Seattle-area booksellers are bringing back the Bookstore Day Passport Challenge, but with ten days to complete the challenge, to ease crowding under the current COVID conditions. Please see below for details.
What Is Happening for Independent Bookstore Day 2022?
Seattle Independent Bookstore Day (SIBD) has come to mean a great deal to all of us working in the Seattle bookstore community, and we’re glad to say that the Seattle-area indie bookstores have decided to bring back the popular Bookstore Day Passport Challenge this year. Once again, local book (and bookstore) lovers will be challenged to visit all 24 participating Seattle-area independent bookstores, but this year, to lessen crowding slightly and also to give readers the opportunity to make their visits on less-busy days, we are allowing ten days, rather than the usual single day, to complete the challenge.
Independent Bookstore Day begins on Saturday, April 30, and must be completed by Monday May 9th.
Book fanatics who complete the challenge will receive a Bookstore Day Champion Stamp Card, good for a one-time 25% discount at each participating store and valid until the day before next year’s Bookstore Day.
Once again, we are grateful for the support our bookstores receive from the community in these challenging times. Not only your financial support but your kind words—through emails, online orders, social media, and in our stores and at curbside pickups—have truly sustained us. The Seattle area independent bookstore community continues to thrive because of you, and we look forward to seeing you back in our stores in person this year.
SIBD 2022, April 30 - May 9, FAQ Sheet
Is Indie Bookstore Day happening this year?
Yes, both nationally and in Seattle.
How do I qualify as an Indie Bookstore Day 2022 Champion?
Visit all 24 participating Seattle-area stores between April 30 and May 9, 2022, and turn in your passport with stamps from all the stores.
What’s the prize?
A Bookstore Day Champion Stamp Card, good for a one-time 25% discount at each of the participating stores. The card will be good through April 28, 2023 (the day before Independent Bookstore Day next year).
Which bookstores are participating?
See the list of participating bookstores at the bottom of this page. There have some changes to participating stores since the last FULL challenge in 2019. (NOTE: for stores with multiple branches —the three branches of Third Place Books and Phinney Books/Madison Books, which are under the same ownership—, you only need to get one stamp for each group.)
How do I participate?
Pick up a passport in person at a participating bookstore, (like BookTree at 609 Market St. Kirkland Wa 98033 starting on Bookstore Day. Get your passport stamped at each store you visit during the 10-day period, and turn it in at the last store you visit. No purchase is required to get your stamp at each store, though of course you are encouraged to shop. Online visits or purchases are not included: you must have your card stamped, in person, at each store. Only one passport per person will be stamped. The idea is to visit and spend some time in each of the stores you visit. Indie bookstores have wonderful personalities. Get to know them.
When will I receive my discount card?
When you turn in your passport, you will choose your “home” store, where your champion’s discount card will be held for you to pick up, starting on June 10. (This year, we are not hosting a champions party.)
What Is Independent Bookstore Day?
Independent Bookstore Day traditionally begins on the Last Saturday in April. It used to be a one day only event. Now you have more time to enjoy each every participating bookstore.
What Is Seattle Independent Bookstore Day?
When Independent Bookstore Day went national in 2015 , Seattle's indie bookstores collaborated to showcase what we do best: build human connections through physical books, in a daylong celebration of the work we do and the readers and customers who make it possible. We offered many of the same events and exclusive items as our colleagues across the country, but we also introduced the Passport Challenge, encouraging readers to get their passports stamped at as many participating stores as possible on Bookstore Day. Those who got their passports stamped at every participating store that day were crowned Grand Champions, with a crown, a party, and a 25% discount at all participating stores for the following year. We have been stunned by the response: in our first year, we weren't sure if anyone could complete the full Passport Challenge, but we crowned 42 Grand Champions. In 2017, our third year, the number of Grand Champions, all of whom visited 19 stores from Poulsbo to Kirkland to Queen Anne to Georgetown in a single day, exploded to 320, and in 2019 our total number of Champions increased to 636. We weren’t able to continue the full Passport Challenge in 2020 and 2021, but we are glad to bring it back again in 2022.
Why Are We Celebrating Independent Bookstores?
Independent bookstores in the Pacific Northwest aren’t just brick and mortar storefronts. We’re part of a thriving literary scene made up of writers, readers, librarians, and publishers (which was declared by UNESCO in 2017 an official "City of Literature"). We’re local literary destinations for our communities and staffed by passionate, well-read booksellers. We’re entire universes of ideas that contain the possibility of real serendipity. We’re lively performance spaces and quiet places where “just that right book” can be discovered.
Bookstores are living, breathing organisms that continue to grow and develop each year. In a world of tweets, algorithms, and digital downloads customers find it reassuring to walk into a bookstore, smell the books, talk with a bookseller, and hold the books in their hands. This won’t change. And we’re here to stay.
When Does It Happen?
Seattle Independent Bookstore Day begins on the last Saturday in April.
How to Connect with Us
Visit BookTree’s Facebook page here.