Graywolf Press
Graywolf Press

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The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop

A Memoir, A History

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Cover credits: Cover design: Christa Schoenbrodt, Studio Haus / Cover art: Quint Buccholz (c) Sanssouci im Carl Hanser Verlag Munchen Wien 1997

“Lewis Buzbee’s heartwarming book—an ode to the raptures of browsing, and a tribute to the ingenuities of vending—rekindles and rationalizes my love for bookstores, those sometimes ramshackle dream palaces. A graceful amalgam of memoir and history, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop celebrates bibliophilic pleasures that I hope will never go out of style.” —Wayne Koestenbaum
Price: $17.00 USD
View all books 1-55597-450-3, 180 pages, Cloth

“A leisurely stroll with a knowledgeable but unpretentious companion through some very interesting aisles.” —Kirkus

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop is a delectable feast for the reader. Like a great meal, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop provides the reader many types of pleasure. Each chapter offers its particular moments of insight and enchantment—it is difficult to pick which chapter offered the greatest satisfaction. I cannot remember when I have read a book with such delight.”—Paul Yamazaki, City Lights Bookstore

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, the joy of 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. Woven throughout is a fascinating historical account of the bookseller trade—from the great Alexandria library with an estimated one million papyrus scrolls to Sylvia Beach’s famous Paris bookstore, Shakespeare & Co., that led to the extraordinary effort to publish and sell James Joyce’s Ulysses. Rich with anecdotes, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop is the perfect choice for those who relish the enduring pleasures of spending an afternoon finding just the right book.

“A riveting, lurid account of the author’s first tremulous encounters with ‘book lust’ and his helpless descent into full-blown bibliomania. A cautionary tale every parent in America should heed, and a big fat naughty pleasure for book nuts everywhere.”—August Kleinzahler


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