What We Ignore: Book Stores
Part 2 of the What We Ignore Series
In the America First community, there is a lot of emphasis on getting involved. On not just sitting around waiting for someone to come rescue us. And, of course, “getting involved” always means getting involved in politics and government, often to the exclusion of virtually anything else. Now, I’m not here to discourage anyone from getting involved in politics. That being said, I also recognize that not everyone is going to be called to or suited for political activism or running for office. Not only that, I recognize that political wins, in and of themselves, will not achieve long-lasting, multi-generational results. Fixing our government is important, but it will only be meaningful if we also fix the culture. This belief was the genesis thought behind Make Art Good Again.
Of course, I am not the first to acknowledge the important role the culture plays in winning this Fifth-Generation War that we currently find ourselves in. That being said, while many people will acknowledge the importance of the culture, there tends to be a disconnect between that acknowledgment and practical steps towards actually engaging in the culture. Even, on the rare occasion, when those practical steps are taken, there seems to be an emphasis on only the most obvious cultural influences, ignoring many less obvious areas that are either equally influential or serve as a foundation for those more obvious influences.
This problem is what inspired this What We Ignore series. This series is something of a brainstorming session, looking at different cultural avenues that are not as obvious and that everyday Christians and Conservatives may be able to play a part in, even if they are not politicians, commentators, artists, or entertainers. Not every person will be suited for every suggestion presented in this series, but the idea is to help people, who want to make a difference in the culture, think outside the box and maybe find a niche that they are suited for.
In Part 1 of this series, I talked about the cultural importance of the local, public library and the various ways we can exert influence over it. In keeping with that theme, today I want to continue to talk about the subject of books. In truth, this and the library article were originally supposed to be one and the same, but as I wrote I found I had more to say, on the subject of books, than I had originally thought.
According to Forbes, 825.7 million physical books were sold in the United States in 2021. The number was down slightly in 2022 (likely due to COVID lockdown measures ending, as well as increasing inflation), but still came in at a whopping 788.7 million. And these are just the printed books; those numbers don’t include digital or audio-book sales. Granted, buying books and reading books are two distinct hobbies, as a portion of my own bookshelf can attest. However, even if only 1% of these are being read, we’re still talking about millions of books being read every year, in the US alone.
Books carry a weight of authority that other forms of written communication do not. Many people are more likely to accept something as true or insightful if they read it in a book rather than on a blog or in a Tweet. This isn’t to say those other mediums are ineffective for persuasive or informative communication, but books do hold a place of higher authority in the collective psyche of our society. There is a, typically subconscious, assumption that if something was put into book form and published, then it must have been more thoroughly thought through and vetted than something presented in most other forms of written communication.
Think about how many times you have heard someone say (or have even said yourself), “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.” Now think of how many times you’ve heard someone say “Don’t believe everything you read in a book.” I have heard the former more times than I can count, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard the latter. Oh sure, I’ve heard critiques of specific books, but blanket statements urging caution about books in general? Never.
As I mentioned in the Libraries article, it is a bit silly to place books on this pedestal. Most publishing companies (especially the major ones) care little about truth. They care about their own agendas and will publish books that help achieve those agendas. Factual veracity is, at best, an afterthought in most cases. And self-publishing is now accessible to virtually anyone in the developed world. It takes little more than a basic grasp of language (sometimes not even that) and access to a word processor and the internet. So anybody can be an author, no matter how true or false what he or she writes may be.
Yes, it is silly to give books more credit than other forms of written communication. But that does not change the reality that currently our society is psychologically primed to see books are inherently authoritative.
We should be taking advantage of this. Not in a sleazy way. We should not knowingly write or promote books that are untruthful, immoral, or otherwise problematic. But we should be using this medium to promote truth and dispel the lies that permeate our society.
The most obvious way to influence with books is to write them. But this series is about the less obvious things that do not even seem to be on our radar. Christians and Conservatives already write books, and though I have my critiques about how they often approach the writing of those books, that is not the topic for today. Instead, I want to talk about the local, independent bookstore.
Whenever I travel, one of my favorite things to do is visit local bookstores. They typically have a selection of books that is a bit more obscure or niche than what is seen in big box stores. This makes them a great place to discover books that I may not have otherwise heard about. They also tend to stock books about the local area (history, hiking guides, books on the local flora and fauna, titles written by local authors, etc.) as well as items made by local artisans, which makes them great places to get unique mementos and souvenirs.
As lovely as these bookstores are, I have noticed a trend: they are all owned and run by Leftists. Even when visiting areas that are both politically and culturally Conservative and/or Christian, the bookstores are Left-learning and also typically devoid of Christianity.
It’s not like these stores advertise themselves as havens of the Left. They’re typically not as brash as the giant corporations are about pushing agendas. But if you pay attention you can pick up on subtle hints. If the store has a political section, it is entirely from a Left-leaning, usually activist, perspective. There may be a small section devoted to authors who are Trans, LGBTQ, POC™, or whatever the flavor of the month may be. Since everything, ostensibly, causes Climate Change, books on the subject are scattered throughout the shop and incorporated into virtually every non-fiction genre. Not a single Christian book is to be found in the Religion and Faith section; instead, this section is usually populated with books on Eastern Religion, witchcraft, tarot, or generalized spiritualism. Of course, these are small bookstores; little holes in the wall in downtown areas, so all these sections are small and discreetly mixed in with benign books on cooking, gardening, health and wellness, DIY, poetry, and - of course - novels. Yes, it’s all very subtle. But once you see the pattern it becomes difficult to unsee it.
