Booksellers

Ten Marks of a Good Bookstore

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The Bookstore at Vineyard Columbus

The Bookstore at Vineyard Columbus

If you’ve followed this blog, you probably have the idea that I’ve spent a bit of time around bookstores. I’ve even reviewed a few of them. Along the way, I’ve formed a few ideas of what I like in bookstores. Here’s my top ten.

  1. An inviting entrance. Featured books inside the front window or inside the door. An attractive display inside. Good sight lines that enable you to get a sense of the layout of the store.
  2. Good lighting. I’ve been in some stores where it was difficult to read the titles on the books.
  3. Clearly marked sections and subsections or even a “map” of the store.
  4. A clear ordering system within sections so you can find your favorite author.
  5. Regularly stocking with new items and clearing out of deadwood. I’ve been in some stores where the same items have been in the same place for ten years.
  6. Clean and clutter free. One shouldn’t need a bath after a trip to the bookstore! Likewise one doesn’t enjoy tripping over boxes of books in the aisles or knocking down  a pile of books.
  7. Selection and specialties. Good bookstores go far beyond the bestsellers with good depth in the various categories. It also seems that stores develop specialties–usually several. It could be cookbooks, sports, philosophy and religion. One second hand store had a great selection of thrillers, mysteries, novels and romance stories.
  8. Places to sit and page through your finds. Good stores are comfortable places you are not in a hurry to leave.
  9. I always love stores with a bargain section, particularly if they throw in some interesting, but slower moving works or duplicates.
  10. Above all, I love a store with a knowledgeable bookseller who knows his or her stock, and has a passion for reading, and getting good books into the hands of others. Add someone who is cheerful and will take time to talk or help you find that hard to locate item and you truly have a winning combination.

I won’t guarantee that this will mean a profitable store. That takes savvy with business management, purchasing, marketing and much more. But I think the things I’ve listed above incline people to return and that has to count for something.

What would you add to this list? And what places are good examples of good bookstores?

Big Brother at the Bookstore and Library

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Well-worn library and member cards

Well-worn library and member cards

One of the troubling aspects of modern life is how much data about us is stored in various computer data centers. Shopping at my local grocery, I use my shopper card to receive discounts on groceries and fuel while providing the grocer a whole profile of my shopping habits that allows them to customize coupons to my shopping tastes. Every online vendor collects similar data and cookies on our computers track our browsing habits. Health records are maintained on a number of sites. My cell provider has data on all my phone activity and even where I make calls from and where I am (or my phone is) at any given moment. A quick Google search of my address provides information of the appraised value of my home, how many bedrooms and bathrooms we have, and how much I pay in property tax. And this blog and other social media sites provide a substantial amount of information about me. Much of this is done with my knowledge and consent (whether I’ve read those disclosures or not). And most of the time I don’t trouble myself that much, except when this information is compromised by hackers, which seems to happen with disconcerting frequency.

What the Edward Snowden affair made clear is how much of our information is vacuumed up unbeknownst to us through NSA monitoring. The reality is that we probably should assume that very little of what we do, and nothing of our online lives, is private. What may not have occurred to us is that even our bookstore and library searches, if tied to an account (a library card or shopping card, for example, or our name) are also subject to search and seizure without our knowledge under the Patriot Act. Under current laws, according to an article in The Nation, federal authorities may seize any “tangible” thing considered relevant to a terrorism investigation and workers are under gag orders not to disclose these seizures.

What librarians facing this issue have done are to post warnings of patrons that their library internet activity and searches may be monitored. Some have gone so far as to pro-actively destroy wait-lists, caches, and other records. One librarian quoted in The Nation article commented that “It used to be a librarian would be pictured with a book…. Now it is a librarian with a shredder.”

Section 215 of the Patriot Act that permits these kinds of seizures is due to expire on June 1. According to a Publishers Weekly article a coalition of booksellers, authors, readers, and librarians is pressing for the passage of a USA Freedom Act which would restore some privacy protections. It would not eliminate information requests but limit the scope of requests by requiring individual account information under an individualized standard of suspicion.

My personal opinion? While this is an improvement, it does seem that we have eviscerated the Fourth Amendment that reads:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

These searches involve search orders but no warrant issued from a judge’s bench, nor are these orders presented to the person whose records are being searched. It is all done in secrecy. The truth is, as I’ve already stated, we should probably assume that nothing we do on a phone, with a credit or shopping or membership card, or do online or give others permission to store online is private and we can expect that it may be accessed without our knowledge. But to justify warrantless, secret searches as protecting a free and democratic society is to delude ourselves. That ship has sailed.

Something to consider the next time you check out a library book or use your Barnes and Noble card to buy the latest best-seller.

Bugs and Bookstores

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Kleenex-small-boxJust read a ShelfTalker piece from Publishers Weekly about the challenges of staying healthy if you are a bookseller. Let’s just say that it is not easy when one works with the public all day to stay healthy during cold and flu season. The writer talks about parents who stop at the store with obviously sick kids to pick up books, on the way to the pediatrician. Handling cash and credit cards of those who may not have coughed into their elbows is a recipe for time off.

I suppose there is no way we are ever going to have perfectly germ-free environments no matter how many “safe sneezing and coughing” videos we watch and how many hand sanitizers and sprays we use. What you would hope for instead is some common sense and courtesy. The truth is that booksellers aren’t the only ones affected. Cafe workers have to handle germy cups and plates. Other customers may handle books or other articles a sick person has touched including door handles. In our go-go culture we’ve been trained to do just that until we are laid out, sick as a dog, sick.

Instead of passing along sickness to the fellow bibliophiles, here are a few thoughts:

  • This is a great time to catch up on reading the books you have. Take that cold or flu medicine, get into your jammies, get a cup of hot tea, and snuggle up with a good book.
  • Need books? Here is where an e-reader is really helpful. You can borrow them from the library or buy them online without putting a single person at risk.
  • There are also many sources of free books such as Project Gutenberg, the Internet Archive, and a number of free Kindle books on Amazon, and other online sources that you can read on a tablet or computer.
  • That’s not possible? You can reserve books online at your library and pick them up with minimal contact, particularly if you have self-checkout. Can the books carry microbes? It’s possible but most die within hours or days in a dry environment. Maybe if your kids are sick, you can make sure they use hand sanitizers and wait three days before returning the books.
  • You can put a call out on Facebook to your friends that you are desperate for books. Let them know your favorite types. And maybe they can bring some chicken soup as well. If not, the books are a good substitute!

Many of us develop good relationships with our booksellers. They are our friends. If they work at an indie store, it is not always easy for them to take time off if they get sick.

Love thy bookseller as thyself!