How Bookstores—Including Queen Elizabeth's Favorite—Are Creatively Dealing with the Pandemic

Even before the coronavirus pandemic upended all manner of businesses large and small, independent bookstores around the world have been in a form of survival mode. In recent years, they have been valiantly defending themselves against the continued onslaught of e-commerce, buoyed by the devotion of locals and tourists alike, and by anyone tired of the impersonal transactions of online book buying and mega-chains. But Covid-19 has made it hard for many of these stores, which depend heavily on in-person shoppers; booksellers' encyclopedic knowledge of the latest tomes and their ability to recommend the perfect read just from a brief conversation about your personal preferences aren't so easily translatable online.

Nonetheless, small bookshops around the world are doing their best with the situation, offering new ways of shopping and establishing community in ways that are helping keep them alive, and in some cases thriving. Below are a few independent bookstores that are creatively dealing with the pandemic—let them inspire you to seek out your local bookstore the next time you're in need of something to read. And what better way is there to spend these impending days of winter lockdown than by curling up on the couch and getting lost in a great novel?

"Proust wrote, ‘Reading is that fruitful miracle of a communication in the midst of solitude.’ Isn’t that brilliant?" says Nicky Dunne, chairman of London's Heywood Hill. "Books have always been a great antidote to isolation of all kinds and perhaps that applies more so to this wretched year than most." Not to mention they make great gifts, too.