New Orleans Independent Bookstore Day - 2018

Independent bookstores are not just stores—they are community centers and local anchors run by passionate readers. They are entire universes of ideas that contain the possibility of real serendipity. They are lively performance spaces and quiet places where aimless perusal is a day well spent.

Please come by to celebrate Independent Bookstore Day with us and show your support for this amazing movement. We’ll have fun together along with stimulating activities all day long. And, we are also featuring some exclusive literary-themed art and gift items you will want to have to remember this special day.

My favorite thing about independent bookstores is that they all have their own distinct personalities: each reflects not just the tastes but also the ideals of its community. From the second you walk in, you get a sense of what the people who shop there know and enjoy—as well as what's currently on their minds, what they want to learn, and what they value: in short, what kinds of people they want to be. Bookstores are more than just repositories of knowledge, they’re living, breathing, evolving representations of our best selves. I love Independent Bookstore Day because it asks readers, writers, and booksellers to join in celebrating all that bookstores represent. It's a gathering to remind ourselves that the written word can change both us and the world, and of what’s possible when we all come together.” --Celeste Ng, 2018 Independent Bookstore Day Author Ambassador

Octavia Books, Garden District Book Shop, Tubby & Coo’s Mid-City Book Shop, and Blue Cypress Books are celebrating Independent Bookstore Day in New Orleans. Each store is planning special activities; and together we are offering the chance to win $100 in gift certificates for book lovers who visit all four participating New Orleans bookstores as part of a fun, city-wide scavenger hunt. The four stores have also joined together to give away a limited number of Blackbird Letter Press New Orleans City Notebooks (printed in Louisiana) to customers who purchase who spend $25 or more on Saturday, May 12th.

Over 500 independent bookstores are celebrating Independent Bookstore Day. In New Orleans, we have our own special day to celebrate, two weeks later in deference to Jazz Fest.

 

At Octavia Books, special author appearances with an Independent Bookstore Day twist include:

  • 11:30am to 1:00pm - Challenge Michael Tisserand, Eisner Award-Winning author of KRAZY and contributing author to MY BOOKSTORE, to a blitz game of chess. Win a prize if you beat him. And, win or loose, be sure to get Michael to also sign a copy of KRAZY while you are here.
  • 1:00pm to 2:00pm - SNIPPETS OF NEW ORLEANS author/illustrator Emma Fick will lead a concise tutorial on "How to Draw a Shotgun House or a Crawfish." Enter your own drawing for a chance to win a prize. Of course, you will want to give yourself the prize of having Emma to sign a copy of SNIPPETS once you see how fabulous and fun it is.
  • 2:00pm to 3:00pm - Do you love cheese? Brie? Cheddar? Parmesan? Join national cheese expert and local author Liz Thorpe for a cheese tasting inspired by her new book, THE BOOK OF CHEESE. She'll introduce you to the cheeses to look for when you're ready to upgrade from your go-to favorites. All this while also signing her beautiful, highly informative, and indispensable book.
  • 3:00pm to 4:00pm - James Beard Award-winning chef Alon Shaya, who just opened his new restaurant, Saba, a few blocks away, will be here to meet and greet you and sign copies of his splendid new book, SHAYA: An Odyssey of Food: My Journey Back to Israel.

Throughout the day, we will also be giving out free copies of photographer Cheryl Gerber wonderful book, NEW ORLEANS: Life and Death in the Big Easy (University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press), to anyone making a purchase of at least $30 (while supplies last.).

The 2018 Bookstore Day Exclusives:

Independent Bookstore Day is proud to announce a selection of exclusive books and art pieces for Bookstore Day 2018. These limited edition, unique items will be available only at participating IBD bookstores. Not online. And not in chain stores.

Some of 2018’s 15+ exclusive Bookstore Day books and items include:

The Bad Citizen Graffiti Stencil: Don’t Let the Bastards Grind You Down - Every year we create our signature “Bad Citizen” Graffiti Stencil to highlight the authors and the words that push us to think, read, and be disruptive when necessary. This year’s stencil features a timely quote from Margaret Atwood The Handmaid’s Tale: DON’T LET THE BASTARDS GRIND YOU DOWN, the ultimate rallying cry for our time.

