It's time to celebrate! We have states throughout the Great Lakes Region participating in bookstore tours this Saturday for Independent Bookstore Day.

Again, this year GLIBA has partnered with CHIBA for the #ChiLoveBooks Challenge.

Chicagoland proves itself to be a dream destination for book lovers and readers of all ages! 30 stores in the greater Chicago area—from Lake Forest to Beverly, and Naperville to the Loop—are collaborating on a third annual #ChiLoveBooks Challenge, which encourages book lovers to indulge in bookstore tourism by visiting 10 or more stores in a single day!  
 
The annual challenge is being held again on Independent Bookstore Day, which is a one-day national party celebrating indie book stores on the last Saturday in April. To begin their trip, readers can pick up a #ChiLoveBooks passport and their first stamp with an initial purchase of $25 or more from the store of their choice. 

In addition to the passport this year we have built a website to host all #ChiLoveBooks info including a list of participating stores, a map to schedule your route and event listings around Chicago on Independent Bookstore Day! Check it out here - www.chilovebooks.com

Sandra and I are so excited to be participating again this year. You can check out our store by store visit throughout the day this Saturday on Facebook and Instagram. - Larry

We had an unbelievable GLIBA Rep Night in Chicago! Booksellers from all over the midwest joined us. A huge thank you to Baker & Taylor and our publishing partners for sponsoring the event. We had over 50 booksellers and 10 reps. We heard from Bridget Piekarz from Penguin Random House, Bruce Miller from Miller Trade Book Marketing, Sandra Law and John Mesjak from Abraham Associates, Cathy Schornstein from HarperCollins Publishers, Aaron Howe from Independent Publishers Group, Betty Redmond from Ingram Publisher Services. Chris Conti from Phaidon, Heidi Weiland from Sourcebooks. Eric Heidemann from Fujii Associates and Lauren Moseley from Algonquin Books. As well, we were THRILLED to host author Elliot Ackerman. It was an amazing night and it helped to invigorate and further foster our bookselling community. Thank you to everyone that came out! Photo credit it to Tarin Butterfield, and an awesome photographer and bookseller at Harvey’s Tales in Geneva, IL.