After enjoying a delicious cold-brew iced coffee during a visit to Always Brewing Detroit, I continued my recent afternoon in the Grandmont Rosedale neighborhood of Detroit with a visit to Pages Bookshop.
This jaunt was SUPER exciting for me as a lifelong lover of books (shout-out to my fellow bookworms!). Independently-owned bookshops hold a special charm for me, especially in this day and age of online conglomerates and digital over paper. They are doing the good work, keeping physical bookstores and the curated, personal book-buying experience alive!
When I buy from indie bookshops, it feels like a total win-win: I am financially supporting a business whose mission I value, AND I have an excuse to buy new books. How great is that?
And Pages Bookshop, specifically, is a FANTASTIC indie bookstore. Its one-room shop is relatively small, but it’s loaded with thoughtfully chosen fiction and nonfiction offerings – including books by local authors – as well as cute Michigan-centric goods and other items that make great gifts, such as cards and journals.
On the day I visited, Pages was helmed by the owner, Susan, and the shop cat, Pip. Susan was a delight to share my enthusiasm around books with, and Pip melted my heart with her adorably plump frame and sprawling request to be petted (Feline Friends 4L!).
I browsed in Pages for about a half hour and found loads of books I was interested in. Like most indie bookshops, Pages affixes handwritten notecards touting staff recommendations to its shelves (I’m a sucker for those!).
Limiting myself to three purchases, I decided on two novels (The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman and The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin) and one nonfiction tome (Small Victories by Anne Lamott). My fix to the conundrum of being interested in more books than I’ll allow myself to buy, BTW: I text myself the titles and authors of the ones I don’t get so I have a record of them (bookworm hack!).
I left Pages with my purchases in a complimentary canvas tote and the warm feeling that being around books infuses in me.
Once home, I scanned the list of upcoming events that Susan had given me and plotted my next visit. Pages regularly hosts author visits, sometimes several a week; a schedule is available via the Events calendar on its website.
Whether for the purpose of attending an event there or not, a visit to Pages Bookshop is most definitely worthwhile, especially if you love books as much as I do. How fortunate we are to have this indie bookstore in Detroit!
19560 Grand River Ave.
Detroit, MI 48223
100 Places in the D 
2 comments