An affectionate history of the American bookstore and its central place in American cultural life, from department stores to indies, from highbrow dealers trading in first editions to sidewalk vendors, and from chains to special-interest community destinations
He has produced a work of popular history that is both entertaining and informative ... Despite its high degree of anecdotal liveliness, The Bookshop slowly grows quietly, unavoidably elegiac ... Clear-eyed.
A spirited defense ... Friss’s book is organized like the best of such literary emporiums: a little higgledy-piggledy, with surprise diversions here and there ... Considers how little overhead is required to nourish the fundamental human hunger for knowledge.
An engaging history ... Friss...has made the shrewd decision to tell the story of American bookselling through the lives of its most interesting and colorful practitioners.
