Independent bookstores continue to thrive and remain vital hubs in Vermont's communities.

While some businesses sway and topple under pressure from the Internet, Vermont’s small independent bookstores — community-focused, inventive and guided by a human touch — are finding ways to secure their future in the face of Amazon, Kindle and whatever digital advances may follow.

Vermont’s “buy local” culture helps sustain these owners, whose shops are pillars of civic literacy, cherished places to browse and ennobling anchors on Main Street.

In Montpelier, for instance, there are still four independent bookstores operating in a town with just 8,000 people.

“Four bookstores — I’m not really sure how we do it,” says Claire Benedict, owner of Bear Pond Books, the leading destination in the state capital for new books and general audience reading. “We have a very literate crowd and a community that understands buying local.”
Matthew Gibbs, who owns Briggs Carriage Bookstore with his wife, Barbara Ebling, stays competitive by having a large selection. He knows he can reorder popular books and have them shipped in two days, so instead of clogging the shelves with dozens of copies of hot sellers, he keeps a few on hand and saves shelf space for more variety. And ultimately, he makes his store about a larger purpose than cash register receipts.

“We love what we do, and we can and do make it work, Gibbs said. “I have a love for books. There’s something inexplicable about finding just the right book for just the right person at just the right time.”

To learn more about what other Vermont independent bookstores are doing to stay vital, read “Best Sellers” by Skye Barsch in the Spring issue of Vermont Life Magazine, with great photographs by Stefan Hard.