A review by corpuslibris
Rebel Bookseller: Why Indie Businesses Represent Everything You Want To Fight For From Free Speech To Buying Local To Building Communities by Andrew Laties, Bill Ayers, Ed Morrow
3.0
This book had some really interesting history and analysis and outside-the-box thinking about indie bookstores and the landscape that we now inhabit and how it got that way.
It helped me to articulate the reason I am a bookseller: "to help make life more bearable for as many people as possible through books and community." Whether it's depressing fiction that makes life feel rich or makes you feel less alone, or humor that makes you laugh, or self help or health or finance books that provide practical assistance, or nonfiction that helps you know more about the world. And Laties brought home the idea that, in this movement, our INTERDEPENDENCE is as important as our independence.
My critiques are that it felt a little insider baseball (even for this insider), and while I found it interesting, I'm curious whether those not involved with bookselling crave the detailed history he provides. Furthermore, I think the subtitle is misleading. I wanted more about those aspects of being involved in the community, and it really felt more about his specific stores and about specific events in the 80s and 90s. I think it might have more appeal for general readers if it was true to the subtitle and looked at stories of the ways that indie booksellers have been on the frontlines of THOSE struggles (free speech, buying local, building community) as well. That's what I want to see in Rebel Bookseller 3.0!
It helped me to articulate the reason I am a bookseller: "to help make life more bearable for as many people as possible through books and community." Whether it's depressing fiction that makes life feel rich or makes you feel less alone, or humor that makes you laugh, or self help or health or finance books that provide practical assistance, or nonfiction that helps you know more about the world. And Laties brought home the idea that, in this movement, our INTERDEPENDENCE is as important as our independence.
My critiques are that it felt a little insider baseball (even for this insider), and while I found it interesting, I'm curious whether those not involved with bookselling crave the detailed history he provides. Furthermore, I think the subtitle is misleading. I wanted more about those aspects of being involved in the community, and it really felt more about his specific stores and about specific events in the 80s and 90s. I think it might have more appeal for general readers if it was true to the subtitle and looked at stories of the ways that indie booksellers have been on the frontlines of THOSE struggles (free speech, buying local, building community) as well. That's what I want to see in Rebel Bookseller 3.0!