Sat 4/25

Saturday April 25 is independent Bookstore Day and we could not recommend more highly visiting one of this city’s many locally owned small (and mid-sized) bookstores. Many area stores will have special sales and events to mark the day.

The newest one is Checkered Shelf Books in Cleveland Heights’ Cedar-Fairmount, which replaced Appletree Books — that closed last year when its owner retired. And of course, if you’re in that area, you’ll want to head up to Coventry Village to stop in Mac’s Backs Book, where it will have events going on all day as part of Coventry’s SPARK Some-Thing special event. If you’re looking for a new book, a magazine, a used book discovery or a small literary gift items you’ll find it here.

Not too far away, you can find Hexagon Books on Lee Road, a specialized shop that features books in foreign languages, and offers classes in French, Italian, Spanish and Japanese if you need help in reading what they offer.

Then go south to Larchmere Boulevard for a stop at Loganberry Books, a huge store packed with new and used books on every subject you can imagine, including rare collectibles, and a great selection of distinctive cards and small gift items. They also show local art in their Annex Gallery.

Across town in Ohio City, visit the new, much larger Visible Voice location on Lorain, which now has a full bar and café, but the same mix of new and used books that makes independent bookstores such fun to browse. It’s just got space for a lot more of them now.

Keep going on Lorain until you get to the Kamm’s Corners neighborhood where you’ll find the nonprofit Reading Room which accepts donated books to sell, and directs the profits to programs that promote literacy. Given how it acquires its stock, you never know what treasures you might find there. They’ll be having a buy one/get one free sale to celebrate Indie Bookstore Day.