What the booksellers are reading, arguing about, and pressing on customers this month.
The Journal is written behind the counter, usually in the slow hour after lunch, by whoever has something to say. It is not a newsletter and it is not marketing: several entries are about books we did not enjoy and one is about a shelf we got wrong for two years.
It runs in four strands, and each one is written by a different pair of hands.
Start with the staff picksOne bookseller, one book, and the actual reason it is being recommended.
Essays that took a while to write, mostly about reading itself.
A translator on one decision they made and why it took three weeks.
There is also the Children’s Corner, which is written for the adults doing the buying and is franker than the shelf cards allow us to be.
Children’s Corner