The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, a History

by Lewis Buzbee

Overview

In The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, a Book Sense selection, Lewis Buzbee celebrates the unique experience of the bookstore-the smell and touch of books, the joy of getting lost in the deep canyons of shelves, and the silent community of readers. He shares his passion for books, which began with ordering through the Weekly Reader in grade school. Woven throughout is a fascinating historical account of the bookseller trade-from the great Alexandria library to Sylvia Beach's famous Paris bookstore, Shakespeare & Co. Rich with anecdotes, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop is the perfect choice for those who relish the enduring pleasures of spending an afternoon finding just the right book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781555975104
Publisher:	Graywolf Press
Publication date:	09/30/2008
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	634,785
Product dimensions:	6.98(w) x 10.88(h) x 0.74(d)

About the Author

Lewis Buzbee is a former bookseller and sales representative, and the author of several books, most recently Steinbeck's Ghost. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and daughter.

Editorial Reviews

I cannot remember when I have read a book with such delight.” —Paul Yamazaki, City Lights Bookstore

“When [Buzbee] describes walking into a bookstore, feasting his eyes on the walls lined with stock, gravitating to the tables stacked with new issues and then discovering some volume so irresistibly beautiful he just has to buy it, you realize that he just doesn't love books, he's besotted.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“In The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, Lewis Buzbee recounts not only his personal experience of being a bookseller and a publisher sales rep, but also shares the history and inside world of bookselling. A beautiful book both inside and out.” —ERIC GESELL, Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops

From the Publisher

Buzbee (Fliegelman's Desire) is a book lover. When he describes walking into a bookstore, feasting his eyes on the walls lined with stock, gravitating to the tables stacked with new issues and then discovering some volume so irresistibly beautiful he just has to buy it, you realize that he just doesn't love books, he's besotted. Buzbee tells the story of his lifelong obsession, from his elementary school Weekly Reader orders to his first jobs clerking in bookstores and his short career as a publisher's rep. Woven into these personal essays is a tangential discourse on the history of bookmaking and bookselling, from the ancient Romans and Chinese to the modern era. He describes the scriptoriums in Roman bookshops where the wealthy could order a book copied, the stacks of unbound quires a customer would have chosen from in a 15th-century bookshop (proto-paperbacks) and everything one would want to know about the modern business of bookselling, from ISBNs to remainders. On current hot-button issues, like predatory pricing by big-box stores and Internet vendors, he's careful where he draws his bottom line, which is "between bookstores and the absence of them." (June) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

A proud and unrepentant biblio-addict explains how he got that way-and how books and bookstores have evolved, as well. Reading this gentle memoir/history is itself a bit like browsing in a friendly bookshop. Buzbee, who began his long tenure in the book business as a teenaged clerk at a nowdefunct shop called the Upstart Crow, and who has subsequently published fiction (Fliegelman's Desire, 1990, not reviewed), is an amiable guide. The author came from a family with only mild interest in books (Reader's Digest Condensed Books lined some of the shelves), and it was not until he read The Grapes of Wrath in high school that his addiction began. The early pages are principally memoir, but about halfway through, Buzbee begins to interweave lengthy sections on the history of books and bookselling. He rehearses the story of the great library at Alexandria, the invention and modifications of the printing press, the rise of the bookshop and its frequent neighbor, the coffeehouse. (We learn that books used to be displayed horizontally, not vertically, on shelves.) The author teaches us, as well, about the emergence of the superstore (both B. Dalton and Waldenbooks arrived in 1969), the meaning of the ISBN, the importance of usedbook dealers, the rise of online bookselling. He acknowledges that Amazon, et al., have wounded the bricksandmortar stores, but he does not foresee a time when there are no traditional shops. Nor does he think ebooks or printondemand texts will ever replace the familiar paperback. Buzbee offers a strong chapter in praise of freespeechloving booksellers, with special attention to the Salman Rushdie case and the publication of Ulysses. He fires some shots at the Patriot Actand takes us on a tour of his favorite shops, among them Square Books in Oxford, Miss., and City Lights in San Francisco. A leisurely stroll with a knowledgeable but unpretentious companion through some very interesting aisles.

Kirkus Reviews