It's a war for words.
Local bookstores are fighting to keep — and create — readers.
It's not easy.
Sure, many retailers continue to sponsor book clubs and host signings.
But the stores also are hosting everything from inauguration gatherings to pet adoption parties.
"Just having a store that doesn't do events isn't really possible anymore," said Jeff Yanc, who owned Reader's Oasis, which closed in 2005.
"I think bookstores are going to have to become really ultra specialized (to succeed)," said Yanc, now program director for The Loft Cinema. "Amazon.com is the largest general bookstore ever."
Yanc opened Reader's Oasis, a bookstore almost directly across the street from the Loft, in 2000.
People are also reading…
"We had a very loyal customer base, but because of competition from online and the chains, we were never going to be able to expand enough," he said.
Some local bookstores are facing off against online competition by going online themselves, either with their own sites or by selling through Amazon.
Yanc, 36, also used to work at The Bookmark, a revered Tucson institution at 5001 E. Speedway, that opened in the 1950s and closed in 1999.
Tucson was considered a thriving book town in the '80s, said Antigone Books co-owner Trudy Mills. She cited The Bookmark and the Haunted Book Shop at Tohono Chul Park, which closed in 1997, as examples of strong independent bookstores.
Then chains such as Barnes and Noble and Borders moved in.
"They go close to where the big independents are," Mills said. "That's where we lucked out, because they could care less about Fourth Avenue."
In 1996, mystery bookstore Clues Unlimited replaced Footprints of a Gigantic Hound. The warm, dog-friendly store at East Broadway and South Country Club Road sells used and new mysteries.
"If you're not specialized or have brand recognition, it's hard to make it," said owner Christine Acevedo. "It's not that your competition is Borders or Barnes and Noble, but your competition is Costco. They can buy the books cheaper than I can."
At 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Clues Unlimited will host a brown-bag lunch with Canadian author Vicky Delaney, who will sign "Valley of the Lost," and Debby Atkinson, who will sign "Pleasing the Dead."
Brown-bag events are a more casual affair.
"They really get a chance to talk to the author," said Acevedo, noting that a typical crowd numbers six to 10.
Tucson author Laura Fitzgerald believes books bring people together.
"I think reading used to be more of an isolated activity than it is now," said Fitzgerald, who recently held a reading at Antigone Books. "Now you read a book and you communicate about it. The advantage that local bookstores have is that they can be a community gathering place to talk about issues and ideas."
Acevedo agreed.
"A bookstore shares a social function as well as a commercial function," she said. "A lot of people who don't know each other will be talking about the books they read.
"You've got this sharing, it extends community. I think that's so important because our lives are so fragmented."
And this is where the locals have one up on the big chain bookstores.
"They can really reflect the flavor of a community in a way that chain stores either can't or choose not to," Fitzgerald said.
