On bookseller gatherings

I hosted a dinner in the bookstore last night. Around 10 other bookstore owners from the area attended, part of a monthly gathering that rotates around the greater Boston area. I cleared off the table we use in the front room to showcase the newest hardcover nonfiction. This is the same table that we ate dinner off of in the dining room of my childhood home. I’m so rarely in the bookstore late into the night and there was something special about sitting around a nice table with good people talking about things I cared about surrounded by books and twinkling Christmas lights in the window. We gossiped about authors (no, I’m not sharing) and poor customer and staff behavior and how we unwind with hobbies that don’t involve reading and vacations we take (a lot of trips to Maine).

It might be surprising to hear that I have many lonely days in the store, in spite of the many customers who might come through. Transactional conversations don’t necessarily serve the soul. I think bookselling can also feel lonely because it’s not really like anything else. It doesn’t operate the way other retail businesses do. These gatherings of booksellers make me feel a part of a community. We might be very different in temperament and likes and dislikes, but we share this one big thing and sharing that one big thing allows us to connect on all the other things too. It provides the grace for us to look past prejudices and instead appreciate and admire the differences.