US novelist Paul Yoon, whose latest novel Etna is published by Scribner, has delivered a paean of praise for independent booksellers…
He told Bookselling this Week: “Stores like that–independent bookstores–they’re portals into all these different worlds. They give you access to all these different worlds and, for me, that became my first encouragement to imagine and to create and to learn. I wanted to learn about everything. I wanted to pick up every book. It encouraged me to imagine.
“And to this day, whenever I walk into a bookstore, I feel safe and welcome, but also that encouragement to imagine and create. A bookstore is like having a dog–there’s a universality to it. People from all different backgrounds and cultures can come in and share being a fan of a book or anticipating a new book. In the same way that people of all different backgrounds or political affiliations can enjoy talking about our dogs.
Bookstores give us space to be a community and I love it.”