BOOKSTORES may be making a comeback (Shutterstock).

Book Full of Miracles Dept.: I don’t often have occasion in this column to shout“Yippie!” often, but when genuine good news emerges I am pleased as punch to beat the drum.

The bookstore industry, given up for dead just a few years ago, is making a big and unexpected resurgence. And the biggest of all the bookstore chains – Barnes & Noble – is leading the charge.

According to published reports, B &N is in the midst of opening 60 new stores across the U.S, the latest at The Outlets in Orange. Another is planned for South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa.

Now, I would prefer that the store in Orange was a few feet to the west in Garden Grove, but I always considered the location of that mall – originally The City, then The Block and now The Outlets – to be “honorary Garden Grove,” or in the “Halo” of nearby homes, businesses and Major League Baseball teams just outside of our city limits

But, hey close enough. It’s still too early to tell just what has prompted this turnaround. Considerable credit is being given to BookTok, a literary segment of TikTok.

For now, I’m not going to look a gift flat-coated retriever in the mouth. There’s no better way to learn and become a more thoughtful person than to read books. YouTube has its place, but if you get all your “news” and “knowledge” there, you are becoming a “YouRube.”

So, bookstores are “back from the dead,” maybe. Maybe the same thing – fingers crossed! – may happen to newspapers.

Footnote: Believe it or not, Garden Grove once had a Barnes & Noble. It was located in what was then called Garden Grove Mall (now The Promenade, originally Orange County Plaza). It was about the size of a bedroom and didn’t last long, but you never know …