Book and rose-colored glasses.

The American Bookseller Association announced this week that 25 new independent bookshops have recently opened throughout the United States, according to a report in Bookselling This Week:

Twenty-five ABA member bookstores opened in 2010, with several filling voids left by the closing of chain stores. The openings, and neighborhood response, suggest growing support for locally owned businesses, along with continued support for bricks-and-mortar stores. Some of the new stores are branches of existing businesses, and others offer an interesting twist on the traditional business model — Blue Phoenix Books shares a space with another business, and Hub City Books is a nonprofit that grew out of a press. All of the stores have been welcomed by their communities.

Bill Skees, owner of Well Read in Hawthorne, New Jersey, tells BTW, “The great thing about this first year is that every day is a record day. I hear almost daily, ‘I can’t believe that Hawthorne has its own bookstore!'”

Well Read opened last November with the aim of making the 2,500 square foot bookstore an integral part of the Hawthorne community, and a destination for more than books.

Owner Skees tells BTW, “We plan on carrying a complementary set of sidelines, and we are constantly looking for things that can help make us a destination. We carry greeting cards, magazines, and our own blend of coffee. We have several comfortable seating areas, offer complimentary coffee and tea, and have free WiFi. Our goal is to become a community gathering place.”

Another bookshop profiled in the article, the Hub City Bookshop in Spartanburg, South Carolina, grew out of the nonprofit Hub City Writers Project and Hub City Press, which have been in existence since 1995.

According to BTW:

The two groups decided to open a retail space to sell Hub City titles and to provide Spartanburg with an indie bookstore. Following a fund-raising campaign, they renovated a building in downtown Spartanburg that had been vacant for several years. Hub City Bookshop is a 501(c)(3) certified nonprofit, whose profits fund the literary arts organization and the not-for-profit press. The 1,500-square-foot general bookstore focuses on literary fiction and regional titles. The offices of the press are in the back of the store.

Other new books stores have looked to an active event calendar, along with exploiting Google’s e-commerce solution for bookstores — like the owners of Books & Books Westhampton Beach in Westhampton, NY, long-time book industry executives Denise Berthiaume and Jack McKeown.they have successfully combined a busy reading schedule with a new website that offers e-books bought directly from their store.

McKeown told BTW that they were convinced that “an independent bookstore revival lay right around the corner. After many years on the publishing and marketing side of the industry, we decided to put our money where our heart was!”

That’s some happy news.