Each year, independent bookstores across the Western Slope appeal to readers of all ages and interests, helping them find the perfect book to better understand the world they’re in or to escape into a new one. 

The Vail Daily spoke to six independent bookstores — the Bookworm of Edwards, White River Books in Carbondale, Explore Booksellers in Aspen, Next Page in Frisco, Off the Beaten Path Books in Steamboat Springs and Mountain Shire Books in Winter Park — to hear more about the top books and trends of 2024 as well as those things that remain consistent year after year in the world of reading.  

What did people read this year? 

For each of the six Western Slope bookstores, a different list of titles topped their bestsellers across fiction, nonfiction, young adult and cookbooks. 

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There was only one book that made it into the overall top five at every store: “The Women” by Kristin Hannah, a historical fiction that follows a woman during and after her service in the United States Army Nurse Corps during the Vietnam War.

While the book was a national bestseller this year — debuting as the No. 1 fiction on the New York Times Best Sellers list in February and remaining on the list for 45 weeks — it also speaks to the consistent popularity of the genre.

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“Historical fiction readers, as per usual, just cannot be stopped,” said Jenna Meier-Bilbo, book and sideline buyer at Off the Beaten Path Books in Steamboat Springs. 

Miriam Roskam, owner of Mountain Shire in Winter Park, hypothesized that the genre’s consistent popularity is rooted in the opportunity it presents for readers. 

“Authors are able to take liberties and draw readers in, which allows readers to get lost in an entertaining story and learn more about a specific time in history,” Roskam said. “Readers are a group of people who care about the world — where we came from and where we are going — and tend to want to learn more about the past.”

Another historical fiction — and national bestseller — made several of the store’s top fiction lists: “James” by Percival Everett, which re-images Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by sharing the story through the eyes of Jim, an escaped slave and Huckleberry’s companion in his travels. 

“Go as a River” by Crested Butte resident Shelley Read made it on a few of the lists as well with its local hook. The historical fiction is set outside of Gunnison and Paonia and tells the story of the lost Western Slope communities and peach orchards during the creation of Blue Mesa Reservoir. 

The top young adult reads varied significantly at each store. Only two titles showed up on multiple lists: “The Summer I Turned Pretty” by Jenny Han and “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder,” by Holly Jackson. Many of the young adult reads are part of a series and fall into the romantic-fantasy genre or are thriller-mystery reads. 

Fiction or nonfiction

While a fiction title took the No. 1 spot in five out of the six stores, nearly every store’s bestseller list contained some nonfiction reads as well. Only Next Page Books in Frisco had fiction books in all of its top five spots.

Of the nonfiction books topping their lists, “A Walk in the Park,” by Kevin Fedarko was one of the most popular titles. The book tracks the author’s 750-mile, end-to-end traverse of the Grand Canyon. 

The popularity of this title follows a consistent and unsurprising trend for mountain booksellers. 

“Many of our customers remain interested in books about the natural world: its beauty, its imperilment and its resilience,” said Clare Faye, the book buyer at Explore Booksellers in Aspen. “Our locals and visitors care deeply about their backyard and the bigger ‘backyard’ of the greater natural world. They seek out books that will help them better understand this world and the challenges it faces.” 

This means that year after year, Explore sells titles relating to outdoor adventure, local history, climate change and more, Faye added. 

Explore Booksellers was the only one out of the six stores that had two nonfiction titles at the top of its 2024 bestsellers. After “A Walk in the Park,” which took the No. 1 spot, was “Aspen Journey: Past to Present” by Susan Dalton, a coffee table book that Faye said has sold well in every season.  

“It is both a gorgeous and comprehensive history of Aspen that tells the town’s story from before it was settled up to today,” Faye said. 

For many of these stores, water and the environment — including on topics of both climate change and recreation — is a prominent topic of interest. 

At Carbondale’s White River Books, after “A Walk in the Park,” its top nonfiction reads were “Life After Deadpool,” by Zak Podmore, who grew up in Glenwood, about the dropping levels in Lake Powell and “Colorado River: Chasing Water” a photo book by Basalt-resident Pete McBride. 

“Where Are Your Men? Rafting Western Waters with the Ladies,” by Zan Merill was the top nonfiction seller at Mountain Shire, covering stories of women on river trips. “Crossings” by Ben Goldfarb, dealing with how roads are transforming Earth, also made the Winter Park store’s top nonfiction list. 

New release or tried and true? 

No matter the genre, nearly all of the bookstore’s top sellers were released in either 2023 or 2024. 

Off the Beaten Path in Steamboat and Next Page in Frisco had the most exceptions to this. 

Three of the Steamboat store’s top five bestsellers were released before 2020:

• “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” by Sarah J. Maas, which was published in 2015 but has had a resurgence thanks to social media in recent years  
• “Killers of the Flower Moon” by David Grann, which was published in 2017 but was released as a movie last year, and 
• “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig, which was published in 2020 and has made the store’s top list for several years

Its third-bestselling nonfiction title was also “Braiding Sweetgrass,” by Robin Wall Kimmerer, which was published in 2013. While over a decade old, Meier-Bilbo said the 2020 pandemic “reignited this interest in Indigenous practices in the natural world in a lot of ways and through a lot of disciplines.” 

Wall Kimmerer’s book hits all of those notes, she added. 

“The Midnight Library” also took the fifth overall spot at Next Page, which had two other 2022 books among its bestsellers in 2024. This included “Horse” by Geraldine Brooks and “Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt. For nonfiction reads, Next Page had “The Body Keeps the Score” by Besser Van Der Kolk, which was published in 2014 and among its top three this year.

