Being a Bookseller 'Feels Like the Luckiest Gift'

Shelf Awareness

Claire Tobin

"I started slingin' books when I was sixteen and now it's almost six years later and I still can't quite understand how my love for books continues to grow at such an exponential rate. I'm also in my third year as an English major so I spend what feels like my entire life reading. I went abroad last summer and when I came back and started working again, I realized how much I had missed. I had missed all of these books that were released without my knowing it and I felt a profound sadness. I can feel myself growing along with these books and being away from them that summer, I felt like I was a million miles away from a best friend. 

Getting to be around these books, ones full of opportunity and beauty and whole worlds--it feels like the luckiest gift. Being a bookseller has taught me to appreciate that these objects we recommend and sell are nothing less than pieces of art. We should always feel like we are in the midst of greatness when we are in a bookstore."

--Claire Tobin of Literati Bookstore, Ann Arbor, Mich., in response to Tin House magazine's Bookseller Spotlight question: "How has being a bookseller changed your relationship to books?"