The Financial Pain of Supporting Independent Bookstores

Image credit: Riot New Media

In any economy, making and keeping money can be hard. Once you are done covering your essentials, there is often so little left over for the things you actually joy, like books. Online retailers and the digital ebook revolution have made it much easier (and cheaper) to own books, but it has come at a steep cost: the closing of independent bookstores around the country who just can't compete.

As an avid reader and a writer myself, I find myself caught in a tension between what I know is smarter for me and my wallet and what I know is good for the literary community I'm a part of. Living in Brooklyn, there's obviously a vibrant and active literary community here, but the recent closing of an indie bookstore in my area threatens that. 

I wrote about this tension in a post over at BookRiot. Read and review it and let me know what you think - leave a comment on the page.