Independent Bookshops: From City Lights to the Shakespeare and CompanyWritten by Alan Perkins Sunday, 01 February 2009 00:00
Few places are as undeniably valuable in the artistic life of a community than great independent bookshops.
For an individual, they can provide a refuge; for a community, they provide a meeting place for like-minded people; and for the wider population, they provide an alternative source of information to the mass market chain bookstores.
The danger of a situation whereby the entire population only has access to books selected by a handful of directors in a corporate headquarters cannot be overstated. The books chosen to be pushed, a decision largely built on commercial gain, become the only books available in any given place. This restriction of information would surely shackle the ability of the reading public, preventing the chance to explore new ideas and frontiers.
Read the rest of Alan Perkins' piece on the importance and value of the independent
bookshop at Seven.
I discovered City Lights and Mr Lawrence Ferlinghetti at North Beach San Francisco in 2006 (The Year of 'Mr Pip' and 'The Lazy Boys') and visited the then recently opened Beat Museum.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm working part-time at Poppies Book Shop in Petone (independently owned franchise) where people browse and enjoy books in an atmosphere like their own living room. Helen the owner has such good taste in books and how to display them.
A young woman came in on Friday from the industrial area of Seaview and exclaimed with joy that Poppies was refuge.
Enough free advertising - but I'm new to this and I can't believe the fun I'm having, being paid to work among my favourite things... books.