Every fan of independent bookstores talks about their importance in creating community. Sometimes it’s hard to know what that means. There is certainly interaction between the customers and the booksellers, and between readers and authors at events. Those are “wheels and spokes” models of interaction, all directed toward a center. How does an independent bookstore create an opportunity for the spokes to interact? Visit Vroman’s. It’s not unusual for me to chat up complete strangers looking at books in a bookstore. Just pick up The Elegance of the Hedgehog and get ready to hear my thoughts despite the fact you’ve never met me. At Vroman’s, customers were clustered in groups and talking all over the store. And not all of them knew each other, I know because I was eavesdropping. I wasn’t in the store for 10 minutes when a customer walked up to me, pointed at The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig and told me it was a beautifully written story. Wanting to exchange the favor in the D section of fiction, I recommended The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson. We both walked away with a new book.
Just when I was going to ask a bookseller for a recommendation, I heard one of the employees recommend Louis de Bernieres for a “sophisticated, educated woman” who was in the hospital. Well, I’m not bedridden, but I flattered myself that the rest of the description may apply so I discretely followed along (stalked them). I didn’t connect de Bernieres with Corelli’s Mandolin, probably because I’ve only seen the movie, but the bookseller raved about it. I bought his A Partisan’s Daughter to give it a try.
What else did I find? Looking at the WALL of employee recommendations I found Read the rest of this entry »
Claire
Kim
