Ask writers
to talk about their experiences with independent bookstores and chances are
you’ll get some memorable tales. That’s because bookstores have tended to be
very much a part of the development of many writers, whether ushering them as
children into the world of books or boosting their careers later by promoting
their works.
Now, Black
Dog & Levanthal has collected essays from 84 prominent writers about their
favorite bookstores. Edited by publishing industry veteran Ronald Rice and
Booksellers Across America, the essays have been bound together in a book
titled My Bookstore ($23.95) coming out this month. The collection ranges from the
hilarious to the heartwarming as author after author celebrates the survival of
bricks-and-mortar stores in the age of the Internet. If anyone needs an answer
to the question of why sustain such places, it can be found here.
“Because
it’s independent booksellers who always get the word out (as they did for me),”
writes Richard Russo in the
introduction. “With their help, if they’re still around, great young writers
you don’t know about yet will take their place on shelves next to their
heroes…”
It was
an op-ed piece by Russo in the New York Times last December that provided the
impetus for this book. In that article, Russo took Amazon to task for
encouraging customers to use its price-check app in stores and then buy online.
“Every
time an independent bookstore closes, the literary and cultural landscape
becomes less diverse,” observes Emily
St. John Mandel in the afterword. “I hope there will be a time when Amazon
can coexist more easily with the bricks-and-mortar bookstores in this country.”
Among
the personal experiences shared in the book are: Albert Goldbarth getting married at Watermark Books in Wichita; Dave Eggers never leaving empty-handed
from a visit to Green Apple Books in San Francisco; and Tom Robbins bringing along a trio of female backup singers to a
reading at Village Books in Bellingham, WA.
Tribute
also is paid to Politics & Prose by Rick
Atkinson, the journalist and military historian, who recounts how, after finishing
each book, he ritually pays a visit to P&P “to seek the company of other
writers, at least through the books they have written.” Atkinson tells the
store’s history from its creation in 1984 by Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade to
its purchase by us last year.
“Even
as Brad and Lissa adapt to the new world of e-books and e-readers,” Atkinson
asserts, “Politics & Prose remains nothing less than the bricks-and-mortar
incarnation of traits we cherish in Western civilization: learning, tolerance,
diversity, civility, discourse, inquiry, lyricism. For those of us lucky enough
to live down the street or around the corner, it’s a port in the storm, a
daydreaming hive, a bastion. How lucky we are to be patrons, browsers, espresso
sippers, guest speakers, neighbors. And when you finally finish that novel or
memoir or meditation on the body politic, wander in for a little self-indulgent
browsing. If you love words, it’s the place to be.”
To mark
publication of the book, dozens of stores around the country have scheduled
special events during the week of Nov. 12. At P&P, we’re featuring a
discussion with Atkinson on Nov. 14 at 5:30 p.m. Please join us.
- Brad
and Lissa
