independent bookstore opened up here. Now, bookstores are nowhere near where they were pre-Amazon. The ABA had 5,500 members across 7,000 stores in 1995. By 2009, it was 1,401 members across 1,641 stores. The most recent numbers, from 2022, show that the ABA is back up to 2,178 members across 2,593 stores.
From my perspective, this seems like good news for our nation and society, and not just the bibliophiles. Reading is learning, and it expands our worlds beyond our own experiences. It requires curiosity and for us to engage in empathy with the protagonist or author, and, from my perspective, curiosity and empathy are in far too short supply these days. I think it also represents a rebuke of our increasingly digital experiences. More and more our days have become disembodied, we experience things virtually. Physical books can ground us, bring us back to reality. I understand that it might be too much to hope that we’ll eventually turn our backs on the digital experiences that have come to dominate modern society, but the growth of brick-and-mortar bookstores provides me with hope as we enter 2026. And hope is something that is also in far too short supply these days.