In Mpls-St Paul, we are lucky to have a wealth of fantastic indie bookstores. We’re also lucky that for #IndieBookstoreDay, @beardhero usually illustrates a #BookstorePassport where you get a stamp for each store you visit, activating a discount coupon for each shop.

Because we’re still in a pandemic, this yr they gave us a week to collect stamps instead of just on #IndieBookstoreDay. Greatly appreciated this as even for this conplete book nerd, I get tired after 10 bookstores in a day. (+there are more! But 10 stamps usually gets something.)

This year, getting stamps from 10 bookstores activated ALL the coupons from the 23 in the passport! Some aren’t open for browsing yet but do online orders. It’s a mix. I’m fully vaccinated so felt ok going to 10, plus the stores did great jobs managing everything for Covid.

One of my mainstays, @NextChapterMN, is open by appt or for order pickups. So I had an appointment for this morning, of course. I miss taking the 63 from work & browsing here before taking the A Line home. #BookstoreRoadmap

At @RedBalloonBooks I picked up the #IndieBookstoreDay interview w/ Nikki Giovanni + a kid’s picture book for the 38th & Chicago community bookshelf (I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes). They allow walk in customers; was a short line to get in bc of Covid capacity.

I forgot to mention that I picked up my #BookstorePassport at @SubtextBooks earlier this week. Also miss being able to walk here from my office for a book browsing break. They’re open for browsing. Got my @MoonPalaceBooks stamp thru their nifty Covid pickup window bc pickup only

Also made it to @DreamHavenBooks earlier this week too. They’re open for in store browsing. With masks, of course.

@wildrumpusbooks is the bookstore my parents are lucky didn’t exist when I was a kid. It’s magical. I also love their bookstore chicken that’s sometimes running around on the floor. Only open for pickup in the pandemic, no browsing. For today though, they did an outdoor popup!

The @wildrumpusbooks set up worked great. Loved that they had photos up in the alley of all the critters who live in the store. And they had the chicken outside! More bookstores need chickens.

@birchbarkbooks is another magical bookstore that did an outdoor pop up for pandemic #IndieBookstoreDay. Thanks for the snacks too! They’re not doing in store browsing right now but do offer order pickup. You can always get books shipped from any of these stores too!

@magersandquinn has been allowing in store browsing for a while & has been great at monitoring how many people are in the store, so occasionally you have to wait in line outside (but usually not for long). I especially love their local history section bc they sell both new + used

So today @magersandquinn I discovered a book Joan Mondale wrote about her time living in Japan when Fritz was the US ambassador. Small press collection of her columns for a local neighborhood newspaper. Fun find.

I think I forgot a St Paul store in this thread. New to me, and relatively new overall, @windingtrailmn is near where the old Micawber’s store used to be in Como. Got a book all white US transportation planners should read on the history of racial segregation in travel here.