In the shop we buy and sell them, but in truth books have no owner. – Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive. – James Baldwin

Owning a used bookstore is everything you’d think it would be. And then some! I say and write that all the time. It is so amazing. Because, if you think of it, all these books, are mine. I thought of that one day. I own each and everyone of these books. If I were to close up the store tomorrow I get to choose which books are coming home with me.

Fortunately I don’t think that way. I am excited to be the holder of books until the rightful owner comes along. Sometimes the customer finds the book they want. Sometimes it is the book who finds the customer. Have you ever experienced walking into a bookstore and all of a sudden spy the book that looks so interesting? So delicous that you have to pick it up and devour it? It could be the title. The cover. The dust jacket. But something says to you, “Read me!” I hear so many examples of that and it warms my heart.

Shopping in a used bookstore is a good thing. Owning a used bookstore is a good thing, too.

He calls books freedoms. And homes too. They preserve all the good words that we so seldom use. Leniency. Kindness. Contradiction. Forbearance. – Nina George, The Little Paris Bookshop