There are a lot of lackluster traditions for the day before Thanksgiving: hitting your local bar at night, prepping yourself to face your cousin with the bad politics, going toe-to-toe with fellow procrastinators over that last bag of cranberries.
I’d like to pitch a new tradition for your day-before-turkey day: stop by a local bookstore. Whether it’s the hometown shop that you rarely get to visit or the familiar place nearby where you call in your preorders, there isn’t a better place to prepare for a day of inevitably dry turkey (it’s nearly always dry — search your heart, you know I’m right.)
Why should you head out to a bookstore right now? You’ll be supporting a local business, that’s the first and most obvious point. And you can get some gift shopping done a little in advance, or something you’ve been meaning to read before the end-of-year lists drop.
And if you’re home for the holidays or out of town visiting family, you definitely should find some time to stop by a local shop. The selection at a new bookstore is always fun to browse, and you might come across something weird and idiosyncratic from a local author. There’s a small bookstore in the back of a coffee shop in my hometown that always has a beautifully chaotic spread of self-published stuff; There are always some chapbooks from late-in-life poets and I’ve found some interesting local history on that table.
You’re more likely to run into people you want to run into at a hometown bookstore, too. The grocery store, the coffee shop, and the bar are all pretty general spots for run-ins: you might bump into someone you regret losing touch with, but you might just as easily run into the kid who ate a lot of paper in middle school, or your mom’s friend’s kid who you’ve heard so much about that you’re starting to feel like the two of you are in competition.
But the folks you’ll see at the bookstore will be more discerning and self-selecting. That person you vaguely remember from high school is also a reader? You’re already set up for a much more interesting conversation than you might have had if you met in the produce aisle.
And talk about the small town meet-cute potential. There you are, a sophisticated and intelligent Lit Hub reader, who has great taste and is very susceptible to flattery from bloggers, just trying to forget your important job for a little bit. And who else is in the bookstore, squinting at the back cover of your favorite book? Why it’s none other than one of the many babes who is toiling attractively in a local industry that’s photogenic but has fallen on hard times, and is just desperate to be swept off their feet. It’s all happening at the bookstore!
If you’re looking to bond with a family member, a bookstore is a great place to go. If you can’t say how you feel, why not recommend a book that says how you feel? Or spark a conversation over a book that you love? Or just spend some time together, quietly browsing, without the pressure to fill the space with talking.
And if you’re not looking to bond, browsing the stacks is a great way to get out of the house and kill some time alone.
The bookstore is a great refuge if the food you’re prepping for tomorrow isn’t quite coming out as planned. If this is the one day a year that you try to cook and you’re already feeling frustrated, the bookstore is a great place to look at gorgeously photographed cookbooks where the chefs never seem to cut the hell out of their hands trying to peel what feels like a million potatoes. The bookstore’s got you if you need a break to look at pictures of well-cooked dishes and start picking out some better recipes for next year.
Or maybe you’re feeling a little lonely, and you’re not able to travel or be with family. A bookstore’s a great place to forget for a little while.
Whatever you need before Thanksgiving, the bookstore’s got you. I’ll see you in the stacks.
