The Bookworm: 'In Praise of Good Bookstores'

In Praise of Good Bookstores, by Jeff Deutsch. 200 pages. Princeton University Press. 2022.

The novelist Doris Lessing, for instance, thinks that “there is only one way to read, which is to browse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that attract you, reading only those, dropping them when they bore you.” (p. 75)

After reading that quote from Doris Lessing, it was hard not to “drop” In Praise of Good Bookstores right then and there. Instead, I dropped it 14 pages later.

I could not do it. Much like The Mezzanine five years ago, I got to a point in In Praise where I could not continue, could not force myself to read anymore. Well, not exactly. I forced myself to read to the end of a section on page 89 and then quit. Even though I decided to give up, I had to find a good stopping place.

Do I feel guilty? Hell yes! I don’t quit reading books very often; I can still likely count on one hand those I have quit in my adult life. It's a book about books and bookstores. Why would I quit reading a book about books and bookstores? I love books and bookstores! I feel especially guilty because In Praise was a gift from The Librarian—and a signed copy, too. I feel like I am letting her down, though The Foxy Lady has assured me she would fully endorse my decision to quit. I also feel like I am cheating. In Praise was the last of my Christmas gift haul before I get to read the Led Zeppelin biography, so by quitting I feel like I am earning my reward dishonestly. (To be honest, it was hard not to think that every page I turned was one page closer to the Zeppelin bio.) I feel like an eager and impatient kid who skips his nutritious dinner and goes straight to eating ice cream.

I just need to get over it.

In Praise is Jeff Deutsch’s ode to and defense of bookstores, especially good bookstores, those that, he writes, are expressive of their communities. To say Deutsch knows a thing or two about good bookstores is an understatement. He is the director of the Seminary Co-op Bookstores in Chicago, “one of the finest bookstores in the world,” according to the book’s description. (Sadly, I had never heard of the Seminary Co-op until starting In Praise. Visiting one of its two stores is now on my to-do list the next time I’m in Chicago.) As Deutsch writes:

This book is not a lamentation (we have enough of those!) but a celebration—and, perhaps incidentally, a justification—of the good bookstore. To borrow from Borges, I submit these thoughts that we might let our enormous bookstore be justified. (p. 18)

Deutsch waxes on (and on, and on, and on) about what makes a bookstore good, the economics of running a bookstore, the job of the bookseller, the types of customers that browse the shelves, the type of browsing that is done, the difference between libraries and bookstores, and the vital need for bookstores. He quotes authors and the world’s greatest bibliophiles in nearly every paragraph. In a way, In Praise is a spiritual rumination or meditation. 

And I found it extremely boring and dense.

My first note about In Praise is, “Intro is dense.” It did not get better. Though poignant, deep, and thoughtful, it is hard to follow. Deutsch’s writing did not work for me; it lacked an easy flow. I love books and bookstores, but man, In Praise is too much contemplation, too much, as Zee German would say, intellectual masturbation. At times it felt like cyclical study, a broken record of thoughts, opinions, and ideas, going around and around and around. Anyone who quotes Borges loses my interest. (To be fair to Borges, I have not read his stuff in forever, so I should give him a second chance. I read his Collected Fictions shortly after I moved to California and vividly remember struggling to read it while sitting in my car during a lunch break at corporate hell. It is one of the books I should have quit reading in my adult life. I don’t recall why I had that book or thought it necessary to read Borges. He may have been recommended as a minimalist.) The text’s font did not help, either. Though it looked like American Typewriter at first glance, the book uses Bookman Old Style. I feel like it was a strange choice for the text. It does not read well.

So … sorry, Jeff. No offense, but In Praise is not my cup of tea.

And now on to the mighty Zep!