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A review by richardbakare
The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss
4.0
If you love books and bookshops, you will love this guided journey through the history, personal stories, and nuances of what makes bookshops magical places. Evan Friss’s objective is simply to explore why we need them, how they serve communities, people, and the book industry as a whole. He lands on this target and then some. One line summarizes the state of things very well: “A bookstore needs to be more than a place to buy books if it is to survive.”
Friss’s beginning to current timeline demonstrates how bookshops can be representative of the state of development in a city or town. Much in the same way we see the presence of a Starbucks as a measure of progress today. More broadly speaking, bookshops can serve as a barometer of the intellectual balance of a nation. Specifically, specifically in how they nurture the literacy and critical thinking of the nation.
This book is very timely, given the resurgence of Barnes and Noble and what comes next in an anti-intellectualist America. Literacy levels among adults are appalling, and Generation Alpha is struggling to gain proficiency as well. Bookshops are more important than ever then. Not just for reading ability but for the culture of book lovers, not just the love of books themselves. The hunt, debates, the shared remembrances, and the spaces themselves. Bookshops create community, provide belonging, and reinforce purpose in pursuing reading.
Friss’s beginning to current timeline demonstrates how bookshops can be representative of the state of development in a city or town. Much in the same way we see the presence of a Starbucks as a measure of progress today. More broadly speaking, bookshops can serve as a barometer of the intellectual balance of a nation. Specifically, specifically in how they nurture the literacy and critical thinking of the nation.
This book is very timely, given the resurgence of Barnes and Noble and what comes next in an anti-intellectualist America. Literacy levels among adults are appalling, and Generation Alpha is struggling to gain proficiency as well. Bookshops are more important than ever then. Not just for reading ability but for the culture of book lovers, not just the love of books themselves. The hunt, debates, the shared remembrances, and the spaces themselves. Bookshops create community, provide belonging, and reinforce purpose in pursuing reading.