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| photo: LibraryThing.com | |
On a recent edition of All Things Considered, author and NPR commentator Andre Codrescu shared the tale of his recent chance to become a bookseller. He was asked to consider purchasing Stein Books in Jerusalem, "frequented in the past by the likes of Saul Bellow and other novelists and in the present by brilliant young writers, a bookstore filled with new, old and rare books unlike any other in the city of books.
"Jerusalem where the shrine of the book is located. Jerusalem, where books are so important, they start holy wars and philosophical quarrels and just plain old quarrels. Jerusalem, where books are currency worth their weight in flesh and are certainly a lot weightier than the screen holding all your e-books."
Ultimately, however, he passed on the opportunity: "It's cheap for the money. If I had it, I would buy it for whatever it costs. You get a square of the blue sky of Jerusalem with it, a square with a cloud on it, a cloud an angel sits on reading a book."