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January 10, 2013
Lemuria Bookstore Blog Features Emily St. John Mandel
In a blog posted by Lemuria Bookstore, Emily St. John Mandel reflects on comments made by Nicole Krauss, author of “The History of Love” and “Great House”, at Community Bookstore in Brooklyn:
She [Nicole Krauss] had recently returned from a national tour for Great House, and she began telling us about conversations she’d had with a few people along the way who told her that they buy only e-books. When she asked why, they told her it was because it was more convenient. She found this interesting, she said. When, she asked, did convenience become the most important thing?
I personally have no quarrel with e-books and believe they’ll continue to co-exist with print, but there’s something in Krauss’s sentiment that resonates. I think it applies to the decision of how and where we buy our books.
There was a time when we–all of us, the general public–were referred to as citizens. At some point this shifted, and now we’re mostly called consumers. I have some real problems with this change because while citizenship implies rights and responsibilities, to my mind consumerism mostly just implies shopping.
And yet shadows of the original word remain. The word consumer, I’ve come to realize, comes with its own imitations of responsibility, in that it reflects a very basic fact of life in a capitalistic society, which is that we get to change the world we live in by means of where we spend our money. This concept is hardly new, but if it happens that you’re somebody who enjoys having a bookstore in your town, I would argue that it’s never been more important. - Emily St. John Mandel
Ms. Mandel has written three novels that were published by Unbridled Books, Last Night in Montreal, The Singer’s Gun, and The Lola Quartet.
To read the entire blog post, visit http://blog.lemuriabooks.com/
Posted in: New Books, Our Catalog, Authors Blog, News/Press, | Keywords: community bookstore, emily st. john mandel, last night in montreal, lemuria bookstore, the lola quartet, the singer's gun
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