Indie superstar Florence Welch shows her love for Vancouver bookshop

Florence Welch is one of the biggest stars of the indie music world, and in a new tweet and Instagram post, she's giving a shout out to Vancouver's indie book scene.

The frontwoman of Britain's famed Florence + the Machine, Welch was in the Canadian coastal city to headline the new Skookum Festival along with the Killers, St. Vincent, Metric, the War on Drugs, Arkells, Father John Misty and others, in Stanley Park.

According to a new photo she shared on Twitter and Instagram, Welch also took time out to do a little Vancouver book browsing. 

"Vancouver gives good book," reads the caption on the photo of Welch, which was shot in front of The Paper Hound Bookshop, one of Vancouver's favourite independent booksellers.

The shout out may not seem like much, but given that the globetrotting singer has more than a million followers on Twitter, and 1.6 million on Instagram, it's a big international boost for a small shop.

Paper Hound co-owner Kim Koch says she didn't recognize Welch when she first came into the store with a friend on Friday evening (she came in twice over the weekend), but Koch was playing the soundtrack to A Chorus Line and she noticed that Welch started quietly singing along.

Soon after Welch's post went out on social media, friends of Koch's began tagging and congratulating her and fellow owner Rod Clarke. 

"I started getting notifications and I was like, 'Oh, so that's who she was,'" says Koch with a laugh. "She was very distinctive and very beautiful and was wearing exquisite shoes. And so I did take notice of this woman, but I didn't know she was, so it nice to have that piece to the puzzle. And it was nice to get that shout out."

Koch says that with Vancouver's booming film and TV scene, they regularly get celebs in the shop, but they keep it quiet and don't name names unless the star chooses to post on social media as Welch did. After Welch's post went out on Instagram and Twitter, business was noticeably busier, and two people even got out of a chauffeur-driven Range Rover to check out the shop. 

"It's always nice to get a shout out from anybody big or small. And it's cool to direct people towards bookstores, and also to remind people that Vancouver is a great book town," says Koch.

"It's a place that a lot of people move to, so when you're in used and rare books, you end up seeing the circulation of a lot of really interesting collections. And Vancouver has some great bookstores so it's nice to see that recognized."

Welch isn't the only international celebrity talking about Vancouver's colourful indie book scene; earlier this year Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro also expressed his love for Vancouver's legendary — and legendarily chaotic — MacLeod's Books.