Porter Square Books, which just announced it will move its store around the corner to a space in Lesley University’s University Hall, hosts a grown-up book fair at Aeronaut Brewing on Saturday, one of several it has hosted over the past few years. This iteration features a pop-up signing with author Maia Lee-Chin for the release of her book “Et Cetera: An Illustrated Guide to Latin Phrases.”
Porter Square Books held its first book fair at Aeronaut Brewing in October 2018. Though the pandemic forced a hiatus, the tradition has returned with gusto.
“We’ve been doing them seasonally, so about four times a year, at Aeronaut,” said Josh Cook, a co-owner of PSB and its marketing director. “People can get some beers, people can get some books, and we also bring a lot of little gifts in the vein of the pencils and stickers that made school book fairs so fun.”
The fairs have largely followed the structure, while the books change to facilitate great conversations between sellers and customers about literature. “We bring books that the sellers who are working the event are particularly excited to sell,” Cook said.
Each book fair has about five to 10 copies of 100 to 200 titles. A book fair around St. Patrick’s Day featured Irish authors; a summer book fair leaned heavily toward beach reads and romance books.
Overall, the fairs have been a major success, Cook said. (When first suggested in a managers meeting for store visioning and planning, Cook said, “It was the best idea I had heard in a long time.”) Porter Square Books’ second location in Boston hosts book fairs at its nearby Trillium Brewing.
They’re not the only ones. In June, All She Wrote Books hosted a two-part book fair to celebrate Pride month. Cook called the book fairs a “growing and great tradition.”
“It’s been a lot of fun to see, over the last couple of years, all of these other bookstore book fairs and pop-ups, especially in breweries,” Cook said. “It’s cool to have been part of that new trend of finding other ways to bring books into our communities.”
Cook attributes the desire to host and attend book fairs to a need for real-life experiences in an increasingly digital society.
“People want to see books, people want to hold books, people want to interact with books,” Cook said.
The book fair will be from 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday at Aeronaut Brewing, 14 Tyler St., near Union Square, Somerville. If you preorder “Et Cetera,” you get a $5 coupon off another purchase of $25 or more at the fair.
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