Story by Carrie Rollwagen
This week, my bookstore, Church Street Coffee & Books, is celebrating a week of sharing. We’re offering free cookies and coffee when customers share about the shop on Facebook, and it got me thinking about sharing on PostScript as well. After all, the idea behind PostScript is to share the books we love with other people. My favorite books — the ones I can’t get out of my head, the ones I really love — usually come recommended by friends, family, other booksellers and other bloggers.
Certainly, one of the keys to being a good reader is sharing the books we love with other people. But sometimes we forget that face-to-face is not the only way to share. Do you Facebook and Tweet about your favorite books? Do you post pictures of the books you’re reading on Instagram? And, maybe even more important — do you share your favorite bookshop with your followers on social media?
Call me crazy, but I think the best way to find new stories is to visit a library or bookshop. It’s really important that we support these stores with our money by buying local. But we can also make our purchases go even further by telling people about them. And one of the easiest ways to do that is to simply post a Facebook status update, send a tweet, or Instagram a photo about your favorite shop. Not only is it (very important) free advertising for local shops, but it’s very encouraging for store owners to see your support.
So, this week on PostScript, we’ll be talking about sharing: sharing what we read, what we learn, and yeah — where we buy. We can’t give you free cookies, but we’d still be pretty excited if you share about us on Facebook.
Carrie Rollwagen is co-owner and book buyer at Church Street Coffee & Books.