Friday, January 5, 2007

The Special-ness of Small Bookshops

It was with sadness that I read about the Hearts & Stars Bookshop in Canton closing at the end of July. I wandered into that bookshop many times over the past four years. Like many people, I enjoyed the intimate surroundings and the friendly helpful staff. There’s something special about a small bookstore. In addition to bestsellers, they display titles that aren’t as well known, ones that otherwise may be overlooked. And I always appreciate those little hand-written notes tucked in the stacks with the mini-synopsis and personal critique. Some of the best books I’ve read I’ve discovered in these quaint little shops.

It was in a small bookshop that I first discovered Annie Dillard’s “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek,” a beautiful work of writing-art on life and nature. And as so often happens, that book led me to the author’s others—her memoir, “An American Childhood,” and her wonderful books about writing “Teaching a Stone to Talk” and “The Writing Life.” Those books led me to explore other essay collections in nearby stacks, those of Joan Didion, Andrea Barrett, E.B. White, and even Emerson.

It was in a small bookshop that I picked up the well-known “The Secret Life of Bees” (Sue Monk Kidd), lesser-known “Mrs. Kimble” (Jennifer Haigh), and the sweet tale, “The Monk Downstairs” (Tim Farrington). I found some wonderful vintage classics in an old used bookshop in Great Barrington, including a first-edition copy of Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bells Toll” I bought for my daughter.

And it was in Sharon’s own Annie’s Book Stop that I discovered Marilynne Robinson’s novel “Housekeeping,” one of the most beautifully written stories I have ever read. The passage on craving and having is one I’ve turned to again and again—“for when does a berry break upon the tongue as sweetly as when one longs to taste it…though we dream and hardly know it, longing, like an angel, fosters us, smooths our hair, and brings us wild strawberries.” I knew I had to read Robinson’s only other novel, the brilliant Pulitzer-Prize winning “Gilead.” But I may have never discovered either had I not wandered into Annie’s.

I’ve tried to think why these independent bookshops are so appealing and inviting. One obvious reason is their size. I don’t feel overwhelmed walking into them. It’s why I prefer small hardware stores to mega-ones like Home Depot. Having too many choices is not always a good thing. What really matters is quality. It’s like having a humongous closet filled with blouses and pants and sweaters and shoes. But out of all of those things, there are but a few favorites that you wear—the worn-in jeans, the soft sweater, the shoes that you can walk in for miles and miles. Small bookshops are like that. They may not have the huge inventories of the superstores. They won’t have multiple discounted copies of bestsellers or non-book items like CDs, DVDs, toys and games. But they have some very good books, some real gems.

The whole experience is different in a small bookshop. In a big store, I go in with a goal in mind. I may search, but I don’t linger. And though there are exceptions, I rarely “discover” a book in a big store. In a larger store, it’s less about the experience of being there, and more about just getting what I need and heading to the check-out counter.

Thankfully, there are still some independent bookshops in the area. In addition to Annie’s Book Stop at the Heights Plaza in Sharon, there’s Paperback Junction on Washington Street in South Easton, a wonderful little shop with both new and used “great finds.” Other local shops I’ve not yet been to include Bookends on North Main Street in Mansfield and The Blue Bunny Children’s bookshop in Dedham Center. If you’re willing to travel a bit further, there’s Brookline Booksmith on Harvard Street and The Children’s Book Shop on Washington Street in Brookline Village, Newtonville Books on Walnut Street and the old Concord Bookshop on Main Street.

And though much further away, I have to mention one of my all-time favorite bookshops, the Port in a Storm Bookstore in Somes Cove, Maine. It’s worth planning a trip to Acadia just to have the chance to stop in, peruse the shelves, and discover a wonderfully obscure story tucked away in the stacks.

(This column was originally published on townonline.com July, 2006)

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