One of my favorite reads of the year. Addressed some questions about and issues with the profession of bookselling I've had running rampant around my brain for a while now. I've been craving a read like this, a view behind the curtain of running a high-end indie bookstore in the US.

And any book that communicates sympathy for retail/customer service workers gets a thumbs up from me.

Hugely recommended if you want insight into the current state of the field of independent bookselling. And there's some great book recommendations along the way.

More important, we need to recognize that oppressive forces in our society are not "letting people find what they find." Oppressors in the United States have always sought to control who reads what, from making it illegal to teach slaves how to read to removing topics from school curricula and textbooks to the book bans and attacks on libraries so prevalent in the 2020s. Oppressive forces are doing everything in their power to make sure the only books readers--especially young readers--find are books those forces approve of. By guiding readers beyond the first page of a Google search return and especially by bringing books by marginalized populations to readers, this humane practice can be an antidote to those oppressive forces. --From page. 112.