"Hi team," Ann Patchett greeted her fellow booksellers as she took the stage Sunday for a Winter Institute breakfast keynote conversation with Lesley Stahl, broadcast journalist and author of Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting (Blue Rider). Their discussion was at once formal and informal, ranging over a wide terrain yet always coming back to the crucial role of books in the world.
"My favorite time selling my book was going to independent bookstores," Stahl said. "Just seeing the hard work, but the fun work, you're doing to push our books. So, we love you." She also noted a bond between her profession and her audience's: "A couple of years ago they were writing our obit, and telling us in television and in the book world that we were dinosaurs and we were virtually extinct. And we're not. We're back.... It's as if you guys slayed the dragon in a way."
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| Lesley Stahl and Ann Patchett | |
Patchett said she had never felt anything but optimism about the future of books: "My life is night after night I go out and see crowds of people who really care about books and literature and they're passionate readers, and I never saw the dip first hand. I think that I stayed in this bubble of good cheer and optimism that really allowed me and Karen [Hayes, co-owner of Parnassus Books) to go forth and open the bookstore."
When the conversation turned to Stahl's book, Patchett observed: "Everybody in this room already knows this, but the best thing about working in a bookstore is you read things you never would read unless you were working in a bookstore.... So, I just had one of those experiences the other day. I read your book."
After the laughter died down, she added, "Listen, I don't have children. I certainly don't have grandchildren. Reading a book called Becoming Grandma was not on my radar, but it's an amazing book.... All I'm saying is if you don't think this book is for you, it's for you."
Stahl suggested they play a word association game, opening with "Trump!" Patchett countered: "Obama! With a bigger exclamation mark." Then Stahl said "Binc!"
That one inspired Patchett. "Heart!" she replied, adding that the Book Industry Charitable Foundation "is it for me. If you want to know why I'm here, I'm not here at Winter Institute as an author or a bookseller. I am here as your Binc representative." Noting that "all of us right now are looking for something that we can do to feel empowered and feel that we are part of the community," she passionately recommended donating to Binc. "Please know that I am using all of my personal power to put serious pressure on publishers to give really big money. We need to do it at a big level and a small level. This is what we do in this country. We're going to form a net as our nets are being taken away from us. We are going to form a net and make sure that booksellers are safe. Next question?"
Stahl fired off several questions, 60 Minutes style, including: How many books do you read a month? How autobiographical was your novel Commonwealth? Could you talk about the next book? ("I'm on page 4½.") Tell us a little about how you write. Occasionally, their conversation became an entertaining duel. When Stahl pressed a bit to get Patchett "to tell us anything about the new book," she parried deftly: "What are you reading now?"
Which led, naturally, to a book discussion. Stahl praised The Honeymoon by Dinitia Smith: "It's gorgeously written and I'm going to recommend it to all of you. It's been out for a while and didn't make a big splash and I'm surprised because I thought it was beautiful."
Patchett noted that "one of the great things about working in a bookstore is that you can take your favorite book that didn't make a splash or a book by somebody who's been dead for 40 years or 100 years or whatever, and put it on a big display at the front table and everybody who comes in the front door thinks that it came out this week. And they just snap it up." Her example: Act One by Moss Hart, published in 1959.
One of the best moments in the conversation occurred near the end, when Patchett asked if she could pitch a potential 60 Minutes story to Stahl.
"The health of independent bookstores," Patchett said. "It's the perfect story because it's where we started this conversation.... Independent bookstores, contrary to everyone's opinion, are doing well because we need this; we need the community center. We need to come together. We need to have some place to go.... And there needs to be a 60 Minutes story about this industry and how surprisingly successful it is."
Stahl asked the huge breakfast audience: "Would she make a good 60 Minutes story?"
Even if you weren't there, you can imagine the response. Stay tuned. --Robert Gray