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Date: 4/6/2021
NORTHAMPTON – Among Northampton’s many bookstores, Booklink Booksellers offers both in-person shopping and online purchases for anyone interested in picking up a new book.
Peg Duffy, one of the managers at Booklinks, said the store has been in business for 26 years.
“Booklink Booksellers has been here in Thorne’s for 26 years. We carry new books and we also have a very fabulous sale section that are not used books, but we have a lot of really awesome sale books,” she said.
Duffy said one of the ways the store was able to pivot when the pandemic began was through bookshop.org, an online marketplace that supports bookstores through online sales with commissions that go directly back into local stores.
“For an independent bookstore, what makes us unique is we can offer a really personalized experience. Once the pandemic hit, we pivoted and bookshop.org made it so easy for us to have an online marketplace. We also did a lot of social media videos to talk about what was coming out and trying to stay connected to our clients,” she said.
Along with using Bookshop, Duffy said one of the owners’ sons revamped Booklink’s website to support the marketplace.
“Without Bookshop during that period where we were not even able to get into our business, I do not know what we would have done without them or our customers,” she said.
Duffy said the most popular books are non-fiction, graphic novels, science fiction and fantasy.
“Being in a college town and where people really like to educate themselves, non-fiction books do really well for us. I think graphic novels, especially for young readers, are huge right now and there is a lot of quality and local authors in that genre. My co-manager Scott and I both have a deep passion for science fiction and fantasy, so we sell that too,” she said.
Of all the books available, Duffy said she recommends Amanda Gorman’s poem, “The Hill we Climb.”
“If that is not something beautiful enough that I think everybody should have a copy in their home, I do not know what is,” she said.
Duffy added that she wanted to thank all of Booklink’s customers.
“We are so incredibly grateful to them, for their loyalty, keeping us here, and with any luck we hope to continue to be here with their help,” she said.
Booklink Booksellers is in Thorne’s Marketplace at 150 Main St.