BANGOR — Over 1,600 stores across the country celebrated Independent Bookstore Day Saturday.

The one-day event is meant to encourage readers to support their local bookstores.

“It’s your local businesses that are supporting the community, not just themselves,” said Gibran Graham, owner of the Briar Patch bookstore in Bangor. “Everyone that comes in gets a sticker celebrating independent bookstore day, and then after they make a purchase, we give them another sticker that says, ‘bookstores not billionaires.’”

Graham said it’s also a time to emphasize the importance of reading. 

“We don’t succumb to book bans,” said Graham. “We highlight diversity, and we like to be safe places for the community so that every reader can see themselves on a book and on a book cover.”

According to the American Library Association, there were 821 reported attempts to censor library books and other materials in 2024 — with over 5,813 books being challenged.

“To get in the way of any person, adult or child, to be able to read what they choose to read is very poor for education, very poor for literacy in general,” said Graham. “So, it’s important for us to kind of rise up against anything that is in the way of that.”

This year marks the American Booksellers Association’s 12th Annual Independent Bookstore Day. The event is held every year on the last Saturday in April. 

“Bookstores are seen as a fulcrum of their communities and an asset,” said Graham. “The right to read is very important, especially in today’s day and age, where there’s so many forces trying to put down books, we need to do everything we can to find ways to uplift books and get books in every reader’s hands.”

To learn more, visit bookweb.org.