In Praise of Bookstores

In both Clean Slate and North Coast, Pete is the owner of Readers’, a fictional bookstore in Juneau, Alaska. Hearthside Books, mentioned in both books, is a real bookstore in Juneau, where I have spent many hours. It is now owned by Olga Lijo Serans. Susan Hickey and Deb Reifenstein, Hearthside’s founders, and Brenda Weaver, Hearthside’s next owner, were sources of wisdom, advice, and support as I wrote. They have my deep appreciation.
Like almost all of us, I buy and sell books on Amazon as well as at bookstores, and I’m not going to say anything bad about them. That said, there is nothing that can replace the experience of browsing the shelves of a local bookstore which knowledgeable book buyers have stocked with books selected specifically for their customers. Discovering books or authors you weren’t even aware of, but that thrill, entertain, inform, and explain, can substantively make your life better. It’s also important to remember that a significant percentage of every dollar spent at a local bookstore stays in your community.
The location of the fictional Readers’ is based on the former Baranof Bookstore in Juneau, which at one time I seriously considered trying to buy. I’ve spent many, many hours browsing in Hearthside Books, mentioned above. The worm-holed driftwood shelves in Readers’ are from Old Harbor Books in Sitka and the reading areas with couches and chairs from Title Wave Books in Anchorage. Barbara and I recently visited Shaker Mill Books in the Massachusetts Berkshires, which is owned by Erik Wilska, a college classmate of ours. It carries new, used, rare, and out of print books and is wonderful in ways difficult to describe. If you are anywhere near, it’s a destination worth spending a day. Bits and pieces of Readers’ are from a life spent visiting bookstores wherever I’ve traveled. Illustrating the difference between fiction and real life, however, I never been in a bookstore where serious violence occurred between two large men.