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From a devoted reader and lifelong bookseller, an eloquent and charming reflection on the singular importance of bookstoresDo we need bookstores in the twenty-first century? If so, what makes a good one? In this beautifully written book, Jeff Deutsch—the director of Chicago’s Seminary Co-op Bookstores, one of the finest bookstores in the world—pays loving tribute to one of our most important and endangered civic institutions. He considers how qualities like space, time, abundance, and community find expression in a good bookstore. Along the way, he also predicts—perhaps audaciously—a future in which the bookstore not only endures, but realizes its highest aspirations.In exploring why good bookstores matter, Deutsch draws on his lifelong experience as a bookseller, but also his upbringing as an Orthodox Jew. This spiritual and cultural heritage instilled in him a reverence for reading, not as a means to a living, but as an essential part of a meaningful life. Central among Deutsch’s arguments for the necessity of bookstores is the incalculable value of browsing—since, when we are deep in the act of looking at the shelves, we move through space as though we are inside the mind itself, immersed in self-reflection.In the age of one-click shopping, this is no ordinary defense of bookstores, but rather an urgent account of why they are essential places of discovery, refuge, and fulfillment—and how they enrich the communities that are lucky enough to have them.

Books and reading --- Booksellers and bookselling --- Bookstores --- Book shops --- Book stores --- Bookshops --- Specialty stores --- Antiquarian booksellers --- Book dealers --- Book sales --- Dealers, Book --- Book industries and trade --- Publishers and publishing --- Appraisal of books --- Books --- Choice of books --- Evaluation of literature --- Literature --- Reading, Choice of --- Reading and books --- Reading habits --- Reading public --- Reading --- Reading interests --- Reading promotion --- Social aspects --- History --- Appraisal --- Evaluation --- Book history --- Economic production --- Graphics industry --- United States of America --- Social aspects. --- Deutsch, Jeff, --- Seminary Co-op Bookstores, Inc. --- Academic publishing. --- Admiration. --- Advocacy. --- Aisle. --- Analects. --- Analogy. --- Author. --- Beth Medrash Govoha. --- Bookselling. --- Browsing. --- Business case. --- CIVICUS. --- Cautionary tale. --- Charles Simic. --- Cleanliness. --- Coffeehouse. --- Commodity. --- Commonplace book. --- Competitive advantage. --- Condition of possibility. --- Convenience. --- Cultural artifact. --- Cultural institution. --- Customer. --- Decorum. --- Democratic Vistas. --- Divine soul. --- Edition (book). --- Elizabeth Hardwick (writer). --- Encyclopedic knowledge. --- Enthusiasm. --- Exchange value. --- Financial statement. --- Generosity. --- Governance. --- Grand opening. --- Gratitude. --- Greeting card. --- Greeting. --- Gross margin. --- Her Secret Is Patience. --- High culture. --- Honorarium. --- Horace Walpole. --- Humility. --- Humour. --- Hygiene. --- Idealism. --- Illustration. --- Imagination. --- Income. --- Independent bookstore. --- Intellectual. --- Intuition. --- Invention. --- Jean-Luc Nancy. --- Kollel. --- Learning. --- Literal translation. --- Literature. --- Michael Faraday. --- Midrash. --- Mircea Eliade. --- Morality. --- Noblesse oblige. --- Our Homeland. --- People of the Book. --- Poetry. --- Pride. --- Principle. --- Printing. --- Profit margin. --- Progressive Era. --- Prose. --- Publishing. --- Rational choice theory. --- Reason. --- Reasonable person. --- Remuneration. --- Retail clerk. --- Retail. --- Ruminant. --- Scientist. --- Self-confidence. --- Seminary Co-op. --- Sensibility. --- Shareholder. --- Sincerity. --- Socratic (Community). --- Stimulation. --- Supplement (publishing). --- Technology. --- The Bookseller. --- The Bookshop. --- The Library of Babel. --- Thought. --- Torah. --- Twinkling. --- Used book. --- Wealth.