Philadelphia bookstore owners want to put local shops on the map

Fifteen years ago, when the future of brick-and-mortar bookstores seemed especially bleak, Molly Russakoff — who owns a book and record shop in the Italian Market — had an idea: If we booksellers want more customers, maybe we should make it easier for book buyers to find us.

Russakoff envisioned creating a literal map of Philadelphia’s bookstores, but the idea never quite got off the ground. Now, bolstered by a growing number of bookstore owners, a grassroots fund-raising campaign, one very motivated local artist — and some fortunate timing, a potentially valuable resource for lovers of the printed word may soon appear.

“There seems to be kind of a blossoming in bookstores,” said Russakoff, 64, a third-generation bookseller who opened her store, Molly’s Books & Records, near Ninth Street and Washington Avenue 25 years ago. (She does the books. Her husband, Joe Ankenbrand, does the records and son John Dickie manages the place.)

“Since the pandemic, people seem to be reading more,” Russakoff said. “When we originally came up with the idea, it was because a lot of bookstores were really struggling and we wanted to draw attention to them.”

The struggle is still very real. In a big hit for the city, Amalgam Comics, the first comics shop owned by a Black woman on the East Coast, announced it is closing this fall. (Does hoping for someone to swoop in and save the shop mean that I need to lay off the fiction?)

But the book-business landscape has improved. The group was happily surprised to discover there are currently more than 50 brick-and-mortar bookstores in the city. In a welcome plot twist for the industry, more than 300 new independent bookstores have opened across the United States in the last couple of years. A recent report in the New York Times said the number of stores has not only grown, they’ve also become much more diverse.

Here in Philadelphia, a great example of that is city favorite Harriett’s Bookshop, which was named for the antislavery activist and Underground Railroad guide Harriet Tubman with the goal of honoring Black women authors. It opened in Fishtown in February 2020 just six weeks before the pandemic — and is still going strong.

I try to support as many local shops as I can, but I have the most robust (Instagram DM) relationship with my neighborhood bookstore, booked., which opened on Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill last year and is part of the latest map effort.

Every few months or so, I come across a book I have to have, and reach out:

“Do you have My Broken Language by Quiara Alegría Hudes?”

“How about Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott?”

Once, after a short delay, I expressed my relief: “I was afraid you were going to force me to go to Amazon,” I joked.

I won’t lie: I turn to Amazon for plenty, even books every once in a while.

But I try to keep it local, always asking myself if getting something faster or paying a couple of bucks less is worth chipping away at the kind of community I want to be part of.

The answer is always no, and this map — which I learned about while stalking my bookstore’s social media accounts — is part of fostering that kind of community between bookstore owners and their loyal patrons.

The map, which on paper will measure 15 by 25 inches, will represent each store with a 2-by-2-inch watercolor created by local artist Henry Crane.

“When it’s assembled, you’ll be able to really see how in a city of millions, these stores are all kind of interconnected, and just how many of them are available for people to visit,” Crane said. “I think it’ll just open up a new perspective on the place that so many people live in.”

It will be given away for free throughout the city, and distributed at libraries, coffee shops, visitor centers, universities, and, of course, bookstores.

“I see it as a great marketing sales tool because it just literally puts us on the map — or a map,” said Curtis Kise, of Neighborhood Books, a used bookstore in Center City and another member of the effort. “But I also see using the map as a jumping-off point to try to create some sort of community that’s a little bit more tied together.”

Beyond the map, Kise and others envision an accompanying website that could foster connections and relationships between Philadelphians and their bookstores.

Which, of course, made me wonder: This being 2022, why a map instead of an app, especially when it will undoubtedly need to be updated?

As you can imagine, the reasons are similar to why we book lovers prefer a physical book over, say, an e-book or a smartphone. Plus, Russakoff said, the map is meant to be a snapshot in time, and as much a directional tool and a piece of art that can live on.

It reminded me of a quote recently posted on Instagram by my local bookstore from The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd: “Maps are love letters written to times and places their makers had explored.”

In the meantime, Crane is busy cranking out the paintings with a plan to roll out the map early next year.

To do that, this band of booksellers is going to need our support. They aren’t going to sell ads — they’re depending on donations from buyers and sellers alike. (The hope is the bigger the stores, the bigger their donation, and yep, I’m looking at you, Rittenhouse Barnes & Noble.)

These booksellers have been working on this story for a while. But we get to write the ending here, Philadelphia. Let’s make it a happy one.

The Philadelphia Inquirer is one of more than 20 news organizations producing Broke in Philly, a collaborative reporting project on solutions to poverty and the city’s push toward economic justice. See all of our reporting at brokeinphilly.org.