In Praise of Good Bookstores

Lest anyone be uncertain of the ways to acquire specialized reading material, Jeff Deutsch eloquently explains how in his scholarly paean to bookstores. As Director of the Chicago Seminary Co-op Bookstore, he views bookstores as sanctuaries.

Customers are not directed to current bestsellers but can browse and focus attention on books of both yesterday and today, discussing choices with a bookseller or other customers (not too loudly!), telling how they complement library, online, or electronic options. One of the book’s outstanding features is the abundant name-dropping of renowned authors and their work published through the ages.

Bibliophiles will hasten here or to a bookstore closer to home to explore, ponder, deliberate, and find treasures they had never known existed. The book is divided into merging sections. A past-master at options, Deutsch discusses ways to shelve books, and tells of a tenth century grand vizier of Persia who traveled with his book collection arranged alphabetically, transported on four hundred camels.

He compares a “good” bookstore’s atmosphere to an eighteenth century London coffeehouse. This is a stretch. A comparison between a university and a book plus more store is more appropriate. In whimsical spirit, he writes about bookstores as a “magical labyrinth.”