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| Jason Reynolds at Winter Institute earlier this year. | |
To celebrate Small Business Saturday and Giving Tuesday during the year of Covid-19, bestselling author Jason Reynolds "bought the entire inventory of his own books from local shops across the District on Tuesday and Wednesday, so readers could get them for free," DCist reported.
Reynolds tweeted that he was purchasing his books at all Politics and Prose locations, Solid State Books, Kramers, MahoganyBooks, Sankofa, Loyalty Bookstores and East City Bookshop, noting: "I would suggest calling each store to see what they have before showing up. But they all have them, and they're now, ALL free."
"It kind of works for everybody, where people can go get anything they want for free, since I bought them all," Reynolds told DCist, "and then while they're in the store shopping or picking up their books, maybe they'll grab something extra." He began reaching out to stores on Tuesday morning and bought around 20 to 25 books at each shop.
MahoganyBooks co-owner Ramunda Young noted: "There's thousands of bookstores across the United States, so for an author to select an independent bookstore or a Black-owned bookstore, I think that speaks volumes.... [It's a] challenging time for people... and so for them to have the opportunity to walk in and grab one of his books for free, I think it's just so dope."
Reynolds observed: "These bookstores are glue for a lot of our communities, and if there's a way for us to drive people there, then there's a way for us to lift the community in certain ways, at least momentarily, which we all could use."