I am so excited to welcome Kelly O’Connor McNees with this week’s Spotlight on Bookstores. In this personal post, she discusses the anchoring effect bookstores have had as she’s moved between five cities over the past eight years (I’m tired just thinking about that!). Even if you’ve lived in one place for a while, you’re sure to connect with her sentiments on the kinship and understanding that we “book people” have for one another! Kelly’s wonderful debut novel, The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, will be in stores on April 1
In the last eight years, I have lived in seven apartments in five different cities. For the first few years it was my own fault—I was a serial job quitter—but eventually I had a husband to (lovingly) blame. He was on the academic career path and the short-term research positions he accepted on the way toward a job as a professor prompted us to move around a lot. It was like being a roadie on tour with a rock star, but instead of wailing on the electric guitar he did theoretical physics, and instead of keeping groupies away from his dressing room I was continuously updating our car insurance.
There were lots of fun things about moving around: new accents to decipher, new weekend destinations to explore (whether by design or accident—it’s pretty hard not to find yourself outside the state of Rhode Island if you take one wrong turn). But the hardest part, always and still, was leaving behind our friends when his position ended, and starting over once again somewhere new.
As soon as the last box was unpacked, my first objective in each new place was to look for a bookstore. Whether it was Ann Arbor’s Shaman Drum (sadly, no longer around), Providence’s Books on the Square, Waterloo’s Words Worth Books, or a handful of others that have mattered to me, there was always something about putting that pin in the map that eased my mind.
I suppose it is because I often make fast friends in a bookstore. After all, book people need other book people. Who else but another book person could understand my sorrow that Mr. Rochester exists only in a story, that I Capture the Castle is literally too good to be true? This kinship can be a comfort, or it can be a matter of life or death. We book people tend to squint a lot and shuffle around mumbling, and if one of us isn’t there to grab the other by the elbow, she might walk right out into traffic!
But book people also crave solitude in a way only other book people can understand. How can we delve completely into the delicious world of fiction if reality keeps interrupting? I’ve always loved the way people in bookstores are friendly but don’t take offense when I give them a quick wave and plunge into the history section for two hours before coming out for a chat.
My husband has a permanent job now and we are thrilled to be staying put. We arrived in Chicago last summer with a car full of dishes, clothes, and two hysterical cats and tumbled into our new apartment. The rest of our worldly possessions took ten more days to arrive. What did I do in the meantime? Took the El down to Lincoln and Western, to my new favorite store, the Book Cellar, of course!
Fantastic post! We’ve moved around a lot but many of the places we’ve lived haven’t had great bookstores to welcome us. There’s nothing like a welcoming, independent bookstore.
I love this post! I’ve only made one big move, and that is from Indiana to Florida. But I can totally relate with moving priorities. Gotta find a hairdresser, and gotta find a bookstore. The rest will fall into place!
Hi Kelly! Your book is next in my queue of books to read. I’m looking forward to it.
I can totally relate. Not that I’ve lived so many places. We moved out of state once to Portland, Oregon. We knew no one and it was pretty hard. However, my loneliness was lessened when I found…Powell’s. Oh my! I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I still miss it. We came back home to Austin and I have missed Powell’s ever since.
Kelly, your book looks awesome. I’m looking forward to reading it!
Hi Kelly and Dawn
Thanks for the lovely blog post (and a wonderful blog overall) about our bookstore. Wherever I have lived I have always needed to find my “day-off route”. You know the cafe, the bookstore, the shoe store, the gallery that you tour through on a sunny day off. I feel lucky to work for the same bookstore that is on my day-off route!
Thanks for the blog-love
Best Bronwyn
Thanks, everyone, for the kind words on the post and the book. It was my pleasure to have the chance to post on this wonderful blog. Don’t you just love book people?
Someday I will get to Powell’s. Someone told me they give you a map when you walk in–is that true? That can only mean good things!
Kelly, in answer to your question about Powell’s. Yes, they do give you a map. You know, or maybe you don’t, the downtown store cover a city block. A city block. It’s truly amazing. There are other satellite stores in the area, but the main one is the one to see. I miss it.
My pocketbook doesn’t though.
What a wonderful post! My husband and I did four states in our first three years of dating, and discovering the independent bookstore, getting my library card, and finding a restaurant I enjoy are the most important things to making a new place feel like home. I’ll definitely check out her recommendations when I’m traveling!
Wonderful post! Now I really can’t wait to get to this book–an author that really gets what it means to be a reader!
This was a great post, and I truly agree with her sentiments on book people! I have just finished The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, and thought it was a wonderful read. Have you gotten the chance to read it yet? If you did, what did you think?
Kelly – thanks for this wonderful Spotlight guest post! We’ve moved 4 times for J’s job, and yes, bookstores and libraries are one of the first places I scout out
Sandy – it took almost 3 YEARS after this last move to find a stylist I liked. Twice I drove back to CT for a cut/color (2 1/2 hours each way, what a nut!)
zibilee – Loved THE LOST SUMMER OF LMA! Will be posting my review next week, just before the novel hits the stores.
Fun post. I have moved only 3 times since 1979 and all within a few miles of each other. I’ve stayed put for 20 years. Why? Well, in 1978 I lived at least two months in 5 different states. ARGHHHH. Before that, I actually liked to move.
Terrific post! I have lived almost all my life in an area with a horrible lack of independent bookstores. I’d love to have the chance to become connected to a neighborhood shop like the ones Kelly describes – maybe one day!
I finished The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott earlier this week and truly loved it!
Great post!
I was so sad the last time I was in Ann Arbor and I saw the empty store where Shaman Drum used to be. Independent bookstores closing is one of the saddest things in the world.
She’s so right. Book people really DO need other book people and I’ve done the walking out in traffic thing!
This is a great post, and boy I haven’t been to Providence’s Books on the Square in ages. I love her insight into how book people need other book people and that a polite wave is not offensive because we’re all delving into our fictional and not-so-fictional worlds between the pages. Great post as always.
I can definitely relate. While I haven’t moved that many times, I do like the idea of being mobile and for that reason, we stopped buying houses. It was too hard to sell them when the next job offer came along from out of town. Also, I’m a book person. My husband is not, so I must find book people!