About the Map
I'd like to tell you a little bit about what's included on The Map, what's not, and why. One of my pet peeves is clicking on a link to a recipe that leads to a 14 paragraph dissertation on the blogger's childhood memories, how much they enjoy the smell of Cardamom and an anecdote about their precocious three year old before actually giving you the recipe. However, I will beg your indulgence for my lead-in below as it will explain how I found myself having to decide what would be included on The Map and what would not be.
There are 6,001 bookstores in the United States. Well, not really. There are 6,001 non-chain bookstores in the United States. Again, not really accurate. There are, however, 6,001 bookstores on this map of bookstores in the United States. Quite a few caveats apply, but I'm going to run with that number for a moment.
A Move, Insomnia, A Map
The map, beyond being a three year labor of love, is a product of insomnia brought on by the stress of an out-of-state move with my family. Awake for no good reason and stewing over the logistics of moving from Pennsylvania to South Carolina, I needed something to occupy my time between 3 and 7 a.m. Thus, the map of bookstores in the United States was born.
At first, I was simply busying my brain with the task of searching for lists of bookstores from Bookseller Association websites and maps. My epiphany, if you could call it that, was that there was not any single resource, online or in print, that could be considered a comprehensive roster of all brick and mortar bookstores and booksellers in the United States. I asked myself who would be interested in such a list? People who love bookstores, of course. The seed of an idea took root and while I continued to add bookstores to the map, I also began to accumulate additional detail about, and related to, bookstores. The anchor of iheartbookstores will always be The Map, but I hope to enhance that with original and linked content appealing to people who are as enthralled by bookstores as I am.
So, How Many Are There?
After sifting through the cobwebbed corners of the World Wide Web for three years, it's become increasingly clear that attempting to arrive at an accurate count of physical bookstores in the United States is somewhat like trying to nail Jello to a wall. If backed into a corner and threatened I would have to guess there are somewhere north of 10,000 physical bookstores. There's a surfeit of opinions on this, each shaded by criteria that are typically opaque. The additional hurdle here is that up-to-date data isn't usually free, so I am compelled to rely on other sources.
According to 2018 articles on CBS News and NPR, there are between 2,200 and 2,300 independent bookstores in the United States. Seems a bit low to me and probably hinges on how independent is defined and who's doing the counting. The Map here is clearly contradictory to those numbers, but what's notable is that since 2009 there have been more than 550 new bookstores opened in the United States, an unprecedented resurrection from the decade prior that saw Bookstores close in droves.
Who's In
There's no arguing that the number of Bookstores in the United States has increased dramatically in the last decade. While reaching a consensus on the exact number of Bookstores isn't likely, I can at least provide the criteria used to arrive at my number: 4,963.
Where possible I'll try to explain my reasoning, but I'll acknowledge that in some cases the decision may have been arbitrary and I make no apologies for that.
In general, The Map includes only non-chain Bookstores and Booksellers who operate from, and welcome customers to, a permanent physical location of some type (see exceptions below); Brick and Mortar locations, in retail parlance. Most operate with open retail hours, some are by appointment only. They may be purveyors of new, used or antiquarian books, or some combination of those. Some locations may have sidelines, but are primarily, or at least equally, focused on bookselling as they are the sideline (I have a great piece on sidelines planned for the future). Non-chain is defined as anything fewer than about 20 locations. The vast majority of locations included I consider independent in the sense that they aren't part of a retail conglomerate and don't have stock ticker symbols.
Who's Out
Chain Bookstores - retailers like Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million and Half-Price Books have their place in the pantheon of booksellers, but lack the ambience offered by many independent booksellers. Not to mention that their sheer numbers are more than I wanted to tackle. Each of their websites have fine store locator tools. I have shopped, and will continue to shop, in all of them from time to time.
Religious Bookstores - there are a vast number of religious bookstores in the United States. Small towns that have little else in the way of retail storefronts will frequently have a religious bookstore. While there's clearly a market for them, I don't believe that they are of interest to those who will find iheartbookstores and The Map interesting.
Comic Book Stores - thousands of comic book stores are thriving across the United States, but I've excluded them first and foremost because they're of no interest to me personally. I know there are plenty of adults who do frequent them, and there's certainly many crossover customers, but not the same audience I'm targeting with iheartbookstores and The Map.
Friends of the Library - many FOTL stores are located inside of libraries, so access isn't the same as it would be for a stand-alone retail location. But, there are many FOTL groups who do have a stand-alone location. I'm considering this as a follow up add-on to the current version of the The Map.
College Bookstores - there's at least one, and sometimes several, bookstores on or near every college campus in America. Quite a few, including some independent bookstores, focus on text books and collegiate accoutrement and don't have much depth in general book stock. The bookstore lover isn't their target demographic and they aren't included on The Map.
Museum Shops - I do love a good museum shop. Try to drag your kids out of a museum without stopping in the shop and you're in trouble. They are admittedly a great source for local interest, beautifully rendered and frequently expensive books. You may even come across author signed books in some of them. The major stumbling block for me is that you may have to pay museum admission to get to the shop. None of the establishments on The Map are pay-for-entry.
Book Fairs - there are many prestigous and well-known book fairs across the country and they are a great way to shop the inventories of many booksellers in one place that you may not have the opportunity to patronize otherwise. I intend to compile a list of them, with links, under the Resources menu, but they aren't included on The Map.
Bookmobiles & Pop-Ups - they serve a purpose, especially in underserved communities, but for the purposes of iheartbookstores, if I have to figure out where you are going to be on any given day, I'm not considering that a permanent physical location.
Internet Only Booksellers - iheartbookstores is about the bookstore experience. Ambience and an assault on the senses by the look, smell and feel of books on a physical shelf are paramount. Yes, an online presence is important, but online only booksellers are just out-of-scope.
Thrift & Secondhand Shops - I will admit that a huge proportion of my used book purchases are from thrift stores like Goodwill. There are hundreds of non-profit operated thrift and secondhand stores that sell books, but like some other locations I've noted, books are not the primary business. My love of bookstores exists in a separate space than my love of bookhounding through thrift stores and estate sales.
Spiritual Bookstores - If pictures of a store show more crystals, jewelry, tarot cards and other trinkets than books, then it's not going to be included.
Airport Bookstores - these stores don't offer much beyond magazines, bestselling fiction and paperbacks. Who's going through airport security just to visit a bookstore?
Antique Malls - I spend quite a bit of time in antique malls, but not for the books. Most have at least one stall of books and many other stalls have them sprinkled throughout. Antique malls have an ambience of their own, but it's distinct from that of a bookstore. Besides that, in my experience books found in antique malls are almost always garden variety, over priced and in poor condition. There are some exceptions to this and a few are included on The Map.
Toy Stores - in my travels across the internet in search of bookstores, I came across a fairly large number of toy stores billing themselves as bookstores. Let's use the imaginary Bob's Book & Toy as an example. Yes, you can purchase a copy of Goodnight Moon there, but take a look at their website or Facebook page and you will find primarly pictures of toys. Not a bookstore.
Foreign Language Bookstores - I know enough Spanish to identify libro or libreria, so you'll find some Spanish language bookstores on The Map, as well as a smattering of others. If I couldn't identify it through a search like "Norwegian Bookstores in the United States," or by a list encountered along the way, it won't be included on The Map. I'm not opposed to adding them as they are identified.