Ann Patchett on 'the Return of Bookstores'

Shelf Awareness

Ann Patchett

"Booksellers are, generally speaking, a cautious group when it comes to voicing optimism, but I sense a cultural shift coming on: Books and bookstores and reading are the wave of the future.
"I don't credit the booksellers for this change. In my extensive experience with booksellers, they've always been a hardworking, innovative bunch of passionate readers who were in this business for love.
I credit the customers, who seem to be collectively waking up to the fact that they are in charge of what businesses fail and succeed based on where they spend their money. If you like your bookstore and want it to stay in your community, then you have to buy your books there, in the same way you must buy your hammer from the guy at the hardware store who always gives you good advice."

--Ann Patchett, author and co-owner of Parnassus Books, Nashville, Tenn., in a Wall Street Journal piece called "Ann Patchett on the Return of Bookstores."