In Praise of Good Bookstores (Hardcover)
Staff Reviews
Jeff Deutsch meditates on what makes a bookstore special, using as a model the legendary Seminary Co-op on the campus of the University of Chicago. Deutsch uses voices from literary history to make a point that the experience of book browsing and discovery is important well beyond its mercantile nature. And he draws on his Jewish background to show how a culture can celebrate learning for learning’s sake. With economic pressures compounded by the rise of Amazon, stores like Seminary are searching for a new model, with the idea that taking out the profit incentive will allow bookstores to focus more on what they should sell and less on what they have to sell. In Praise of Good Bookstores is not just a work to inspire, but also functions as a catalog for recommended reading.
— Daniel GoldinDescription
From a devoted reader and lifelong bookseller, an eloquent and charming reflection on the singular importance of bookstores
Do we need bookstores in the twenty-first century? If so, what makes a good one? In this beautifully written book, Jeff Deutsch--the director of Chicago's Seminary Co-op Bookstores, one of the finest bookstores in the world--pays loving tribute to one of our most important and endangered civic institutions. He considers how qualities like space, time, abundance, and community find expression in a good bookstore. Along the way, he also predicts--perhaps audaciously--a future in which the bookstore not only endures, but realizes its highest aspirations. In exploring why good bookstores matter, Deutsch draws on his lifelong experience as a bookseller, but also his upbringing as an Orthodox Jew. This spiritual and cultural heritage instilled in him a reverence for reading, not as a means to a living, but as an essential part of a meaningful life. Central among Deutsch's arguments for the necessity of bookstores is the incalculable value of browsing--since, when we are deep in the act of looking at the shelves, we move through space as though we are inside the mind itself, immersed in self-reflection. In the age of one-click shopping, this is no ordinary defense of bookstores, but rather an urgent account of why they are essential places of discovery, refuge, and fulfillment that enrich the communities that are lucky enough to have them.About the Author
Jeff Deutsch is the director of Chicago's Seminary Co-op Bookstores, which in 2019 he helped incorporate as the first not-for-profit bookstore whose mission is bookselling. He lives in Chicago.
