Bookstore Love
Mark off visits to a bookshop not as casual errands of reason,
but as necessary acts of devotion.
–Christopher Morley, On Visiting Bookshops
This month the publication of The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore, written by professor of History, Evan Friss, just happens to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Town House Books. Like Prospero, I beg your indulgence in these few musings of what we love about bookstores.
This anniversary is an achievement that evokes both pride and humility in us, but primarily what we are experiencing is a sense of gratitude as we revel in all the readers and writers who have been a part of our story through the decades.
This quote from Christopher Morley’s essay written in 1920 titled On Visiting Bookshops has been gracing Town House Books for most of our fifty years.
Jeff Deutsch, the former director of Chicago’s Seminary Co-op Bookstores, makes the observation in his influential little book In Praise of Good Bookstores, that one of the unique offerings of bookstores in the digital age is that of the browsing experience.
What an unparalleled activity it is to browse a bookstore in a state of curiosity and receptivity. The space of a bookstore must be conducive to unhurried rumination.
-Jeff Deutsch
Browsing—also known as reflecting, contemplating, giving thought to, mulling over, pondering. One of the greatest gifts of a good bookstore or library turns out to be the opportunity for unexpected discovery during such times of foraging; having the good fortune to find the book you didn’t know you were looking for, either on your own or with the help of a good bookseller or librarian.
Conversely, the online experience usually facilitates a mission of searching and obtaining a particular item. But when we, by necessity, started our online store when our shop doors were shuttered during the pandemic, we designed it to encourage browsing. We hope our offering of books, curated under such tantalizing list names as: Making Sense of These Times, Musically Inclined, and Writers’ Diaries and Journals: The Stories Behind the Stories, still provides the joyful experience of “stumbling upon” just the right book for our customers who aren’t able to visit us in person.
Bookstores and libraries are often talked about as centers of community activity, and while that is certainly true, creating the quiet space surrounding books, and the thoughtfulness that books allow, is what engenders a compassionate, creative, and well informed community.
Making space for books is what matters, both inside ourselves and inside of rooms—whether it is a bookshop, a library, a bookshelf at home, or your bedside table.
The books that lined the walls from floor to ceiling sat there quietly, never calling out for attention or advertising themselves. Even though the meaning of the words printed on their pages was so profound…the books never let on to their depths. They waited patiently until someone picked them up and opened their covers. I came to have enormous respect for that patience.
-from Mina’s Matchbox
When I’m near the end of a good book I need to sleep in the same room with it.
-Joan Didion
There are many beloved books, both old and new, that have been written about bookshops or that take place within bookshops and libraries.
Here are a few old favorites…
And a few more recent…
So often, a visit to a bookshop has cheered me, and reminded me that there are good things in the world.
-Vincent Van Gogh
One of the many joyous experiences of being a bookseller is wandering alone through a quiet bookstore at close of day, turning off lights and straightening shelves, all the while becoming acutely aware of the teeming sense of life there amidst the thousands of books with all their stories, information, imagination and beauty, and knowing that the possibility awaits to discover what you didn’t know you needed—to find what you didn’t know you were looking for.
With heartfelt thanks to all of you great readers who have supported our work as booksellers through many years.
Happy Reading!
