"The King's English: Adventures of an Independent Bookseller" by Betsy Burton
Read: 4/18/09
5/5 stars!
It has taken me a month to actually blog about this book. Why? Because after reading it, I was so astounded and, plainly, just in love with it that I could not write about it or did not know where to start. I did not think I had the words to do justice to how much I fell in love with the book.
But given how much I really want to share the merits of this book with everyone, permit me then to talk about this book in a way that will in no way capture it's impact for me but at least give you an idea of what I loved about it and why.
The King's English is the name of an independent bookstore in Salt Lake City, Utah. The owner, Betsy Burton, put it up back in 1975 with a business partner. And though Ms. Burton has a different business partner now, The King's English still stands and holds its own against the big-chain bookstores and dot-coms dominating the bookselling market today.
So, yes, it's a non-fiction book. And as a testament to how much I loved this work, it is the first non-fiction book that I almost literally gobbled up. I read it in the car, walking in a mall, while watching over my kids, and virtually during any minute I could steal to read.
So what attraction does this non-fiction, business-related book have for me? Well, primarily, it's about books. That's already a big plus. But the way in which Betsy Burton talks about books and her love for good literature and the authors who write them, the way that she talks about bookselling as essentially a matchmaking enterprise (pairing the right book with the right person), the glorious book lists!...all these made my knees weak.
Now, to avoid entirely gushing about the book, let me just list down the things that I absolutely loved about it (some of which I already mention above):
- Burton starts out by driving the independent bookseller's task down to its essence: give the right book to the right person. Don't give them what you think they should want; give them what they actually want. To a reading advocate like me who occasionally has to deal with reluctant readers, this is like a mantra, a great cause. Get to know the books, then get to know the people. Only then can you really give a person something he or she will enjoy reading.
- Burton knows books. With a Literature background, she knows her good contemporary literature and can talk about them intelligently. But, as a bookseller, she also tempers her initial book snobbishness, in an effort to fulfill her role of finding the right book for the right person.
- The lists, oh the lists! I am a list person. Most especially, I take note of book lists, and mark off books that I have read from these lists. In The King's English (TKE), every chapter ends with a book list, compiled according to the theme of the chapter, and based on Ms. Burton's bookselling and reading experience. Some examples: 25 Favorite novels from the first 25 years of TKE, 25 Thrillers with Moral Heft, 25 Books on reading books. There are 18 lists that Ms. Burton compiles, and at the end of the book, there are dozens and dozens of lists from varied independent bookstores around the US in a variety of categories. To a list person, this is close to orgasmic.
- Burton talks about the writers they have hosted in her bookstore and has delightful little anecdotes about them, such as her friendship with Isabel Allende and the near-disastrous dinner that they hosted for her, or their luck in snagging John Irving for a book signing when his novel The World According to Garp just made it to the bestseller charts. Her stories brought me just a little closer to these writers that I love.
- In particular, the book got me a bit closer to Mark Strand, one of my favorite poets, who frequented The King's English. Amazingly, he's not only a good poet but is also a very handsome man.:D (Ok, I know this sounds inane especially because he looks kind of old in this photo, but allow me a bit of hero worship.)
- In a more serious vein, Burton also talks about the impact of big-chain bookstores and dot-coms not just to the independent booksellers, but to influencing publishing, writing, and reading tastes, in general. She talks about how current bestseller lists do not really reflect bestselling books, as the system can be beaten. She laments the loss of the craft of bookselling as practiced by independent booksellers in favor of the business of bookselling, exemplified by the big bookstores whose real goal is to make a buck. Granted that her view is entirely colored by her role as an independent bookseller, I believe that she makes a strong argument. How often have people lamented why certain books become bestsellers, why bestsellers seem so shallow these days, why certain good books are out of print? Not to say that Burton is against typical bestselling paperbacks. Rather, she stresses that the independent booksellers have traditionally been instrumental in discovering and taking risks with new authors, new books, thus widening the variety of books available for all.
- Finally, Burton looks at the future of the book business. To a reader like me, this future is of extreme importance since closely connected to it is the future of the book. Last semester, I took a course called "The History of the Book," which did not only chart the development of the codex and the history of publishing, but also drew up important questions about the future of the book in our digital age. Now, I don't imagine reading will ever disappear, but I do worry about the sustainability of the book, given the current practices of the publishing industry. This problem of sustainability is excellently spelled out in this Times Online article ("The decline and fall of books"). To discuss this issue, which I feel most strongly for, will likely take another blog post.
Comments
And the craft of book selling, the value of knowledge, something the big chains can often fail to deliver. I love to walk into a store to be served by passionate people who care about books, they can enhance the whole book experience. I go back to a store, where I had great conversation with a kid doing a summer job, he must have still been in high school, but he just amazed me with his knowledge and passion for books, he was especially passionate about T.S. Eliot, but he went from poetry to enthusiastically helping me find kids books, and I really valued the knowlegable, enthusiastic service. This sounds like a fascinating book.
And yes, I do love walking into a store where the proprietor actually has recommendations for me because he knows the books and knows me already. But so far, only one store fits this bill for me--a small second-hand bookstore in my alma mater university. Even if the books there are slightly more expensive than other second-hand bookstores, I love being there because of the personal service.