MMGM and #IMWAYR: Spotlighting three indie bookstores in Texas!

This is sort of a weird post, because I don't have any reviews for y'all today—mainly because I've been a bit of an Agent of Chaos™ this last week and haven't finished any books! (I'm in the middle of two graphic novels simultaneously, which is living dangerously for me, and probably the reason I haven't finished either one.)

So instead of book reviews, I figured I'd share something else with y'all! Over the last month, through different kindnesses and strokes of luck, I have gotten to visit three different indie bookstores across the state of Texas. I don't live close to an indie bookstore, so this has been an absurd privilege (and an absurd drain on my family's bank account, thanks to my purchases...).

I wanted to share about these bookstores so that, if you ever get the chance to visit these cities in Texas, you know where to stop, and if you don't, at least you can vicariously enjoy their delights through my photographs! It honestly just brings me joy these stores even exist, and gosh, I wish I could visit them all the time.

So without further dillydallying, let's talk bookstores!

Don't forget, you can click on these pictures to view them larger and scroll through them more easily.

BookPeople

Austin, Texas

bookpeople.com

BookPeople is the best place on the planet Earth—the best. I've been fortunate to go a total of four times in my life. The first, I was kind of having a nervous breakdown for other reasons, so I didn't really enjoy my visit. The second, third, and now fourth, I've loved every single second of being in there. (Except the weird embarrassment I always get at bringing tons of books to the checkout—but, like, what am I supposed to do? Not support the indie bookstore?)

What's amazing about BookPeople is that it's incredibly well-curated, but also, it's huge—two stories packed to the gills with books, and display tables, and posters, and staff picks, and decorated signs, and everything. It's bigger than most Barnes & Nobles, but it also carries way more unique books that are way better organized and highlighted. The sections are colorful and laid out almost like niches, so you can kind of hide in them and feel secluded from the rest of the store. Which is nice, because there's always a good number of customers in BookPeople—keep this place open, y'all!

Just look at the YA graphic novel section (heaven on earth):

Or the LGBTQ+ YA section (yes, they have a dedicated section for that!!):

Or how about the MG graphic novel section (yes, I only took photos of my personal haunts, don't judge me):

Are you seeing all these cute signs on the shelves highlighting different books? If not, I'll highlight a few for you that are drawn like the book covers:

We're not even done. Look at the kids' section upstairs:

Even the stairs have gifts on them:

Look at this mural (they have murals):

And look closer, where you can see the whole mural (even BookPeople itself!) is spawning out of the book the child is reading, through sheer imagination:

This was just hanging out on a window (love it):

And look at these! They're made by the staff there, and I love them!

Here's the books I piled into my basket (I'm too lazy to rotate the photo, so sorry, y'all):

And here's a smattering of books I didn't even get but still had to photograph:

Do you see why I love this place?! Any reader will feel at home here—there's a section for every kind of book, and it's probably filled with all your past and future favorites. I love BookPeople so much.

Now for our second bookstore...

Hyperbole Bookstore

College Station, Texas

hyperbolebookstore.com

This is a very different kind of bookstore, but no less wonderful in its own way! BookPeople is huge, and it's storied, having existed since 1970. Hyperbole is literally brand-new, having just opened in October, and it's quite tiny—one room about the size of a tailor, or barbershop, or Starbucks.

But what it lacks in size, it makes up for in curation and style! I found four books at Hyperbole, not to mention some cute bookmarks, and I have weirdly restrictive book tastes (I basically only buy kids' graphic novels these days). Imagine the mileage a reader with broader horizons could get out of this store!

This pair of photos (which should really just be one landscape photo) shows you how Hyperbole makes use of their space:

I'm obsessed with how aesthetically coordinated the whole store is, from wall colors to signs to online graphics—deep greens and light browns are Hyperbole's thing.

The back wall has a stunningly adorable picture book rack, plus space for the store's weekly storytimes:

Please zoom in and read the adorable placard they have on the wall over there:

What I'm obsessed with about Hyperbole is that, even though they're small, they do all the things a bigger bookstore (like BookPeople) would do, from children's storytimes...to book clubs:

To "blind date with a book" displays (I've never bought these, but I love the idea):

This store's got spunk, y'all. And even my graphic novel-addled little heart was happy, because amidst the YA section on the left wall is two brilliantly curated shelves of graphic novels (zoom in on the second photo to see them):

And the MG graphic novel section gets almost a whole bookcase (also brilliantly curated):

Hyperbole is run by a mother-daughter team, and their initiative is wildly impressive—this feels like the 21st century vision of an indie bookstore, perfectly Instagrammable but also just as smartly curated and assembled as any indie bookstore, despite the small team. I love this place so much, and if I ever find myself back in College Station, you know I'll be coming back!

