Shelf Life
Remember what it was like to enter your favorite independent bookstore: strolling the shelves of local authors, breathing in the scent of new and used paperbacks, filling your tote bag with hours of printed fun? Shelf Life is a monthly column where Rachel A.G. Gilman tries to recreate this feeling, chatting with owners about the history of their bookstores, how the pandemic has reshaped the bookselling business, and some of their favorite titles.
Bookseller Best Reads of 2021
To wrap up 2021, we touched base with every bookstore profiled to hear about what’s new, and to get their picks for the best thing they’ve read this year.
Bookstore1Sarasota
Bookstore1Sarasota—the county’s only independent bookstore—opened a decade ago. Owner Georgia Court had moved to Sarasota in 2010, in part because of her attraction to a bookstore in town called Sarasota News and Books. However, soon after Court’s move, the store went out of business, breaking her heart.