The Book Club Journal - This beautifully designed journal has pages and prompts for writing your thoughts and opinions about the books you’ve read, keeping track of book club meetings, and more than 45 original, quirky, themed recommended reading lists from authors like Stephen King, David Sedaris and Tayari Jones, and booksellers around the country. Martin Cruz Smith gives us the “Real Russia” reading list. The booksellers at Parnassus in Nashville give us “Books narrated by non-humans.”

Golden Thread Print from Colin Meloy Nikki McClure - Pete Seeger’s messages of universal understanding and social and environmental justice inspired generations — and have left a lasting legacy. With dazzling, lyrical verse in the folk revival style, and cut-paper illustrations in black and ochre that capture the spirit of the man and his times, musician Colin Meloy of The Decemberists and artist Nikki McClure pay tribute to a visionary who changed the world with song.

Event date: 

Saturday, May 12, 2018 - 10:00am to 6:00pm

Event address: 

Octavia Books - 513 Octavia Street - New Orleans, LA 70115
Shaya: An Odyssey of Food, My Journey Back to Israel: A Cookbook By Alon Shaya Cover Image
$35.00
ISBN: 9780451494160
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Knopf - March 13th, 2018

An exciting debut cookbook that confirms the arrival of a new guru chef . . . A moving, deeply personal journey of survival and discovery that tells of the evolution of a cuisine and of the transformative power and magic of food and cooking.


Snippets of New Orleans By Emma Fick Cover Image
$25.00
Email or call for price
ISBN: 9781935754992
Published: University of Louisiana - April 1st, 2017

Snippets of New Orleans is a whimsical 248 pages of witty text and wonderful illustrations all about New Orleans: its music, food, architecture, people, eccentricities, and traditions.


The Book of Cheese: The Essential Guide to Discovering Cheeses You'll Love By Liz Thorpe Cover Image
$40.00
ISBN: 9781250063458
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Flatiron Books - September 26th, 2017

EXPLORE THE WORLD OF CHEESE BY ASKING YOURSELF ONE SIMPLE QUESTION: WHAT CHEESES DO I ALREADY LOVE?

This is the first book of its kind to be organized not by country, milk type, or any other technical classification. The Book of Cheese maps the world of cheese using nine familiar favorites, what author Liz Thorpe calls the
Gateway Cheeses.


Krazy: George Herriman, a Life in Black and White By Michael Tisserand Cover Image
$40.95
Email or call for price
ISBN: 9780061732997
Published: Harper - December 6th, 2016

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2017

WINNER OF THE EISNER AWARD FOR BEST COMICS-RELATED BOOK

FINALIST FOR THE NBCC AWARD IN BIOGRAPHY

FINALIST FOR THE PEN/JACQUELINE BOGRAD WELD AWARD FOR BIOGRAPHY


My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop By Ronald Rice (Editor), Richard Russo (Introduction by), Leif Parsons (Illustrator), Emily St. John Mandel (Afterword by) Cover Image
By Ronald Rice (Editor), Richard Russo (Introduction by), Leif Parsons (Illustrator), Emily St. John Mandel (Afterword by)
$17.99
ISBN: 9780316395076
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Black Dog & Leventhal - April 11th, 2017

In this enthusiastic, heartfelt, and sometimes humorous ode to bookshops and booksellers, 84 known authors pay tribute to the brick-and-mortar stores they love and often call their second homes.


New Orleans: Life and Death in the Big Easy By Cheryl Gerber Cover Image
$24.95
ISBN: 9781935754701
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: University of Louisiana - November 3rd, 2015

New Orleans: Life and Death in the Big Easy uses photo juxtaposition to portray New Orleans culture--its contrasts, dichotomies, and social ironies, the things that make the city so richly diverse and distinctive--as seen through the lens of photojournalist Cheryl Gerber.


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