Shelf Awareness
Garrison Keillor, author, radio host and proprietor of Common Good Books, St. Paul, Minn., was interviewed for this week's New York Times Book Review "By the Book" segment. Two highlights:What inspired you to open your own independent bookstore in St. Paul?
The neighborhood bookstore shut down, and that left a gap in the lives of a lot of people--without it, they had to go to Minneapolis to buy books, and that makes no sense--Minneapolis is where you go to see documentary films or lectures on urban planning or dances with titles like 'Dimensions of Being'; it's not where you go for books--so I felt obliged. I've loved books since I was a kid, loved to hold them, smell the ink, feel the heft of the book.
What's the best thing about being in the bookselling business? The worst?
The best thing is that the employees are really, really nice to you; the worst thing is that you do not get a 10% discount when you buy books. I don't know why. It was explained to me once, and I didn't understand. I mean, I'm the owner, right? But no, that's not how it's done.
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