Supporting The “Little” Guy

Be on the lookout for a new series … THE PATRIOT … COMING SOON!

 We have finished The Grand Narrative and are looking forward to my news series, The Patriot. But for a few blogs, I am going to break from series writing and post a few, seemingly random blogs with some random thoughts about random things. Some will be new, and some will be re-postings of some of my best stuff from my old Kingdom>>Church>>Culture blog which ran through May of 2010. Of course they won’t be all that random, really. They will still focus, in some way, on culture, ideas, America—you know … stuff like that.

Today’s blog is about supporting the little guy and more specifically about books, and about people who sell them. So, if you don’t like to read then you can just … oh … wait a minute … you’re reading this. I can only assume that you like to read … so never mind, keep reading.

I wanted to let you know that I now have an affiliate bookstore set up at IndieBound.org. IndieBound is an online consortium of booksel … hold on … what am I thinking? Why don’t I let them tell you who they are?

“The mission of the IndieBound.org community is to help people across the United States share and find independently-owned businesses.”

I had (still have actually) a bookstore set up at Amazon.com. Amazon makes it simple and it’s an easy thing to do. But about a year ago I decided that I wanted to support the small business owner.

Now for the record, I am not opposed to big business. Nor am I opposed to big wealth. But I do try and support the small business owner whenever I can. For example, I will purchase small, hardware-related items at JE Rice instead of buying my stuff at Lowe’s or Home Depot (actually I’ve all but sworn off Home Depot). The brothers who now run JE Rice live in my neighborhood, and I think that it’s important to support them and others who have ventured out, taken a risk, and put their blood, sweat and tears into something they love.

I have been thinking particularly about small, family owned, or independently-owned bookstores. Who do you think loves books more? An executive at Amazon.com? Or the owner of a small, corner bookshop? My guess is it’s the small guy or gal who loves books and the idea of being around books more than they love money. And my guess is also that most small bookstores don’t make that much money—that the owners don’t get rich off of selling books.

I love books. I have tons of them and I’m always trying to find places to store them, or trying to find one, or going through a periodic purge, taking my books down the McKay Used Books to get … yeah, you guessed it … credit for more books.

Anyway, I’ve got a few books I’d like to recommend to you at my IndieBound Store. Just check the IndieBound Widget on the right.

I own and have read most of these titles. Click on the red “Next” link in the box to see more. If you’re interested in any of them, consider buying them through the link. You will be supporting a SMALL business owner, plus I will get a teeny commission, too. Woo Hoo!

I titled this blog, Supporting The Little Guy. Francis Schaeffer wrote a book titled No Little People. I’ve never read it, but now I want to.