Blogrolls & Bookstores

In honor of Book Blogger Appreciation Week, I've finally added a blogroll to my sidebar. These aren't all the book blogs that I read regularly--I often follow links from LibraryThing and from people who comment on my blog. Also, there are some blogs which blogger couldn't find today, including Maw Books and The Hidden Side of a Leaf, which hosts Weekly Geeks.

In book review news, I finished Nick Harkaway's The Gone-Away World It was a relief to be done, but I'm also glad I stuck it out. Lots to think about. Since I already posted once about this book I'm not going to do a full review of it here, but I put a short one up on LibraryThing.

I've also been wanting to take a moment to talk about Indiebound , and their support of independent booksellers. If you follow the link I provide for the title of a book, it usually leads to an Indiebound page where, if you enter your zipcode, you pull up several local-to-you booksellers so you can see if they have the book onhand and either go get it or order it online. If your favorite bookstore isn't listed, perhaps you could do them the favor of suggesting to them that it might be useful to them to join.

Why bother ordering books from your local bookstore when you could just as easily (more easily, even) click it through on Amazon and it will show up at your door? Here are a few reasons, courtesy of the Indiebound website:

The Economy
Spend $100 at a local and $68 of that stays in your community. Spend the same $100 at a national chain, and your community only sees $43.
Local businesses create higher-paying jobs for our neighbors.
More of your taxes are reinvested in your community--where they belong.
The Environment
Buying local means less packaging, less transportation, and a smaller carbon footprint.
Shopping in a local business district means less infrastructure, less maintenance, and more money to beautify your community.
The Community
Local retailers are your friends and neighbors—support them and they’ll support you.
Local businesses donate to charities at more than twice the rate of national chains.
More independents means more choice, more diversity, and a truly unique community.

If you're a blogger, Indiebound has an affiliate program that offers a kickback when people order via the link on your site, as does Powells.com, the online version of Powell's City of Books, a monster of an independent bookseller based in Portland, Oregon.