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The Booksellers

The Booksellers is a documentary about the magical and not-so-magical lives of booksellers, independent book-scouts, and bookstore owners. 



I loved this documentary! It was so informative, historical, funny, and diverse. The booksellers featured in the film are from all different backgrounds, but "meet in the middle" because they are all in the same profession. In fact, at the end of the film, they all come together and talk for a couple minutes about what it is like to be in their profession. 

My favorite part of the documentary was learning the history about some bookstores I knew about before the documentary and new ones I was informed of during the film. For example, The Strand in New York City, New York was part of an 48 bookstore strip called Book Row, and they are the only ones left. 

The most striking statistic mentioned in the film was the steep decrease in bookstores over just 70 years. In the 1950s, New York City was home to 368 bookstores. Now, only 79 are open for business. I cannot stress enough: SUPPORT LOCAL, INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLERS! It can mean the difference between a culturally active, diverse, and informed city and a technology obsessed, uninformed one. While I am supportive of all methods of reading (Kindles, Amazon Books, local bookstores, libraries, etc.), I would prefer you buy from local bookstores in need - especially right now. A post about bookstores in trouble from the COVID-19 pandemic is coming soon. There will be links posted there that will take you to informative articles, bookstores you can support in your area, more ways to help, and individual booksellers websites. 

The documentary mentions towards the end that most people you see on public transportation reading paper copies of books are between 15 and 25 years old, while people on Kindle and reading devices are toward 45 to 55. This means that YOU are the hope for the future of book-selling. YOU can support local bookstores. YOU can keep this craft from going extinct. YOU can help make your community a more informed, diverse, and literature-valuing community. YOU can start your own collection. YOU can be proud of your bookshelf (that's not weird!). YOU can change the literary landscape. 

Happy Reading (and Watching)!! - https://booksellersdocumentary.com/

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