'My Heart Belongs to Bookstores'

Shelf Awareness
 

"The decades I've spent working, playing, reading, communing within the four walls of bookstores have shaped me and defined me. And lest you think this relationship merely platonic, let me tell you, bookstores are sexy. Readers who shop in bookstores rather than online, read print rather than digital, talk about how much they love 'the tactile experience' as they stroke book covers and caress pages, amble the aisles and inhale the scent of ink and paper. They lose themselves in bookstores, hold books closely, seek pleasure, connection, and escape in their pages....

"You may wonder what the secret is to a long-term relationship such as mine. Like all relationships, it's actually simple: respect the relationship and actively invest in it. Which in this case means that I faithfully support brick and mortar bookstores with my time and my money. As everyone who loves bookstores should, lest we all wake up one day to find them gone, ourselves alone.... [M]y heart, metaphorically anyway, will remain with my other great love: My heart belongs to bookstores."

--Allison Hill, president and CEO of Vroman's Bookstore, Pasadena, Calif., and Book Soup, West Hollywood, in a Huffington Post column headlined