A Novel Idea Bookstore in Berlin announced this week that it’s closing in November. “Available” reads the sign in the window of the empty storefront that was the Westside Bookstore in Salisbury. Bethany Books in Bethany Beach and Harrison Street Books in Easton are both up for sale. In Snow Hill, the owner of Maggie’s holds down a second job so she can afford to keep her bookstore open.

Blame it on ‘the economy.’ Blame it on Amazon. Blame it on the ‘dumbing down’ of America. Blame it on competition from chains and discount stores. But Delmarva’s independent bookstores are becoming as rare as the Delmarva Fox Squirrel.

When you can buy the current best seller or Oprah pick in the grocery store, who cares if a little local store goes under?

It’s the difference between a department store and a boutique.

Indies are more than a place to ‘buy a book.’ They are the intellectual centers for their community. A place where ideas and curiosity are treasured. Where people can gather, explore interests, connect with others.

The chains only sell books that are run through distribution houses. Their priority is moving merchandise. Independents aren’t constrained by such corporate dictates. Their inventory reflects the personality and interests of the owner and staff. They’ve read many, if not most, of the books in their store. They are in business, but their priority is not just selling. It’s selling something that they genuinely find is of merit, that they enjoy and want to share. More variety. Small presses. Unknown authors.

They are there because they believe – because they know – that ideas and intelligent conversation matter. They soldier on in the face of the banalization of the publishing world and the economic reality that they are probably tilting at windmills.

You don’t go to an independent bookstore just to buy a book that’s hot. You go to browse. To hang out. To strike up conversations. They are the clearing houses for the local news, gossip, and upcoming social events. There’s a morning gathering at Browseabout Books in Rehoboth (that lasts all day as people come and go). The store also hosts a weekly live radio show very early every Thursday morning that draws an audience of neighbors. The Book Bin in Onley hosts a group book signing by local authors at the start of the holiday shopping season. Sundial Books in Chincoteague does the same during Pony Penning Week. Mystery Loves Company in Oxford has expanded to include regional titles and a gallery for local artists. All of the stores have special events on their town’s monthly art walk night.

Books are about ideas and dreams of a culture and a community. When a bookstore closes, those ideas are stifled and the dreams die aborning. The community is shallower and lesser for it.

Here are the independent bookstores on Delmarva. Visit them. Buy from them. Thank them for adding to the richness of life on the Eastern Shore:

Compleat Bookseller, Chestertown; Easton News Center, Easton: Harrison Street Books, Easton; Mystery Loves Company, Oxford; Browseabout Books, Rehoboth; Bethany Books, Bethany Beach; BooksandCoffee, Dewey Beach; A Novel Idea, Berlin; Sundial Books, Chincoteague; The Book Bin, Onley; Maggie’s, Snow Hill.