Review: The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians

James Patterson and Matt Eversmann. The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: True Stories of the Magic of Reading. Little, Brown, and Company. 2024. 

Should someone attempt to persuade you that reading and books are a thing of the past, this inspiring collection of stories about the passion and experiences of librarians, bookstore owners, and booksellers, will serve as a fine rebuttal. The men and women that are the subject of these vignettes are all readers. Stories of all sorts transport them and those they provide books for into new ways of thinking, coping, and imagining.  They tell of how books entertain, inform, educate, and transform. They experience it themselves and see it in their patrons.  The communities that develop around bookstores and libraries strengthen the resolve and encourage these professional book people. All communities have their eccentrics and tensions.  Several of the librarians relate the intense struggle surrounding purchasing and keeping certain books on the shelves of school and public libraries during our current cultural moment.   

I do appreciate how the authors bring forth the personal insights and experiences of these professional book people. Not everyone comes into the book profession in the same way. And, then, there are amusing ways of describing their work.  I was particularly amused by Dodie Ownes. Ownes serves as adult services librarian at Denver Public Library in Denver, Colorado. On page 149 she tells of her surprise about learning to catalog books during library school at the University of Chicago. “I get into the program and take a job at the Joseph Regenstein Library.  I thought I’d hate cataloging books. Turns out, I love it. It’s like straightening out the world. Putting socks in the sock drawer, underwear in the underwear drawer. Everything goes where it belongs and makes it easy for other people to find.”

Never had cataloging described quite like that before. 

These stories will make you look at the booksellers, bookstore owners, and librarians in your life with renewed respect for the work that they do. The work is not always easy or glamorous, but seeing the joy and transformation of those they serve makes it all worthwhile.