Cathy from the BookLink Bookstore at Logan Airport
I love bookstores and the people who work in them. (My husband grew up in The BookStore of the University of Pennsylvania which his father ran while getting a graduate degree. And once upon a time in the early 80s I worked at the Barnes & Noble on Fifth Avenue in the Text Book Department.) They are portals to other times and places, islands of civility and calm in the crazy cacophonous world (especially the world of airports) and crossroads of storytelling and sharing. I can name every store I’ve been to in every city and town I’ve lived in or visited and sadly many that are no longer there.
But no bookstore experience has been like the thrill of walking in and seeing my own book on the shelves or a table or in the window. It was as exciting as my first steps on a professional stage, as my first night on Broadway. It never gets old and it is only made better by meeting a clerk or cashier who has read the book and liked it. No one besides librarians and book reviewers reads as many books or knows as much about them. A thumbs up from someone who works at a bookstore is high praise.
To the right you’ll see buttons to take you to my local bookstore Vroman’s in Pasadena, the Indie Bound site which can link you to your local store, Powell’s which has featured my work on its site and served the Pacific Northwest for years and years, and of course Amazon which, while demonized by many, serves as a local store for lots and lots of people who don’t live anywhere near a local store.
And don’t forget the stores in airports like BookLink in Boston. They’re fun to browse in when you’ve got a layover and while ebooks are nice, you don’t have to turn a hardback or paperback off during take-off and landing!
