In Praise of Good Bookstores
Written by Jeff Deutsch
Narrated by Ako Mitchell
2/5
()
About this audiobook
This audiobook narrated by Ako Mitchell provides 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.
Related to In Praise of Good Bookstores
Related audiobooks
For the Love of Books: Stories of Literary Lives, Banned Books, Author Feuds, Extraordinary Characters and More Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Bookseller: A Life in the Rare Book Trade Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Packing My Library: An Elegy and Ten Digressions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great Short Books: A Year of Reading—Briefly Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Library: A Catalogue of Wonders Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation Into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Browsing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Art of Libromancy: On Selling Books and Reading Books in the Twenty-first Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Short History of the World According to Sheep Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Won't Help: Modest Proposals for a More Enjoyable Apocalypse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEx Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Overdue: Reckoning with the Public Library Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLakes: Their Birth, Life, and Death Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Curious Species: How Animals Made Natural History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Maximum Security Book Club: Reading Literature in a Men's Prison Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHidden Kitchens: Stories, Recipes, and More from NPR's The Kitchen Sisters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Man Who Invented Motion Pictures: A True Tale of Obsession, Murder, and the Movies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dead Beat Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Upside-Down World: Meetings with the Dutch Masters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFlying Snakes and Griffin Claws: And Other Classical Myths, Historical Oddities, and Scientific Curiosities Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPipe Dreams: The Urgent Global Quest to Transform the Toilet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shocked: Adventures in Bringing Back the Recently Dead Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Literary Criticism For You
Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking Fast and Slow": A Macat Analysis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Kill a Mockingbird Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/51984 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lord of the Flies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Conspiracy against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thalia Book Club: Amor Towles A Gentleman in Moscow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Writing (and Writers): A Miscellany of Advice and Opinions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fahrenheit 451 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5C. S. Lewis: Encountering God's Truth through Fiction Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Catcher in the Rye Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Of Mice and Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Common Sense Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Outsiders Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies: How Doubting the Bard Became the Biggest Taboo in Literature Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary: Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover: Key Takeaways, Summary & Analysis Included Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Thalia Book Club: Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird 50th Anniversary Celebration Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One in a Millennial: On Friendship, Feelings, Fangirls, and Fitting In Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Don't Panic: Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for In Praise of Good Bookstores
1 rating1 review
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This is not what I expected, although I believe Bookstores are needed.