In The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, Buzbee, a former bookseller and sales representative, celebrates the unique experience of the bookstore--the smell and touch of books, 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. Interwoven throughout is an historical account of the bookseller's trade--from the great Alexandria library with an estimated one million papyrus scrolls to Sylvia Beach's famous Paris bookstore, Shakespeare and Company, which led to the effort to publish and sell James Joyce's Ulysses during the 1920s. GOODREADS
The easy way to explain this little book of delight to people is to say, it's a life story about a person who loves books. As a bookworm, reading about another bookworms life, I found it easy to identify with a lot of things. The wonderful sensation of walking into a bookstore, that temptation to rescue a book from a neglected corner, the sense of connection to the other people in a bookstore browsing. There's just so much, that I don't feel alone in my world. I know there are others like me out there now.
This book was definitely a surprise and went beyond expectations. There are interesting bookish adventure stories that a fellow bookworm can identify with, wonderful tidbits about the book trade and the history of books. I would like to have my own bookstore in the future so this book was definitely enlightening. The history parts of the book were amazing, I actually found myself chuckling once or twice under my breath ( I was at work).
This is definitely a book you should pick up fellow bookworms.
