In praise of good bookstores / Jeff Deutsch.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Deutsch, Jeff, 1975- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Deutsch, Jeff, 1975-.

Deutsch, Jeff.

Seminary Co-op Bookstores, Inc.

Booksellers and bookselling--United States.

Booksellers and bookselling.

Books and reading--Social aspects.

Books and reading.

Bookstores--Social aspects.

Bookstores.

Genre:

Essays.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (217 pages)

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey ; Oxford : Princeton University Press, [2022]

Summary:

From a devoted reader and lifelong bookseller, an eloquent and charming reflection on the singular importance of bookstoresDo we need bookstores in the twenty-first century? If so, what makes a good one? In this beautifully written book, Jeff Deutsch—the director of Chicago’s Seminary Co-op Bookstores, one of the finest bookstores in the world—pays loving tribute to one of our most important and endangered civic institutions. He considers how qualities like space, time, abundance, and community find expression in a good bookstore. Along the way, he also predicts—perhaps audaciously—a future in which the bookstore not only endures, but realizes its highest aspirations.In exploring why good bookstores matter, Deutsch draws on his lifelong experience as a bookseller, but also his upbringing as an Orthodox Jew. This spiritual and cultural heritage instilled in him a reverence for reading, not as a means to a living, but as an essential part of a meaningful life. Central among Deutsch’s arguments for the necessity of bookstores is the incalculable value of browsing—since, when we are deep in the act of looking at the shelves, we move through space as though we are inside the mind itself, immersed in self-reflection.In the age of one-click shopping, this is no ordinary defense of bookstores, but rather an urgent account of why they are essential places of discovery, refuge, and fulfillment—and how they enrich the communities that are lucky enough to have them.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

The Presence of Books An Introduction

Chapter one. Space

Chapter two. Abundance

Chapter three. Value

Chapter four. Community

Chapter five. Time

The Good Bookstor.e An Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 183-190) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780691229669

069122966X

OCLC:

1298393331