It seems to me that this is one of those areas that Christians and Conservatives have abandoned, if we ever even bothered to occupy it to begin with. One could argue that there was an attempt, at least in the Christian world, to get into the bookstore business. We once had places like Family Christian Bookstores and Lifeway. Both have closed their brick-and-mortar doors and gone entirely online. But even before they closed, they really only served as outlets for major Christian publishing houses. Indeed, both were affiliated with specific publishing houses (Zondervan and Lifeway Publishing, respectively). This, combined with the physical size of the stores and the fact that they were chains, made them more like Christian alternatives to Barnes and Noble than anything akin to the local, independent bookstore.
So, aside from these few, ultimately failed, attempts, this area seems largely untapped. I’m sure there are exceptions. I’m sure independent bookstores, owned by Christians or Conservatives, are scattered throughout the country (and if you know of one, put their website in the comments so readers can support them). But as a rule, this is one of those areas where the Left staked its flag while we weren’t looking.
I’m sure there are some very practical reasons for this. Conservatives, at least, are nothing if not practical. In a world in which Amazon and other online retailers offer essentially any book someone could desire, and with Barnes and Noble dominating the brick-and-mortar landscape (in the US, at least), the idea that independent bookstores could be financially successful may seem improbable.
This is where the Left has an advantage over us, and it’s one of the reasons they excel in cultural realms. They don’t let improbabilities stop them from engaging in the Culture War. All the little, Left-leaning bookstores that I’ve visited didn’t let the existence of Amazon or Barnes and Noble stop them from opening their doors. Instead, they got creative and thought outside the box. They appealed to tourism, small-town pride, or the desire to get away from big corporations. All things that we can appreciate and appeal to as well.
And unlike the big retailers with their Pride flags and Obama Shrines (as my sister once dubbed the seemingly obligatory display of Obama memoirs that graces every major book retailer), these little bookstores typically don’t feel a need to virtue signal in such ostentatious ways. Their values are subtly weaved in rather than shoved down people’s throats.
This is an area where we can learn from the Left. Whether we’re talking about Conservatives and Christians opening independent bookstores or just the Culture War in general, we can learn from the successes of the Left. We need to stop letting ourselves get discouraged from trying things because we think they’re already a lost cause or they won’t be lucrative enough or whatever other excuses we make to not engage in the Culture. Instead, it’s time to get creative and problem-solve.
We can also learn from these stores’ low-key approach to the Culture War. If Conservatives or Christians start opening up independent bookstores, they shouldn’t be carbon copies of the “Christian” section at Barnes and Noble or filled with political books written by Right-leaning politicians and commentators. The stores shouldn’t be littered with cheesy Christian paraphernalia, MAGA hats, and American flags. And for goodness sake, the word “patriot” should not be in the name of the business.
As C.S. Lewis said:
“What we want is not more little books about Christianity, but more little books by Christians on other subjects—with their Christianity latent.”
Replace “Christian” with “Conservative” and this quote is as relevant to the political side of the Culture War as it is to the faith side. Virtue signaling won’t change the culture. But letting our truly held beliefs and values naturally emanate from us, and from the endeavors we take on, will absolutely change the culture.
Another reason Christians and Conservatives need to get into the independent bookstore game is because we need infrastructure. I’m constantly hearing Conservatives talk about how we need a parallel economy. We need to make “our own” art and entertainment. We need our own books. I am, of course, in favor of this, but in order to do that we need an infrastructure.
Christian and Conservative authors, especially those within our community who see the world a bit differently than the mainstream, can write all the books that they want, but if publishers won’t pick them up or if they self-publish but can’t get their work out in front of people, then what’s the point? Or if they have to rely on Amazon to sell their self-published books, well now their relying on a company that, at any moment, can snuff out their writing.
But if there were independent bookstores, throughout the nation, that actively sought out independent authors and stocked their books, that could be a game changer. That could be the key to helping authors make a living with their writing while also helping readers, who are looking for alternatives, to both find authors with similar values and drop major book retailers that do not share those values. If we are to have a parallel economy, we need makers, but we also need storefronts that will sell those makers’ work.
There are areas in our society that we have long ignored or dismissed as unimportant. We often get caught up in big, flashy fights in the news or on social media. As tantalizing as this drama can be (and as important as it is to stay informed), quite often it involves things that everyday people have little to no direct influence over.
But if we start to look around at things outside of politics, I think we’ll find that everyday people have more power to make a difference in this Info and Culture War than we realize. It may be something as small as requesting your library add certain books to its collection. Or it may be something as involved as opening up a bookshop.
We won’t win back our country or change society if we insist on pigeonholing each other and ourselves. But if can each find our callings in life, the individual niches that we each fit into, then we really can change the world.
All we have to do is look at what we’ve ignored.