American Booksellers Association

It should be a ghost town.

And yet the American Booksellers Association reported that in twenty twenty-five, six hundred and five new bookstores opened across the country.

Six hundred and five.

That's huge.

The big joke is you want to make a small fortune in the independent book business, start with a large fortune and then get into the independent book business.

And Alison Hill, who is the CEO of the American Booksellers Association, said you really should be talking to Pam French and Erica Mance, who run an organization called BINC, capital B, small, I-N-C, the Book Industry Charitable Foundation.

Kate has talked so often about the fact that she's amazed that booksellers are so cooperative.

Even if there's a bookseller across town, a bookseller will recommend people go over there or they will cooperate with the other bookstore.

And this Book Industry Charitable Foundation is really dedicated to the idea of helping out bookstores when they may get something of a shortfall financially.

and they take care of them.

So Allison Hill of the American Booksellers Association said, you really should get to know this group.

And we thought all of you who listen should get to know this group.

Oprah's magazine says, this magnificent anthology celebrates hope, guts, and the power of taking action.

And the American Booksellers Association says, might possibly be the most important collection of stories and essays you will ever read.

So excited to have you here.

Talk to us about the impossible and what you wanted to achieve out in the world.

But going back to 1982, you know, the, the beginnings of Banned Books Week really came about after the Pico case, the Supreme Court case, that actually ruled, one would think, in favor of the idea of protecting the right to read, saying book, saying school boards have the right to sort of determine curricula, but they can't remove books for certain ideas.

But uh, uh, given that, that was interpreted somehow vaguely [laughs], there were a lot of groups, ALA included, American Booksellers and so forth, that said, "Hey, books aren't gonna protect themselves.

The First Amendment doesn't protect itself," right? And so that is why you had the beginnings of more advocacy groups like librarians advocating for the right to read.

It's interesting, however, that the pushback on that, again, I never really got it.

National data shows that reading for fun is down among 13-year-olds at only 14%, and over 60% of fourth graders in the US can't read at grade level.

Bookstores are cool again, according to the American Booksellers Association.

They say printed book sales are rising, and people are seeking community and reading recommendations.

Anne Holman is a co-owner of King's English bookstore in Sugar House.

And there was an annual convention at the time.

There was the American Booksellers Association.

10,000 people would be buying books.

They're all from bookstores in this conference.