Support your local bookstore

As I noted a week ago, the St. Cloud Times kindly featured me and my book, Faith Meets World, in last Sunday’s newspaper. (By the way, from the reaction I received from the article, you wouldn’t know that newspapers have fallen on hard times; all sorts of people were mentioning the article to me – even the lady at the gas station where I pump my gas, whose name I don’t even know — and when I asked, I found that most had seen the print edition rather than the one online.)

I have, to put it mildly, little experience doing newspaper interviews, so I did not anticipate many of the questions the Times reporter posed to me. One of them was, “Where can people get your book?” I said the first thing that came to mind, naming the two most popular internet booksellers and also the publisher’s website. Someone pointed out to me after the article was printed that, since this was for a local paper, it would have been helpful to local bookstores — whose very existence is so threatened by those online sites — if I had mentioned them at that point. It was a good point, I admitted. I screwed up.

So, for any local folks who might be visiting this blog, you may find it helpful to know that Faith Meets World is now available for purchase from:

– The Saint John’s University Bookstore (in Collegeville)

– The College of Saint Benedict Bookstore (in St. Joseph)

– St. Patrick’s Guild (in St. Paul)

– Archangel Books (in St. Cloud)

– The St. Cloud Bookshop (in St. Cloud)

(To each of those great stores: Thank you!)

And if you’re not in Stearns and Hennepin Counties, it sure would mean a lot to your own local economy – when you’re in the market for my book or any book — if you’d stop by your local bookstore to pick it up, give them a call, or click on their own internet site to make the purchase. One great site to be aware of for buying from independent bookstores is Indiebound.org. Check it out.