Shop Talk

a literal penny for (y)our thoughts

The theme song of this show (also called “It’s a Living”) runs through my head kind of a lot. Life’s not the French Riviera, indeed.

I don’t often talk about Thank You Books, the bookstore I co-own, in this space, out of some effort, I suppose, to keep my “work life” separate from whatever this is, but of course, that’s silly, and also impossible. I’m never not thinking about the store, what it needs, what the people who make it so special need, what book commerce represents in this falling-apart moment in history, and how to inure my soul to the less savory aspects of running a business. We can use adjectives like “small” and “indie” all day long, but a business is a business, and the demands of one not infrequently grate against popular ideas of “community” and “third spaces.”