Speaker 1: (00:00)
After a pandemic year of buying online holiday shoppers have a unique opportunity this weekend, actually touching and paging through a real book. The north park book fair holiday edition is happening this Saturday with hundreds of new and used books for sale plus food vendors and an open mic. The fair is in support of small businesses this holiday season. And joining me with details on the book. Fair is one of the event coordinators, Jennifer Coburn, Jennifer. Welcome.
Speaker 2: (00:31)
Hi, thanks for having me now.
Speaker 1: (00:33)
Bookstores in north park must be so eager for this event. How tough has it been for those small businesses during the past year?
Speaker 2: (00:41)
Well, as you know, uh, small businesses across the country have been really hit hard by the pandemic because you know, when, when we're told that you really can't go out, unless you are going to the supermarket or to a doctor's appointment, people start to rely on online retailers more so buying habits start to change. And that really hits the small business community hard, especially book sellers.
Speaker 1: (01:07)
Now, even before the lockdowns independent bookstores were threatened by online giants like Amazon, were they getting creative to stay afloat.
Speaker 2: (01:16)
They were getting creative and the pandemic forced them to be even more creative in know when, when we had the lockdown order, one of our book stores, verbatim books decided, okay, if people can't come inside my bookstore, I'm gonna bring my books out to the sidewalk so that people can leaf through browse talk with other book lovers. And we were shocked. There was a line around the corner. People were really hungry for this type of human connection and interaction. So that was kinda what prompted us to have our first north park book fair this summer.
Speaker 1: (01:56)
Can you tell us what people can expect at the north park book? Fair holiday edition this
Speaker 2: (02:00)
Weekend? Sure thing they can expect a great time with over a hundred booths. We're gonna have 15 bookstores, 11 small presses, and we're gonna have dozens of local authors, um, like there's historical fiction, favorite Jill hall, pink Chiana poet, Kazi Ali. And if you are not a writer, but want to be writer, Inc is gonna be there. So they can tell you about the classes that they offer for aspiring writers and also for the kids. And there's gonna be plenty of kids. Book sellers and Santa Claus will be there.
Speaker 1: (02:33)
Will the authors at the fair, will they be signing books?
Speaker 2: (02:37)
Sure thing. They'll be signing all of their books. So if you wanna pick up a nice, uh, addition for yourself to cozy up by the fire, with and stuff, the stockings of your book, loving friends, um, they're there to do it.
Speaker 1: (02:50)
Will there be gifts on sale other than books?
Speaker 2: (02:53)
Yeah, we're gonna have other handcrafted, one of a kind gifts. They'll be candles. They'll be chocolates, they'll be cheese. It will be a wonderful street fair for book lovers. And if you've got people who really aren't book lovers, they're gonna still have a good time because we're gonna have live music. We're gonna have tons of things to do things, to eat and to buy.
Speaker 1: (03:19)
Tell us about some of the safety precautions in place for this event.
Speaker 2: (03:23)
Well, the major safety protocol that we have is that the event is outdoors. We're also gonna have more hand washing stations and bathrooms, and there will be no samplings of foods offered by the food sellers, which is disappointing, but also was gonna keep our guests safe.
Speaker 1: (03:41)
Are you concerned about all the talk about the Omicron variant, keeping the population down for this, uh, event?
Speaker 2: (03:48)
Yeah, the O variant is of concern, which is why we really double down on our safety precautions.
Speaker 1: (03:55)
We all know what the downsides of the pandemic are for independent bookstore, but is there an upside, do people suspect the pandemic led to people reading more?
Speaker 2: (04:06)
The pandemic absolutely led to people reading more, um, book riot recently surveyed their members and they found that 58% were reading more during the pandemic, uh, lit hub did a similar survey. They found 30% of their subscribers, um, or reading more. So people are reading more. They're buying more books, they're listening to audio books and they are downloading eBooks. So book buying is up, but the way people have purchased books has shifted. They've been relying more on online books, sellers. So that has led to many book sellers having to get a little more creative. So, as I mentioned, the verbatim books who along with the north park lions club and north park main street are the sponsors of this event. Uh, people are getting really creative. They're bringing their books outdoors. They are having events. Zoom events were one of the ways that book sellers really sold a lot of books because people love to connect with authors, ask questions about the writing process, ask questions about how they got their ideas, how they did their research and that wasn't able to happen online. So they did it on zoom. There's a book seller in Brooklyn who had people order books online, and then they would deliver them. They would deliver them to their door.
Speaker 1: (05:29)
As you say, I think buying books online has turned into a habit for a lot of people. It's very convenient. It comes fast and you don't have to leave the house. But what do you get from attending? A fair are like this, or going in person to a bookstore that you can't get online.
Speaker 2: (05:47)
You know, there is no algorithm that is going to replace human connection. When you have a chance to talk to authors, to talk to book sellers, to tell them, Hey, I like this book. What did you think of this other book by the author? And you know, is recommend things for you. Like if you like this, you'll probably like this, but you can't have a, with another human being. And I think we all really crave that now more than ever.
Speaker 1: (06:16)
And there's also something about actually paging through a book and getting to know it before you take
Speaker 2: (06:21)
It home. And you know what, I dunno if I really wanna live in a world without bricks and mortar bookstores, as you said, you can leave through the books. You can sit down and, and read a couple pages and it's, it's just a wonderful sanctuary from the house of our everyday lives.
Speaker 1: (06:39)
Jennifer, do you think San Diego's independent bookstores are gonna be able to bounce back from their pandemic decline?
Speaker 2: (06:46)
I think they already are. And I think that's only going to grow in the future.
Speaker 1: (06:50)
Okay. Then the north park book fair holiday edition is this Saturday from 10:00 AM, 5:00 PM at north Parkway and 30th street. I've been speaking to Jennifer Coburn and one of the event coordinators and Jennifer. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: (07:06)
Thank you, Maureen. It's been a pleasure.
