A new bookstore in Fremont – Banter Bookshop

By vinodnarayan on July 5, 2022 • ( 0 )

I still remember when I moved to Fremont in 2008. We had bookstores. Yes we had them. And we had open mics at those books stores. I used to spend time roaming around inside them with coffee. And I used to buy books regularly. Then things changed. Yes they changed.

After that I used to make my regular pilgrimages to City Lights Books in San Francisco. I also used to drop in at small town book stores whenever we travel and buy books. So many small books stores and so much time I used to spend in there.

I used to wonder how nice it would be to have one in our own town. And finally here it is. Banter Bookshop. Today I got a chance to go there. I wanted to go during their opening, but was quarantining with Covid.

Anyway today I visited Banter Bookshop. I also bought a book but I did not buy it for me. Banter Bookshop is part of the Prisoners Lit project . We can buy books that will then be sent to prisons. I bought a copy of ‘The Prison Letters of George Jackson’.

This is probably the first time I am going into a bookshop and buying a book and leaving empty handed. But my heart was filled for many reasons.

I feel like words have started finding their home in Fremont. Now they will make friends with each other and form sentences and it will create readers and they will give birth to writers and then it will again be like before. Well.. I think there is a lot a small bookstore can make happen in a town.

I wish Banter Bookshop all the success and support and a Big Thank You for starting here in Fremont.