The Power of Bookmarks and #bookmarkmondays
Updated Weekly!
In honor of independent bookstores, we are starting a weekly celebration of bookmarks on our Instagram and Twitter accounts (both at @naturebookguide) called #bookmarkmondays.
October 31: Exile in Bookville, Chicago, IL
November 7: Front Street Books, Alpine, TX
November 14: Birchbark Books, Minneapolis, MN
My first Exile in Bookville purchase, Waterlog: A Swimmer’s Journey Through Britain by Roger Deakin
The Amtrak attendant told me the train to Minneapolis was full, so all seats were assigned. Mine was Seat 11. For several minutes other passengers filed in, but Seat 12 remained empty; the trip to Minneapolis was going to be a full six hours on a good day, and I’d hoped for a pleasant seatmate. Finally, a young woman approached and sat down next to me and other than a brief “hello” we watched Chicago pass by in silence, until they got a book from their bag.
It was a new book—that was obvious—but what really caught my eye was the bookmark from Exile in Bookville, an independent store in the lovely, historic Fine Arts Building on Michigan Avenue.
Several weeks before, my partner and I took Amtrak to Chicago for a daytrip. We walked east on Jackson from Union Station to Michigan Avenue, turned right and in no time reached the Fine Arts Building. Up the steps to the second floor, and Exile in Bookville, with a beautifully curated nature section was there. That’s where I got Waterlog, a joyous description of wild swims in Britain’s creeks, rivers and ponds.
“Oh! Exile in Bookville, that’s a great bookstore,” I said, and my new companion remarked, “It is! I was just there on my layover,” which was the first of several delightful coincidences, as I’d also visited it on my Chicago layover that day. And with that, we talked from Chicago to well past Milwaukee—how much we appreciated the kind and knowledgeable staff at Exile, independent bookstores in general, and our shared love of reading, our work history in nonprofits. I introduced them to Nature Book Guide and told them that in addition to visiting a dear friend, I wanted to connect with publishers and bookstores in the Twin Cities.
By the time we disembarked at Minnneapolis’ Union Station, Chavala and I, it was late, and we wished each other well.
Four days later—another coincidence—we found ourselves in line for the train back to Chicago. I asked after we decided to sit next to each other again, “Did you have a nice visit in Minneapolis? What did you do?”
”I had a great time,” they said. “Went to bookstores and great restaurants and ate pastries.”
”So did I! Where did you find your best meal?”
”Owamni!”
”I was there, too! My friend in Minneapolis was on the waiting list for reservations for weeks. and table opened up for us for lunch on Friday at 11:45.” Owmani by The Sioux Chef, the Indigenous restaurant recognized as “Best New Restaurant” at this summer’s James Beard Awards, was a very hot ticket; reservations were extremely hard to get. (The food was as excellent as we anticipated.)
”I was there for lunch on Friday,” Chavala said. “I’d read that if you go early, you might get a seat at the bar. So I got there when they opened at 11.”
And there was the third coincidence: in a metro area of nearly 3.7 million, we’d both had lunch on Friday at a restaurant seating maybe 100 diners. They must have finished their lunch before we arrived. We must have just missed each other. The return trip was just as delightful as the first, with more discussion about books and bookstores and work and life, even though there are forty years between us. And when we said goodbye, it was bittersweet. How wild this trip had been, how many coincidences, how many connections across two cities.
So, what can a simple bookmark do? Connect us to one another.
Front Street Books, Alpine, Texas, a gateway to Big Bend National Park and the Texas Mountains
View from the inside of the children’s section of Birchbark Books in Minneapolis, MN