Liekly most bibliophiles and bookslingers out there have already heard of Indie Thursday. The brainchild of Jenn Lawrence, #IndieThursday is the hashtag for Tweeters who send out the name of a book they bought, plus the independent bookshop where they bought it. It’s a solidarity and support move for the besieged-but-enduring band of booksellers still running our own shops.

Ms. Lawrence now shares a name with a famous actress whose latest movie was based on a book, so let me just save you some google time: http://www.jennsbookshelves.com

Some cool reviews and a more thorough explanation of Indie Thursday can be found on her site. I found her through my new love affair with the Twitterverse – either the biggest waste of time since Spider Solitaire, or a really cool social media networking and marketing device, depending on to whom one is speaking.

Also on Twitter I’ve been keeping up with bulletins from Publisher’s Weekly, which tweeted in rapid succession that a co-op bookstore planned in suburban Vermont has been scuttled due to online buying from Amazon, and that London’s “Pages” bookshop is the target of that city’s first-ever cash mob.

Win a few, lose a few. But all things considered, I’m very glad #IndieThursday is out there. Perhaps today you can visit an independent bookshop, and tweet (or facebook, or blog, or just phone a friend) about it. It would be nice to hear about your experience. Heck, it would be nice to support a network that offers such experiences!

Thanks for your support.