Columbus native Mason Engel drove across the country last year to drive home a point and a passion that he hopes viewers and readers will prize as highly as a bestseller. That point is, small, independent book stores desperately deserve a growing audience and a firm future amid giant website book sellers.
“An adventure is a pretty good word for this (trip),” Engel said as he spoke from his home in Los Angeles, where he works for Discovery Inc.
He embarked on a 28-business tour of independent book stores across the United States in a Mazda5 in 2020 — yes, right amid the COVID-19 pandemic — for his just-finished film, “The Bookstour.” The previous year, he toured 50 independent book stores in 50 days as what he calls “an Amazon diehard” (for book purchases and more) with his own self-published novel “2084” along to promote.
Engel, 26, openly acknowledges in the latest film’s trailer that the 2019 tour eventually “called into my question my Amazon allegiance.” Independent book store staff warmly opened their doors and their books to him — and forced him to turn a page on his perspective. That’s especially so because his book was being sold exclusively on Amazon, where these small stores would never profit.
“It left me with a very simple question: Why should people shop at an indie book store?” said the 2013 Columbus North High School grad and 2017 Purdue University grad.
The answers lie in his new 22-minute, $5,000-budget documentary that is complemented by a soon-to-be available, separate, shorter documentary about the independent Viewpoint Books in downtown Columbus. Viewpoint co-owner Beth Stroh is impressed with Engel’s project.
“Mason took on the task of proving the value of independent book stores — and he did it by literally visiting with and taking with independent book sellers nearly all over a good portion the country,” Stroh said. “And he did so without any desire for personal gain. And he did it because he had an eye-opening experience with independent book stores.”
The main film already has earned some national attention, including a mention in The Washington Post’s Book Club newsletter.
Upbeat feedback from online viewers tells him that he’s focused on an important chapter of consumer habits.
Viewer Carol E. Lynch summarized her reaction simply.
“Excellent!” she wrote. “ I love that people were able to put my feelings and concerns into words. Books and bookstores are what makes my life the best life ever. Thank you so much.”
Engel teased the film’s content with semi-humorous comments such as referring to himself, when prodded slightly, as “a born-again independent bookstore guy.” In essence, he seems to be preaching to a broad, time-starved audience that speedily and habitually clicks its way in solitary fashion through online sites without giving much thought to the smaller local book stores that make home deliveries, special order items without hesitation, and often know a bulk of customers by name.
“It’s an inconvenient truth to examine what’s really going on behind the scenes,” Engel said of uber-easy, giant website online sales.
Engel’s videographer, digital communications student Brayden Williams, used the 2020 road trip experience as a Purdue University internship.
“I knew I couldn’t do everything myself, and I knew that I needed someone who knew cameras much better than myself,” Engel said.
The pair sometimes slept and ate in the car but remained wide-eyed about the sometimes mom-and-pop business flavor of the outlets operated by people who see their role as far beyond basic literary commerce. Engel himself takes the same multi-encompassing view.
“Inexpense and convenience is not enough (in the book industry),” he said. “We need more than that as humans. Often, it’s connection that we’re lacking — being able to interact with others, understanding them, forming relationships with them — that’s something that everything-stores online cannot sell us.
“And that’s something indie book stores seem to be experts in.”
