NEW YORK — Laura Romani, a Chicago-area resident with a background in education and library science, had been thinking of a new career.
“I was at home a couple of years ago reflecting on all the experience I gained and how I wanted to contribute to the Latino community, while also allowing myself to be on my own and make use of my love for books and passion for multilingualism,” she says.
The solution: Start a bookstore. With help from a local grant and stimulus checks that she and her husband received during the pandemic, Romani launched Los Amigos Books, initially as an online store last year and now with a small physical outlet with a bright blue front in Berwyn, Ill. It focuses on children’s stories in English and Spanish.
“It all goes hand in hand,” Romani says of her decision.
Stores like Romani’s helped contribute to a year of solid growth and greater diversity for the American Booksellers Association, the trade group for independent bookstore owners. According to CEO Allison Hill, the association now has 2,010 members, at 2,547 locations, an increase of more than 300 since spring 2021. It’s the highest ABA total in years, even though the association in 2020 tightened its rules and permitted only stores which “primarily sell books” (over 50 percent of inventory), as opposed to any stores offering books. The ABA also no longer counts sellers whose memberships are inactive.