Writers tend know a thing or two about bookstores. Not only do they spend time in them touring, reading and signing, but writers tend to be voracious readers, and every voracious reader has a favorite brick and mortar bookstore. Enter My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop , which hits shelves today, a fantastic book that collects 82 short essays from noted authors on their best loved bookshops, whether obvious or out of the way, accompanied by great illustrations by Leif Parsons. After the jump, we’ve excerpted just a few of some of our favorite authors’ picks — check them out, and if you feel so inclined, tell us about your own favorite bookstores in the comments!
Dave Eggers — Green Apple Books, San Francisco, California
I’ve known [the owners] for about fifteen years now, and I have to say there are no purer book people in the world. … The crazy thing about Green Apple is that everything, even a cat calendar, seems far more interesting and wantable in their hands.
Jonathan Evison – Eagle Harbor Book Co., Bainbridge Island, Washington
Thanks… for answering questions, for making suggestions, for letting my kid trash your children’s section three times a week, and for blowing his mind with your recommendations… Above all, thank you for representing — for being exactly what you are: totally unique and personable in an increasingly uniform and impersonal world.
Pete Hamill – Strand Book Store, New York City
On days of rain or snow, I could vanish into its shelves and tables, examining the endless literary treasures… I’ve lived long enough now to see my own books on those hallowed shelves. But when I left the Strand in those early days, I joined many others, not all of them writers, who rode home on the shoulders of giants.
Ann Patchett – McLean & Eakin Booksellers, Petoskey, Michigan
I walked into the bookstore of this dreamy little town and at that moment all the other bookstores I’d known in my life fell away… Books and bookstores are really the only things I can speak to with authority. And so I say to you absolutely: McLean & Eakin, Petoskey, Michigan — go.
Matt Weiland – Greenlight Bookstore, Brooklyn, New York
From a poetic ode titled “The Light”:
Where is the loner, the talker, the rent-controlled? Where is the loud one, the Brooklynite, the heart of gold? The boozer, the busker, the beat cop for the night? All, all, are browsing in Greenlight.