Working in a Bookstore 'Like Being in a Sitcom'

Shelf Awareness

 

"For a novelist, for somebody who is used to working alone all the time, it's incredible to dip in and out of that world. They are my dearest friends, and it's like being in a sitcom. It's like we're the comedy writers on the old Dick Van Dyke Show, or we're sitting in the coffee shop in Friends or the bar in Cheers. Everybody is kind and everybody is smart and everybody is a good reader, and we have a certain Island-of-Misfit-Toys vibe. It's really dear.

"And to say nothing of the customers, who are also a blast. Walking around with books in a bookstore is like walking your dog--it gives everyone free license to have a conversation. So I can just go around and talk to people."

--Ann Patchett, co-owner of Parnassus Books, Nashville, Tenn., and author of September's #1 Indie Next List Pick, Commonwealth, in an interview with Bookselling This