For twenty years, from 1977 to 1997, Books & Co. was one of the premier independent bookstores in the country. Stocking a wide range of quality fiction and nonfiction, Books & Co. was the kind of bookstore writers and readers dream about: a place where reading was an adventure, where interesting works would always be available, where writers would congregate to share ideas and discuss their writing. Its closing, in a rent dispute with the Whitney Museum of Art, caused a media sensation as readers and book lovers decried the end of a cultural icon. In Bookstore, Lynne Tillman tells the story of this legendary store and its determined founder, Jeannette Watson, with help from the voices of Brendan Gill, Roy Blount Jr., Fran Lebowitz, Calvin Trillin, Susan Sontag, Paul Auster, Simon Schama, Lyn Chase, Susan Cheever, Leila Hadley, J.D. McClatchy, Richard Howard, and many more. And the story goes beyond the walls of the store itself to explore the state of publishing and bookselling in a time when the very landscape of the book world has shifted radically. A fascinating account of business, books, and writerly aspiration, Bookstore is a vital window into a world so many have fantasized about.
| ||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Every few years a new book comes along that belongs to a select category one might label "the bookstore bio." Comprising such titles as Old Books, Rare Friends or 84 Charing Cross Road, these few, these happy few biographies are purportedly about the proprietors of a particular store. In reality, however, they are as much about the relationships booklovers forge as they are about books. Certainly this is true of The Bookstore, Lynne Tillman's entertaining history of a New York literary landmark, Books & Co. Founded in 1977 by IBM heiress Jeannette Watson, the shop became a legendary stomping ground for everyone from Woody Allen to Salman Rushdie. When it finally closed its doors in 1997 due to a rent dispute with the Whitney Museum, it was a blow felt by bibliophiles round the world.
Though Books & Co. is gone, its hold on the hearts of its admirers is still strong, and Tillman has had no trouble rounding up a slew of former patrons to sing its praises; the history is punctuated with anecdotes covering the full spectrum of bookstore life. John G. Hanhardt, describing Books & Co.'s philosophy section, remarks "I think of Books & Co. as a curated space," while sales rep Ed Solowitz wryly comments on the store's buying policies: "We don't even want to talk about returns. I tell people, I don't even watch election results because they say 'We're going to the returns.' I get very nervous. Returns, I get very nervous." The likes of Brendan Gill, Fran Liebowitz, Paul Auster, Amy Hempel, Susan Sontag, and many, many more writers and readers weigh in with their memories as well. And weaving in, out, and around these various reminiscences is Watson's personal account of her enterprise from its earliest inception to its final days. Books & Co. will be sorely missed; The Bookstore reminds us of why. --Alix Wilber
From Publishers Weekly
From the moment it opened its doors in 1977 to its final clearance sale in 1997, Jeanette Watson's bookstore on Manhattan's Upper East Side did everything an independent should do. It served as a clearinghouse for serious, often unconventional, titles and as a breeding ground for great readings, and through personal customer-staff relationships it brought a wide range of books to a diverse audience. But Books & Co., unable to survive a skyrocketing real-estate market and rising competition from chains and e-retailers, finally folded after an acrimonious battle with its landlord, the Whitney Museum of Art. "If the bookstore were going to continue, it would have to be totally changed, computerized, Internetted," Watson remarks. "Books & Co. was like the last nineteenth century bookstore in the twentieth century." In this fine series of reminiscences from a virtual pageant of New York luminaries, including Brendan Gill, Albert Murray, Susan Sontag, Fran Leibowitz, various store employees and, of course, Watson herself, novelist Tillman (No Lease on Life) recounts how Watson, daughter of IBM CEO Thomas Watson, created a vital literary hub for international glitterati as well as for local residents, Whitney employees, academics and tourists. Presented as oral history, the book condemns the aggressive marketing and pricing tactics of today's superstores, but it's also a celebration of what was a great cultural institution. The only regret is that Books & Co. isn't around to house this title on its vaunted shelves. 8-page spread of b&w photos and lists of Watson's bestsellers and every reading that ever took place in the store. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Here's an Author's Bio. It could be written differently. I've written many for myself and read lots of other people's. None is right or sufficient, each slants one way or the other. So, a kind of fiction - selection of events and facts.. So let me just say: I wanted to be a writer since I was eight years old. That I actually do write stories and novels and essays, and that they get published, still astonishes me. Right now, I'm working on a novel, my sixth, and also some stories and will be working on an art essay or two soon.
In April, a new collection of stories, Someday This Will Be Funny, will be pubbed by Red Lemonade Press. There is no story called Someday This Will Be Funny in it: it's a title that comments on all the stories, maybe.
