In Praise of Good Bookstores, Jeff Deutsch. Princeton University Press (ISBN: 9780691207766) 2022.

Summary: A tribute to bookstores, their importance, and what makes them great from a veteran bookseller.

What makes a great bookstore? It’s a question I’ve discussed with other booklovers. But rarely have I encountered the thoughtful, indeed erudite, response to this question given by Jeff Deutsch. He’s more than qualified to answer the question. He is a long-time bookseller at the Seminary Co-op, one of the most distinguished bookstores in the country, and most recently, its director.

What I found instead was an exploration of what an unusual, even improbable, thing a good bookstore really is. In his first chapter, on Space, he offers a thought-provoking discussion of browsing. Unlike many business establishments that try to make purchases as swift and frictionless as possible, bookstores offer a space where people may linger as “ruminants,” browsing among the shelves, skimming spines, and discovering something they’d never seen before that touches on an inner longing. Deutsch even introduces us to the different types of browsers.

Bookstores curate the vast amount of material in print (“Abundance”) into a breadth of selection that believes in “every reader his or her book.” He notes that in one year, of 28,000 books sold at his store, 17,000 were single copies. Such stores, and indeed our libraries, are “archives of longing,” reflecting our literary reach that often exceeds our grasp in terms of years of life.

All those single copies. How is a business to survive? Deutsch explores the Value of bookstores beyond their razor thin, or non-existent profit margins. He rails against the advice that bookstores must carry at least 20 percent products that are not books. Deutsch argues for distinguishing worth from value and seems to suggest that, like an Institute for Advance Studies or a groups of scholars studying Torah, supporting bookstores for their intrinsic worth is worth considering.

Deutsch describes the unusual community of bookstores. Solitary browsers find their own rebbe in the shelves. But there is also a bookselling art of knowing when to join the browser, and when to give them space. And then there are fellow browsers, some who become known for their kindred interests. It’s also an open community, welcoming diverse people from diverse walks of life.

Finally, Deutsch meditates on time. There is time to browse. But there is also the encounter with human thought and endeavor across time. There is the groping for the time that is concealed at present. In a world filled with the “remorseless rush of time” bookstores offer a place of respite.

This book is not a “nuts and bolts” description of the practicalities of bookselling. Rather it is a philosophical consideration of the bookstore. You come across quotes from Borges and Calvino, Dillard and Donne, and many more on the pages, and some rarefied discussion. It reflects the unique world of the Seminary Co-op, located adjacent to the University of Chicago in Hyde Park. Donors augment its bottom line. Yet I wonder how it relates to the Indie stores in small towns amid book deserts, offering liberal collections of horror, thriller, and romance stories, lots of non-book items, and a smaller selection of more “serious” books.

I do think there are elements in common–the space and time to browse, the bookseller, who is attuned to the kind of community forming around the store, and the near run enterprise that all bookstores are. But most of the patrons do not share Deutsch’s high-flown ideas of literate society. They just want a good page-turner for an evening at home, while waiting at a doctor’s office, or in an airport. While I love stores like the Seminary Co-op, I also praise the good bookstores in small towns serving the patrons I’ve described. We need both.

Finally, thanks for visiting Bob on Books. People aren’t reading blogs like they used to, so I appreciate that you spent time here. Feel to “look around” – see the tabs at the top of the website, and the right hand column. And use the buttons below to share this post. Blessings! [Adapted from Enough Light, a blog I follow.]