In her Ploughshares essay "How to Shop at a Bookstore: An Easy 20-Step Guide for Authors," Rebecca Makkai offered suggestions for visiting writers. A few of our favorites:"First, smell it. Look at the new arrivals, lined up like candy. See if, for just one second, you can remember what it was like to walk into a bookstore as a reader. Just a reader, a happy, curious reader. With no agenda, no insecurities, no history of bookstores as scenes of personal failure and triumph. Wish for a time machine."
"Nervously check how the store seems to be doing. Are the lights still on? Do the employees look well-fed? Thank God. The world isn't over yet."
"You cannot afford all seven of the books that have somehow wound up in your arms. Acknowledge that you will buy them anyway."
"As you cross the street with your bag of new books, remember the first time your mother took you to a bookstore and told you to pick something out. To keep, not borrow. You were overwhelmed by choice and wonder. Remember how you pulled things off the shelf at random because every book was equally unknown and fresh and promising."
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