Each spring, I teach writing at University at Albany, in the English Dept., and in the fall, at The New School, in the Writing Dept.
I've lived with David Hofstra, a bass player, for many years. It makes a lot of sense to me that I live with a bass player, since time and rhythm are extremely important to my writing. He's also a wonderful man.
As time goes by, my thoughts about writing change, how to write THIS, or why I do. There are no stable answers to a process that changes, and a life that does too. Writing, when I'm inhabiting its world, makes me happy, or less unhappy. I also feel engaged in and caught up in politics here, and in worlds farther away.
When I work inside the world in which I do make choices, I'm completely absorbed in what happens, in what can emerge. Writing is a beautiful, difficult relationship with what you know and don't know, have or haven't experienced, with grammar and syntax, with words, primarily, with ideas, and with everything else that's been written.
In April, a new collection of stories, Someday This Will Be Funny, will be pubbed by Red Lemonade Press. There is no story called Someday This Will Be Funny in it: it's a title that comments on all the stories, maybe.
Each spring, I teach writing at University at Albany, in the English Dept., and in the fall, at The New School, in the Writing Dept.
I've lived with David Hofstra, a bass player, for many years. It makes a lot of sense to me that I live with a bass player, since time and rhythm are extremely important to my writing. He's also a wonderful man.
As time goes by, my thoughts about writing change, how to write THIS, or why I do. There are no stable answers to a process that changes, and a life that does too. Writing, when I'm inhabiting its world, makes me happy, or less unhappy. I also feel engaged in and caught up in politics here, and in worlds farther away.
When I work inside the world in which I do make choices, I'm completely absorbed in what happens, in what can emerge. Writing is a beautiful, difficult relationship with what you know and don't know, have or haven't experienced, with grammar and syntax, with words, primarily, with ideas, and with everything else that's been written.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A book for book and bookstore lovers,
By
This review is from: Bookstore: The Life and Times of Jeannette Watson and Books & Co. (Hardcover)
If you've ever dreamed of owning a bookstore or if you just have a passion for books and bookstores, you should read this book! Its inspirational but also shows how much hard work is involved--you'll definitely gain a greater appreciation for your local independent bookstore (if you're lucky enough to still have one). Lynne Tillman did a wonderful job of intersplicing pithy quotes in just the right places in the narrative, which is in the first person from the store owner's viewpoint. The Fran Lebowitz quotes will be of special interest to those who live in NYC--they made me laugh out loud!
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Must Reading for Booklovers & Booksellers,
By A Customer
This review is from: Bookstore: The Life and Times of Jeannette Watson and Books & Co. (Hardcover)
Lynne Tillman's 1999 book "BOOKSTORE" about the New York City independent bookstore Books & Co. and its founding owner Jeannette Watson is must reading for any booklover who can't resist the treasure hunt in whatever environment that presents itself, and for any bookseller who delights in the total preoccupation of books. Ms Tillman's book is an excellent biography of a successful, compassionate bookseller and an insightful history of the mid-to-late 20th century book business. It is both immensely enjoyable and, for me, a bit sad to read; my wife and I owned a smaller independent bookstore of a similar name Ñ Books & CO Ñ that specialized in quality pre-owned hardback books and, coincidentally, was closed in the same year (1997). We didn't know, then, about Jeannette Watson's Books & Co. and took our name from Marks & Co, the English bookstore featured in Helene Hanff's marvelous book "84 Charing Cross Road" and in the equally delightful film of the same title Ñ "Co" represented the English bookstore's silent partner Cohen; our "CO" represented nothing at first and, later on, stood for "Collectibles" when our business expanded to include antiques and collectibles as theme objects for our books. As Jeannette Watson attests, those were wonderful years for both bookstores and booklovers. We certainly enjoyed them.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Engaging,
By A Customer
This review is from: Bookstore: The Life and Times of Jeannette Watson and Books & Co. (Hardcover)
I enjoyed the book, but truly it could have been better edited -- the first 100 pages were repetitive -- it felt like the literary equivalent of the film, Groundhog Day: endless returns to the inset-format commentary, rendered by the same store clerks, until I wondered what lesson I was supposed to learn in order to exit this torture. The first three or four times, their opinions were refreshing, not the twelfth or fifteenth. Other than that, I loved the characters. Yet I fail to see what the problem was: Jeannette and her clientele loved the store; her father threw money at her to keep it thriving, and even her wealthier customers offered financial help. So why did it fail? That remains a mystery. Intriguing.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
