Florida Bookstore Day will be held this November
The celebration echoes California Bookstore Day, which was held for the first time this past May.
Bestsellers are featured at The Book Cellar, an independent bookstore in Lincoln Square in Chicago, Illinois.
Ann Hermes
Another state will be celebrating its bookstores this fall.
The first Florida Bookstore Day will be held this November, according to Tampa Bay-based news outlet 83 Degrees Media. Tiffany Razzano, who is in charge of the group Wordier Than Thou that organizes a literary magazine, a radio show, and open mic events for writers, came up with the idea. She had seen a sign for Record Store Day, wondered why there wasn’t a corresponding day for books, and found California Bookstore Day, which was held this past May, online. Chicago also held a day honoring its bookstores last month.
“I wanted to do something big," Razzano told 83 Degrees Media. "It’s a celebration of independent bookstores and the writing community.”
Those behind Florida Bookstore Day are also looking for artists to create posters illustrating five famous books based in Florida. These will be “The Yearling” by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, “Florida Roadkill” by Tim Dorsey, “A Land Remembered” by Patrick D. Smith, and “Swamplandia!” by Karen Russell.
According to the website for Florida Bookstore Day, many bookstores have already signed up, including Wilson’s Book World of St. Petersburg, Inkwood Books of Tampa, Bookmark It of Orlando, Santa Rosa Beach’s Sundog Books, and Pensacola’s Hawsey’s Book Index.
Florida Bookstore Day will be held on Nov. 15.