A Story of the American Bookstore
Five Paris Readers Circle members will win a copy
An affectionate and engaging history of the American bookstore and its central place in American cultural life, from department stores to indies, from highbrow dealers trading in first editions to sidewalk vendors, and from chains to special-interest community destinations.
Bookstores have always been unlike any other kind of store, shaping readers and writers, and influencing our tastes, thoughts, and politics. They nurture local communities while creating new ones of their own. Bookshops are powerful spaces, but they are also endangered ones. In The Bookshop, we see the stakes: what has been, and what might be lost.
Is there a pleasure equal to finding a book on a bookstore table that you had not read or even heard of? You scan the cover art, read a few blurbs and take a chance. In recent weeks I have rediscovered OUR CROWD, that I first read in 1968; GANGSTERS vs, NAZIS that suggests that in CASABLANCA when Rick (Humphrey Bogart) was right when he advised Major Strasser (Conrad Veidt) not to invade certain neighborhoods in NYC.
"All the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books."-Benjamin Franklin
Mitchell Kaplan-Books and Books
Defying the odds in the Amazon Era
Born in Miami, Florida, Mitchell Kaplan is best known for the creation of the Miami Book Fair International, the largest community book festival in the United States and a model for book fairs across the country.
Two years after opening an independent bookstore, Books & Books, Kaplan, along with the Dade County Library and other independent bookstore owners, was asked by the president of the downtown Wolfson campus of the Miami-Dade College, Eduardo J. Padrón, to help put on a book fair, originally called “Books by the Bay.”
The Fair brings over 300 renowned national and international authors exhibitors to a weeklong celebration of all things literary and includes pavilions for translation, comics, children, and young adults.
Our Conversation
Readers Comments
If you can't travel to France this summer, there's always the wonderful "Your American Friend in Paris" website and newsletter to get you through! "A Northern Light in Provence" was featured this week in their books about Provence roundup. Thank you, Terrance, for your kind review and excellent book suggestions! Elizabeth Birkelund
Join our community of passionate bibliophiles
Kermit Carpenter, Key West, FL
Coming Tomorrow
Not subscribed the Food & Wine issue?
Café Terrance at La Coupole
an informal gathering of anglophonic francophiles
Next Gathering August 11
see you there
10:30AM-12PM
Join the fun
A Paris tradition-Jim Bitterman, CNN
Mes ami(e)s
I love my work of sharing French culture with you and the appreciation and respect you have shown for my efforts by your contributions.
I am a one man New Yorker of French culture and your support enables me to seek out and deliver fresh content daily-Please Contribute today-you'll feel better for it and I will appreciate it.Terrance
Your newsletter and website are must reads!
Kelle Ruden, Westport, CT