Browsers stay masked and socially distant at Octavia Books in October.
Independent booksellers ordinarily rely on foot traffic and in-person browsing for their sales. That all changed in March of last year. Two Uptown bookstores, however, have found ways to adapt and even thrive through the pandemic.
Garden District Book Shop, in a historic building that once housed a roller rink on oak-canopied Prytania Street, and Octavia Books, set back on a diagonal on its quiet eponymous street near the river, have both continued to sell books to residents across the city.
By altering their in-store browsing, as well as shipping and delivering tomes directly to the homes of their devoted clientele, the booksellers have shown tenacity in a time of chaos and uncertainty.