Buy Nothing February 28

Dear Readers,

It’s been a minute since our last newsletter, because [gestures once again at literally everything]. But we’re still here, tending to our little book garden as we enjoy this false spring. We hope you’re all managing to sleep, hydrate, and nourish yourselves as well as possible.

Here’s what’s up:

Feb. 28 Economic Blackout

Have you heard about the economic blackout planned for this Friday, February 28? The gist is: Buy nothing. If you must buy essentials, shop small and local, and pay cash.

We can’t argue with any of that—and if it means we have no customers on Friday, we’ll live. But we wanted to note that there are several ways to participate in the spirit of the boycott without depriving yourself of a trip to your favorite bookstore!

1. Pay cash for a used book. (Ordinarily, we’re cashless, but we’ll have a little bit of change on hand this Friday.) Cut all the corporate giants out of the transaction and exchange colored paper for locally sourced, recycled, tangible goods that might even make you smarter.

2. Use store credit. If you don’t have any, why not make an appointment to trade in some used books?

3. Order a new book and pay later. You can always place an order for new books in-store and pay when you pick them up.

4. This Friday only, select a used book and pay later. For this special occasion, we’ll accept holds on used books of up to one week. Browse on Friday, then pick your selection up by Friday, March 7th (after which it will go back on the shelves).

5. Just come in and say hi. Community is more important than ever, and we love meeting our neighbors.

Book Club Survey

Since we opened last October, several of you have stopped in and asked if we had any plans for book clubs. The short answer was “Yes,” and the long answer was that we were too preoccupied with opening a business amid societal collapse to do any event planning.

But as a wise newsletter once said, community is more important than ever! If you might be interested in joining a Jarvis Square Book Club, would you please fill out this survey? Once we have a better sense of what you’re looking for, we’ll be able to get some events on the calendar.

Signed Copies of Cinema Her Way

Local film writer Marya E. Gates swung by on Tuesday to sign copies of her brand new book, Cinema Her Way: Visionary Female Directors in their own Words ($50). It features illustrations by Alex Kittle and conversations with an incredible list of directors, including Jane Campion, Karyn Kusama, Mira Nair, Julie Dash, Isabel Sandoval, Marielle Heller, and more. Not to mention tons of photos, including that killer cover image of Michelle Rodriguez in Girlfight.

As always, we appreciate your business in any form, including via Bookshop (which now has ebooks!!) and Libro. To all our in-person shoppers, if we don’t see you this Friday, we sure hope to see you soon.

All the best,

Kate & Michael