Last month, I completely went on a lark. I flew to San Francisco with my favorite art history professor, Mara di Pasquale, to see the Maya Lin exhibit at the de Young Museum and then flew back home the same day. Every time I dash out of town, I try to find a few moments for a new bookstore. Booksmith was a short hop away from the museum, so after spending a few hours with Maya Lin’s creations, I chatted with Christin Evans, the newish owner of Booksmith.
Booksmith has existed since 1976, but Preveen Madan and Christin Evans purchased it in 2007 after spending years in the corporate world. Given the state of the bookstore world, my first question was why? After spending years consulting in the business world, they wanted to have their own business. Makes sense, but why the bookstore world? I hear all the time that Claire and I created a blog attached to a dying horse and we’re only writing about bookstores. Clearly, Christin has been asked this several times, probably daily. She answered that Booksmith is special, it’s woven into the community fabric.
Community was the strong sense I felt as soon as I walked into the store. There were two families who followed me and all of the kids raced to the children’s section as if they owned the place. An employee knew the families and seemed to continue a conversation started during the last visit. A local author was giving a reading during the week and the book was displayed so enticingly that I wanted to read it. It wasn’t just given a small stack by the register, but a whole front window and stacks in more than one location inside the store talking about the book and the author’s connection to the area. It struck me that for a general bookstore of a smaller size, there was an impressive and extensive music section, indicating that the store was responding to the interests of the area. Read the rest of this entry »
Claire
Kim
