Bookstores: 'An Experience Impossible to Replicate'

 

"In 2016 people have a plethora of outlets for book talk, book news and book buying, most of them online. But none of them compares to standing in a book store and talking with strangers about what they have in stock.

When a customer asks where to find D.H. Lawrence and it opens a store-wide discussion about his best story, you know you're in a great book shop; when everybody nominates a different story and then all involved--including the employee--file off to browse Lawrence's back catalog, you know you've found your people. It's an experience impossible to replicate via text, chat or online review."

--Paul Friswold, in a story--"Because We Still Buy Books Here: One of 75 Reasons We Love St. Louis in 2016"--in Riverfront Times' best of St. Louis issue about Subterranean Books and other St. Louis bookstores

Shelf Awareness


And from The Read, Booksellers NZ:

Bookshops: The Spine of the Community Bookshops are an entry to 30,000 universes, as author Matt Haig remarked recently on Twitter, and this is why booksellers are so special. They are the ones who know which book will open which door for which person. They are the ones who ride the currents of bestselling colouring books, and massive cookbooks; books by YouTubers and books by celebrity musicians, never losing sight of the end game: to sell books to the readers whose lives they might change. Our bookshops are the spine of the community, possibly even the hinge of humanity: they are what builds our minds.  We are giving your customers a chance to celebrate this on NZ Bookshop Day on 29 October 2016, with this year’s competition asking them simply to write a love letter to their favourite bookshop. All POS ought to reach participating bookshops by the end of next week. The winner of the “best” letter will win $500 in book tokens, and the bookstore it celebrates will win a valuable prize from Nielsen Book. And it's now high time to put up the banners and send in the clowns on their horses, with their dogs, NZ Bookshop Day is just one month away. The magic is just starting to spill out onto social media now, and we have bookshops and publishers alike inspiring us with their ideas in support of this day. We have talked to Lesley Stead from Paige’s Book Gallery, Matt Morris from Arty Bees, and Marion Castree from Vic Books about their plans for this year, which we share along with other plans below.