In this year-like-no-other, we’ve been forced to face many previously unimaginable things, but I never want to imagine a world without bookshops.
Our local booksellers have been working hard throughout these difficult times, finding ways to keep us connected with books and ideas—sending newsletters, presenting Zoom events, offering special deliveries. I have often felt concerned on their behalf, knowing that they already exist in a space threatened by faceless global merchants.
Tomorrow it’s national Love Your Bookshop Day, an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate bookshops as one of things that make our lives worthwhile. I want to send out a big thank-you to all of the bookshops who have nurtured me as a reader and supported me as a writer—and to the special people who work behind their counters.
If you’re able to get out and about tomorrow (and commiserations to those who can’t), do drop into your favourite bookshop, say hello and tell them what they mean to you. And buy a few books while you’re there, of course!
Happy Love Your Bookshop Day 🙂
looking up/looking down 
You will be pleased to hear, Amanda, that being confined to barracks did not stop me from putting in orders at my two favourite Melbourne Bookshops!
Pleased, yes, but not surprised, Lisa! 🙂