Keeping cooking local

For cookbooks, “Half Baked Harvest Every Day,” by Silverthorne-based author Tieghan Gerard was on four of the six lists. Although it hadn’t yet made Off the Beaten Path’s list, Meier-Bilbo expected it to be there after holiday shopping concluded. 

Outside of Gerard’s cookbook, the top cookbooks varied from location to location. Many of them leaned locally or gave nods to ski country, including two of Mountain Shire’s top sellers: “Apres Ski” by Cider Mill Press and “Backcountry Cocktails” by Steven Grasse. The Winter Park’s store leaned cozy with “Every Season is Soup Season” by Shelly Westerhausen Worcel and Wyatt Worcel rounding out its top three.

Similarly, “Apres All Day” by Kelly Epstein was among the bestsellers for Explore Booksellers.  

In Steamboat, Off the Beaten Path’s top cookbooks leaned local, Meier-Bilbo said. Its top seller was “Damn Good Gluten Free” by Steamboat resident Peggy Curry followed by “Steamboat Entertains Again,” a fundraiser cookbook for the local winter sports club. 

The Bookworm of Edwards also had a hyper-local cookbook — “From the Restaurants of Vail” from Park City Publishing — among its best sellers. “Mocktail Club” by Derick Santiago took the No. 1 spot at the Eagle County store. 

Escaping — and finding answers — in books 

In addition to their top titles, a few other trends have stood out to booksellers in recent years. 

“Books have seasons. Like everything, they come and go in popularity or trends, and are often responding to a larger conversation or situation we are actually living with and storytelling is a reflection of us as a society,” said Izzy Stringham, the owner of White River Books in Carbondale. 

This year, Stringham noticed a significant shift toward “lighter fiction.”

“I think the heaviness of the world around us is pushing people to want entertainment and escape,” Stringham said. 

This has included rising sales in science fiction and fantasy for many of the stores, as readers seek this “sense of escapism,” as Kai Burner, the Bookworm’s assistant manager and kids’ book buyer, put it. 

“With frequent turmoil and unease in the world, escaping into a science fiction or fantasy story is ideal,” Roskam said.  “While some people do enjoy reading current events and topics that are directly applicable to the time, a lot of people, myself included, like reading books with a decent amount of separation from reality.” 

The popularity of many of these fantasy and other titles has been driven by social media — specifically, TikTok.

Meier-Bilbo now says she follows social media extremely closely to try and predict what the next book to “trend” will be. In some cases it’s the new releases, but in other times it’s older releases that are being reintroduced to new generations, audiences and readers. 

Specifically, Meier Bilbo has seen social media create a new seriousness around the romance genre. While always popular, romance books are being accepted with a new openness as they make it into the mainstream online, she said. 

“Social media also causes interest in an entire author’s work all at once — for example, Sarah J Maas and Colleen Hoover — rather than single title interest,” said Christopher Green, the general manager and adult book buyer at The Bookworm of Edwards.  

With social media has also come a new enthusiasm about reading, Meier Bilbo acknowledged.

However, for some readers, it’s not always about escape as many readers lean into more political topics. 

Meier Bilbo said the Steamboat store has seen an increase in readers looking for books on political activism, union and labor movements, constitutional history and more. 

Stringham noted that “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius and “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson are consistent sellers for Explore. 

“I think some books speak to people on the level of their humanity, whether it’s through humor or shared experience, and that places it outside of the trend cycle,” Stringham said. 

Within kids literature, Burner said she’s noticed “more books are addressing current struggles” in ways that are more accessible for kids. This, Burner added, has led to kids “actually engaging” with these books. 

Green said the Bookworm has a resurgence in banned book interest for both contemporary and classic titles as groups across the U.S. attempt to pull books from libraries.  

PEN America recorded over 10,000 instances of book banning in the 2023-2024 school year. The American Library Association reported that book challenges increased 63% in 2023 over the previous year. 

As these independent stores persevere, the diversity of books reflects readers’ openness and desire to sometimes escape.  

“It’s encouraging to see our customers reach for time-worn classics, notable nonfiction and new literary breakouts,” Faye said. “Many of our top sellers indicate a readership that is interested in exploring various perspectives, political ideas and experiences.” 

A great time for books 

Overall, it’s been a good year for books and bookstores. Despite surging book bans, the popularity of e-commerce sites like Amazon and the constant competition for attention driven by technology, these independent bookstores have found their groove in recent years.

“While challenges and changes are a constant, this is a great time to be in books,” Stringham said. “People love to roll their eyes and predict my shop’s demise, but nothing has actually killed books.” 

On the contrary, reading is on the rise. 

“(Books) are being printed at a higher rate than ever before. Hundreds of titles release every single week. More authors from all kinds of backgrounds are getting traction,” Stringham said. “People want to come in and touch and browse and chat about books, not just click online, alone in their houses.” 

It’s a commonly-held misconception that reading is a dying form of entertainment, according to Green.

“We continue to see strong readership across all ages and demographics, including a strong newer adult market of 20-somethings,” Green said. 

To Burner, it’s an obvious sign “that in times of turmoil in the world, books continue to be people’s safe places for escapism or learning.”

This extends from books into these independent bookstores, which serve as safe community spaces that give people a place to land and discover, Burner said. 

“Indie bookstores are on the uptick, and we’re generally seeing more openings than closings these days,” Meier-Bilbo said. 

The American Booksellers Association, which represents independent bookstores, has seen its membership expand significantly since the pandemic in 2020. Between 2022 and 2023, 291 bookstores opened in the country, according to the association. Of these, 230 were brick-and-mortar stores, 34 were pop-ups and nine were mobile stores. 

“That’s an energy that has to be maintained in the long term if you want these places to be around for your community,” Meier-Bilbo said. “These places exist because you patronize them.”