Book People Are the Best People

Some thoughts on a great bookstore in London

Here I am on the top floor of Daunt Books in London

I’ve just returned from a trip to London and Amsterdam, where I met with Author Accelerator book coaches from all over Europe.

At our gathering, we had coaches from Denmark and Serbia, Africa and Spain, Italy, and the UK. No one had ever met each other in person, yet the room was buzzing with energy and ideas. It was filled with joy.

I kept trying to pin down why it felt so comfortable and energizing, and it finally dawned on me when Barbara Boyd (my own book coach!) said she had just come from the bookstore down the street, and spent so much money on books that she got a free tote bag. We all laughed — but then one by one, every single person said that they had been to the bookstore, too, or were planning to go after our event.

And then we talked about what we bought, and what we saw, and what we loved, and what was great about this bookstore.

This store — Daunt Books — is glorious. It is billed as a bookstore for travellers, because there are two full rooms organized by geographic region. You can go to the Japan section, for example, and find all kinds of books about Japan — travel books, other nonfiction books, novels, and memoirs.

This organizational structure pulls you in for sure, but the other parts of the bookstore were also awesome. I spent a long time in a section on books about food (and I don’t even cook!), and at the front tables, which were stacked with thick hardcover books on everything from death to birding to economic theory.

While standing at the front table, I overheard a conversation between a customer and a cashier who I’m pretty certain was the store owner. The customer was buying a thriller. With deep curiosity, as if he really cared, the cashier asked how this new book fit into what else the customer was reading.

I think I stopped breathing. I mean, what a great question! Was this cashier/store owner a writer? A book coach? Just someone who asks really insightful questions? Is this the way all bookstore owners think?

“I’m working on a project and alternating between thrillers and books on the history of music,” the customer said.

“Brilliant,” the cashier/store owner/book coach said (because London…), “What type of music?”

“Rock and roll memoirs,” the customer said, “I just read Questlove’s book.” (I think he said Questlove. I was trying so hard to eavesdrop without being intrusive…)

All I could think about was what on earth this project was all about. Well, and I also kept thinking about how this bookstore with the fascinating structure and the gorgeous polished wood bookcases and skylights was a kind of temple, and the cashier/owner was a high priest.

My husband said to me, “If I had to only go to one bookstore for the rest of my life, it would be this one.” And I thought yes — and also: oh no, don’t make me choose.

The reason all the book coaches felt such love for each other is that we all love books in a very specific way. We love reading them, of course, but we also love looking at them, and we love the creation of them — the hard work that goes into them and the hope that underlies each one: that some day, that book will end up in the hands of a reader like the thriller/rock and roll guy.

What a privilege to be counted among these beautiful book people.

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