What I Would do if I Owned a Bookstore

If you haven't already gathered this from the fact that I keep a blog, I love both writing and reading. As any literature lover, I also love bookstores. There's something so exciting about walking through the door and seeing all of these untouched books. There are a million stories hidden in this one room, containing far off places and characters that could become as real to you as your own friends. Best of all, once you buy a book, it becomes yours and you get to leave your own personal mark on it. You'll remember places you visited while reading that book, what happened on the day that your cover became slightly tattered, or the reason your book smells like chocolate. Fiction has a beautiful way of merging into our every day lives and becoming memories.

In other words, I should never be allowed into a bookstore (unless I somehow become a millionaire). I'm a particular sucker for buying journals... I always have to avoid that section unless I want to leave  with yet another. 

That's why, if I owned any store, I'd probably want to own a bookstore. This is what I would do:

1. Ensure that I featured books by new or lesser known authors, particularly local ones (providing their work was decent). I think that it's so important to give these authors a chance to have their work read, and to let your customers experience a wide variety of texts from various sources. 

2. I would try to have a larger section of books in different languages. As a Canadian, I feel quite strongly about this. In the maritimes (where I go to school), the French book section is huge. I can actually buy a novel in French! However, in Edmonton, they pretty much just have French dictionaries. Come on!!! If we're a bilingual country, I think we need to represent that on our bookshelves. 

3. I would have cozy armchairs scattered about so that people could look through books in comfort (and maybe sneakily read through an entire book). 

4. I would spend a substantial time reading myself (and buying my own books) so that I could get an idea of what sort of new material should be put on our shelves. In particular, I'd love to find more English translations of foreign novels. There is some amazing literature out there that really needs to be experienced by a wider audience. 

5. I would carry a huge variety of books. No, there would not just be dystopian or vampire novels in the young adult section. I haven't used that section since I was about fourteen, because I was so sick of the lack of variety (and, I'm sorry to say, lack of quality). I'm not saying that all of those books were bad, but just that a larger variety is needed to appeal to all tastes. 

Those are just a few ideas I have. It's hard to improve bookstores, but I think these few ideas would be a good starting point! 

Since I won't be writing again until the 2015 (AH!), I just wanted to wish you all a happy new year and thank you for reading. Take care!

-Laura