Bookstores should ditch the short-term thinking of efficiency & bring back big, comfy reading chairs (which help make life-long readers). “Reading made me a reader, but so did having a place that allowed that experience to be pure, self-directed…”
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Yes! My local independent bookshop has comfy chairs/sofas and free tea/coffee (in proper teapots/coffee pots, too!) and it makes all the difference.
We don't even have those comfy chairs in the library anymore.
Libraries aren't even quiet anymore.
This post has unintentionally started a "Zagat guide of bookseller vibes from the early to mid 00s" between me and my husband.
Also more nooks and crannies! I've been to several bookstores where they've tried to make them feel more open and "modern" but I don't want that. I want cozy chairs in cozy, tucked-away nooks so I can read a random book of polish poetry translated to English for an hour.
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