Anodyne
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
 
Saving Secondhand Bookstores -- thx Pete!

"The world of secondhand books, beginning in the context of my university, made me feel like part of the continuum of material, scholarly culture stretching back at least to the early 19th century. Becoming the custodian of old and rare books cultivates a respect for the past, as well as a sense of perspective regarding the importance of one's own work. To my mind, at least, humanities scholars should engage in the preservation of the past as well as the questioning of received wisdom.

Apart from their importance to the intellectual life of a university, bookshops add charm and character to a community. They are a crucial part of a constellation of cultural institutions that create what we think of as an 'academic village.' Every secondhand bookstore is unique and potentially full of interesting discoveries, while nearly every corporate bookstore is identical, impersonal, and completely redundant in relation to what is available online. And yet the latter proliferate while the former vanish."


- posted by cjb @ 1:58 PM


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