Love These (Mostly) Local Literary Adventures

by Jo Melinson, Middle and High School Librarian

I recently read the book Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa, which takes place in Jimbōchō Book Town in Tokyo. That is not the name of a book shop; that is the name of a region of the city that contains hundreds of bookstores. And it’s a real place. Wait, what?! How did I not know about this? Time to plan an adventure!

Also this week I’ve been looking over our Middle and High School Library Survey results, and learned that 40% of our High School students and 33% of our Middle School students don’t go to local bookstores or libraries. I also learned that fewer than 20% of our students shop at local bookstores while more than half of our students buy their books from Amazon. In fact, one of my students stopped by to thank me for including the question about local bookstores in the survey because it gave them a great list of places to visit. 

This got me thinking about how much I love our Sacramento libraries and local bookstores and how much my friends and I love to visit bookstores and libraries when we travel–Seattle Public Library is one of my favorites! Browsing in bookstores and libraries is another way to promote enthusiasm for reading–whether it’s the covers that catch our attention or being able to page through the books (several of our students claim it’s “the smell of the books”), there’s something more magical about being able to engage with the books in their natural habitat. 

Many parents take their toddlers to story hours or just to pick out a few books to read together and then get in the habit of going periodically. But if that hasn’t already happened, it’s not too late. As they grow up, there are full rosters of activities (both free and fee-based) that older kids can choose from sponsored by their favorite haunts. 

A quick look at the Sacramento Public Library shows these activities for teens and adults: book clubs, speaker series, music, cooking demos, even a bilingual bird watching outing with Sol Collective. For a more extensive list that you can search by type of event, age group, or by specific branches, go to their Events calendar. If your child loves history, check out the Sacramento Room of the Downtown branch of Sacramento Public Library.

This summer I attended a fantasy map making activity at Wild Sisters Books where we made maps of imaginary places. Two writers’ groups attended to make maps to go with the novels they were writing. 

Capital Books has a Young Adult (YA) book club and often hosts author visits and signings. If your children enjoy sci-fi or graphic novels, don’t forget to check the basement, called Another Universe, where you’ll find lots of those genres along with games and more. 

Right now, East Village Bookshop has a mini-scavenger hunt for younger kids to win a popsicle prize. They are a cute little neighborhood shop where you can sip a free tea while you browse. According to our High School survey, this bookstore is the most frequented by our students with 6 of them visiting.

A Seat at the Table is a queer- and family-owned bookstore that also has a non-profit arm that has as its mission to “to cultivate a sense of belonging, heal loneliness, and give everyone a seat at the table in Elk Grove and surrounding areas.” Their bookstore features a camping-themed children’s play area and a cafe. They’re hosting a Winter Solstice Market on Dec 21 at 11 am and will have a Dogman Fan Party in February.

Ruby’s Books in Folsom has monthly reading challenges: the December prompt is to read a book from the year you were born. They also have a YA book club as well as a Junior Book Club for kids 8-12 years old. Don’t forget to say hello to Ruby the Golden Retriever namesake of the store. 

An ideal afternoon for me would be to purchase a book at Underground Books, a Black-owned business that functions as a literary hub of Oak Park and often features excellent lectures in addition to author visits/signings, and take it next door to Old Soul @40 Acres to enjoy it with a cappuccino or hot chocolate on a comfy couch. Once I saw a Country Day family having Sunday brunch at Shady Lady (back when they served brunch): mom and dad were reading the newspaper, and their daughter was reading her book. I found out later that was their Sunday ritual. Reading and a tasty breakfast? I’m for it! 

Locally, we also have several used book stores. A few that I frequent are: Time Tested Books (pretty environment with light wood shelves, plants, and lots of light), Crawford’s (tall, practical shelving packed with a lot of current fiction),and Amatoria (beautiful art and design books with a lovely seating section in the back). Beers is another good one–much bigger than the others, it features artwork by local artists. There’s also The Book Den, which is run by the Friends of Sacramento Public Library (I recommend this as a great place to donate your books when you’re ready to rehome them).

Ten of our local bookstores are hosting the 2024 Winter Book Crawl called Read the Region now through December 24. If you visit all 10, you get a prize and a chance to win the $350 grand prize. Because teens often love to look at things with a critical eye, encourage your family to rank the bookstores or discuss what their favorite features of each store were. If you’d like to support locally through your online shopping, you can designate your favorite local bookstore to benefit when you shop at Bookshop.org instead of that other giant online place to buy books.

I like shopping local wherever I go, so that always includes trips to bookstores when I’m traveling. But why stop there? This article gave me some great ideas to bump up my literary travel. I may not make it to Jimbōchō this year, but I’m sure I’ll be traveling closer to home. Here’s a list of a few regionally local bookstores I recommend.

If you’re looking for ways to nurture your child’s enthusiasm for reading, perhaps a trip to a bookstore or library is in order. If you visit, send us a photo and we’ll feature it on our Instagram account.