Independent bookstores are enjoying a new chapter across the country as the market shifts from big box bookstores back to quaint and niche neighbourhood shops.
The revival is putting the focus back on the little things that make the book-buying experience so special to avid readers and bookstore lovers.
Writer and publisher Michael Hingston noticed there was something missing from the Edmonton literary scene, which led him to open Porch Light Books in November.
“That point of contact between the reader — you write something, you publish something, you put it out in the world and you don’t really hear back from people a lot of the time,” Hingston says of his motivation.
“There’s some… surprise about a bookstore making it in these times but I really think the pendulum swung too far the other way,” Hingston explains. “We lost a lot of great shops, and a lot of people are reconnecting with …