(One little thing if you ever visit: This store is in kind of a weird strip mall, where it's sandwiched between two other suites, and it faces straight out onto the street. The parking lot is actually on the side, not in front of the store, so when Google Maps tells you you've arrived, you probably won't see a sign and you'll be like, "Where's the bookstore?" Just walk toward the street and take the little sidewalk past the first suite—you'll see it then!)

Now for our last bookstore...

Interabang Books

Dallas, Texas

interabangbooks.com

I cannot believe I got to visit so many amazing bookstores this month, y'all. If we're thinking of bookstores by size, with BookPeople as our largest, followed by your average Barnes & Noble, I'd say Interabang is next, with Hyperbole after that.

Interabang, like Hyperbole, is a one-room suite in a strip mall, but it's probably almost twice the size, and it's fairly more stuffed—they've got books up to the ceiling in a couple spots. According to the website, the store opened in 2017, then somehow survived literally being destroyed by a tornado and moved into their current space in 2019. (And then survived a pandemic too, I guess? Geez—this is a bookstore that just won't quit.)

Interabang has 11 staff, and it is named after the question mark/exclamation point symbol that makes up their logo! And it is a very, very cool bookstore.

Let's start with some sections! This is adult fiction, towards the front:

Picture books in the back:

The display tables are just spectacular, as you can see. Here's a wonderful one curated just for Mother's Day, with mom-themed books and gifts:

Here's one shelf of the YA section:

I had one quibble about YA at this store, which is that they carry very few graphic novels—so few that they don't separate them into a section, and instead have them interspersed in the regular YA. (You can see some copies of Heartstopper peeking out in the picture above!)

That's not the case for the MG section, which has two shelves of graphic novels (second photo) underneath the books laid out for display (first photo):

They have an aquarium, which I love so so so so so so so much:

And I loved seeing a few familiar books highlighted throughout the store, like 49 Days:

Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World:

And Ferris, which I haven't read yet but cannot wait to:

So yeah, this bookstore was definitely a win as well!

So how can I support these bookstores?

I'll be very honest and transparent for a second. I buy most of my books from Barnes & Noble or Amazon, not indie bookstores. (I really need to quit Amazon—the problem is that we already shop there for other things, and I don't want to create chaos for my family with even more packages coming into our house. I feel like that's an excuse, but that's my reason.)

Anyway, I am not judging you for a second if you aren't much of an indie bookstore shopper—I love a Barnes & Noble visit as much as any book nerd does. (And I haven't even mentioned libraries—you can literally read books without paying for them!! Wild stuff, I know.)

That all said, if you're looking at these photos and desperately wishing these stores were closer to where you live (like I am!), I suspect you already know why indie bookstores need our support. I find cool things at Barnes & Noble all the time, but it's likely never going to have the unique selection, curation, or personality that an indie bookstore can have. These stores are labors of love by book nerds like us—they are living shrines to specific people's taste in stories. And frankly, the world needs as many physical spaces dedicated to books as we can get—we shouldn't have to hide all our books in secret bookcases at home like they're something to be ashamed of! Books everywhere!! I think my ideal world would have indie bookstores, Barnes & Nobles, libraries, and Little Free Libraries on every corner—something of everything.

The tricky thing is, indie bookstores are vulnerable, especially smaller and newer ones like Hyperbole and Interabang. These stores don't have the economies of scale that Barnes & Noble has, or the marketing reach. Customers' whims combined with Murphy's law dictate whether these stores can survive or not. And I definitely want them all to survive.

So what can we do? Well, I have good news. If you aren't able to visit Texas and see these stores, and you have some spare energy or time (a bold assumption, I know!), there's ways you can support these stores online!

One is ordering directly from them. Each store has their own online shipping operation, complete with well-curated websites where you can discover new books to try. I linked the websites above, but I'll link them here as well, for BookPeople, Hyperbole, and Interabang.

Another is these two cool websites I'm totally about to man-splain to you (I've never used either, and I know many of y'all have): Bookshop and Libro.fm. Bookshop is more of a general-purpose online bookstore, while Libro.fm is specifically for audiobooks. But both of them let you choose an indie bookstore (including any one of the three above!) that will get paid every time you make a purchase. If you're nervous about online orders from a small store, you might feel more comfortable with these websites, because they provide the products themselves and are fairly established by now.

In conclusion:

That's a long post, I know, but basically, I want to say:

• BookPeople, Hyperbole Bookstore, and Interabang Books are the best!!!
• Literally figure out a way to come to Texas and see at least one of them!
• But if you can't, you can support these stores online by shopping through them, Bookshop, or Libro.fm!

That's all for now! May an indie bookstore visit be in your future! ✨✨