As I mentioned in my pre-gaming post, today is Independent Bookstore Day.

As a voracious reader and book hoarder collector, I, of course, had to go support my local indie bookstores.

It’s a booknerd’s duty. Right?

Even though I didn’t make it to all 19 DC Bookstores, I had a lot of fun supporting the 5 bookstores I visited, two of which I had never been to before. I also got out of my little corner of DC to walk around some other neighborhoods that I rarely ever go to.

I started at Capitol Hill Books in the Capitol Hill area of DC right by Eastern Market. Capitol Hill Books is primarily a used bookstore and opened at 9am, which is why I started on the southeast side of DC. (I live in the northwest quadrant.) I honestly could have spent the entire day browsing their shelves. I loved used books.

I selected two books—Douglas Adams’s Starship Titanic written by Monty Python’s Terry Jones (Adams’s introduce is hilarious!) and Fuzzies and Other People by H. Beam Piper, which is sadly out of print (thank goodness for used bookstores!). But you can get Fuzzy Nation, John Scalzi’s retelling of the first Fuzzy book, Little Fuzzy, which is how I learned about Piper’s Fuzzy series in the first place.

Just down the street from Capitol Hill Books is East City Bookshop, which is also celebrating their 8th Anniversary! East City is a female-owned bookshop that carries a nice variety of new books.

I got The Deep Sky, a debut novel by Yume Kitasei. It’s labeled as a dystopian scifi thriller. The basic premise is that the environment on Earth is about to collapse, and a single ship carries humanity’s last hope. But this mission into deep space begins with a lethal explosion that leaves the survivors questioning the loyalty of the crew. The main character, like the author, is half-Japanese, half-America.

After hitting those two, which are fairly close to each other, I headed back to the metro to go up to the Petworth neighboorhood to hit up Loyalty Books, a Black, Queer, female owned bookstore. This one a new-to-me bookstore and I loved it! The staff is super friendly. I’ll definitely go back.

At Loyalty, I found That Time I Got Drunk and Saved A Human by Kimberly Lemming. Bonus, it’s a signed copy! This is book 3 in her Mead Mishaps series. However, based on the synopsis, I don’t think you have to read them in order. At least I hope not since this is a new-to-me author and I haven’t read the first two.

Back down the U street corridor, I headed to the Adams-Morgan neighborhood. This is clearly the neighborhood where all the cool kids hang up because I walked by quite a few bars and clubs. I, being a hip booknerd, headed to Solid State Books, another Black-owned bookshop.

Here I picked up The Surviving Sky by Kritika H. Rao. Another debut novel that is dystopian scifi (I apparently have a thing for dystopian scifi). This book came on my radar in late 2022 when it popped up on BookishFirst, a site where you can preview and win ARCs of forthcoming books. So I’m glad I finally picked it up.

Then it was back to the metro to get to Dupont Circle and Second Story Books, DC’s oldest used bookstore. By this time, it was after noon and Second Story was packed! But I managed to browse and found Cloven Hooves by Megan Lindholm (who also goes by the pen name Robin Hobb. Yes, THAT Robin Hobb.), which sadly again, is out of print (YAY again for used bookstores).

I also got Boneshaker, book 1 of the Clockwork Century, by Cherie Priest, an alternate history fantasy. I’ve had book 2, Dreadnaught, on my shelf for several years. I kept telling myself I needed to get book 1 so I could then read book 2. It had gotten to the point I had almost put Dreadnaught in the giveaway pile. Luckily, I remedied that problem!

Also, since Second Story was my 5th stop, I got a free notebook and Second Story pin!

5 bookshops + 5.5 hours + 7 books + 11+k steps = 1 fantastic day!

@wanderinglynn

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