The indie bookstore is back

A blue fox reading a book is painted on the sign above the door, greeting visitors at Blue Fox Books in Walden, NY. As I entered the shop, I was met with warm light spilling across wooden floors, casting a soft glow over shelves packed tightly with gently used novels, crisp new releases and well-loved hardcovers with creased spines and faded jackets. Near the front of the store, a children’s section welcomed families with tall shelves, colorful picture books and a train table where little hands played while parents browsed nearby.

The air carried the familiar scent of worn pages and old paper, the kind that lingers inside independent bookstores and invites visitors to slow down. Every wall, lined floor to ceiling with books – contemporary fiction beside weathered classics, newer bestsellers stacked next to out-of-print books waiting to be rediscovered. More than once, I found myself pulling a title from the shelf, only to realize that it had been sitting on my own TBR list for years.

Owner Brittani O’Hearn greeted customers warmly, offering thoughtful recommendations with the ease of someone who gently loves connecting people with books – and has spent her career doing it. Brittani’s first job at 16 was at Merritt Bookstore in Millbrook, followed by working at Barner Books in New Paltz, before she opened Blue Fox Books in February 2021.

After five years in business, Blue Fox Books has become more than a bookstore; it has grown into a community space where people gather to connect and linger. This summer, the shop will host its silent book club at Noble Roasters in Campbell Hall, launch a new “Uneasy Reads” club for fans of the weird and unusual. In an age shaped by increasingly isolated online spaces, independent bookstores like Blue Fox offer something deeply human: a chance to browse, exchange recommendations with strangers, hear the creak of wooden floors beneath your feet, and be reminded that stories are not just meant to be read alone, but shared with the many others who still believe in the magic of the printed word.

It feels a bit like magic that small bookstores like this one are returning to main streets nationwide in what Fast Company calls a “shocking, triumphant comeback.” The number of indie bookstores in the U.S. has grown by 70 percent since 2020, according to the American Booksellers Association – including Well Worn Books in Middletown, NY, which opened in 2021; Good Books in Cornwall, NY (2023); and This Chapter in Port Jervis (2025). Perhaps that’s because they offer something impossible to replicate online: the quiet thrill of wandering amongst shelves and unexpectedly finding the exact book you didn’t know you were searching for.