The unspoken rules we’ve developed for the bookstore are quite different from the rules that govern other retail enterprises. While the bookstore is most often privately held, it honors a public claim on its time and space. It is not a big-box store where one buys closets of toilet paper or enough Tabasco sauce for the apocalypse; nor is it a tony boutique that sells prestige in the shape of sequined dresses or rare gems; and it’s no convenience store either, raided for a six-pack, cigarettes, and a Nutty Buddy on the way home from a hard day at work. The cash register’s chime does not define how long we can linger. A bookstore is for hanging out. Often for hours.
From Lewis Buzbee, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: a memoir, a history (2006).
4 comments:
I've got to get my hands on a copy of this book. I keep seeing it everywhere with great quotes a plenty.
We seem to be on a similar reading wavelength lately. I just recently finished that book!
It's a warm and charming love letter to books, bookstores and the book business. Definitely great comfort reading.
How lovely! I have a copy of the Books, Bedbugs and Baguettes somewhere that I've been meaning to read. I should think the bookstore makes a wonderful subject for a memoir.
I am on the waiting list for this book at the library--I'm looking gorward to it!
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