Reading the Room: A Bookseller's Tale
Author: Paul Yamazaki
Publisher: Ode Books: 2024
Format: Paperback: New
ISBN: 9781958846698
DESCRIPTION
"Reading the Room is Paul Yamazaki's love letter to the work of bookselling and an engaged life of the mind. Over twenty-four hours, Yamazaki leads us through the stacks of storied City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, the care and prowess of his approach to book buying, his upbringing in a Japanese American family in Southern California and moving to San Francisco at the height of revolutionary foment, working with legendary figures in the book publishing industry, and his vision for the future of bookselling. Yamazaki testifies to the value of generosity, sharing knowledge, and dialogue in a life devoted to books."
AUTHOR
Paul Yamazaki has been the principal buyer at City Lights Booksellers, the legendary San Francisco bookstore and publisher founded by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter Martin, for more than fifty years. A champion for national and global literature, writers, publishers, and independent bookstores, Yamazaki was the recipient of the National Book Foundation's 2023 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. He has mentored generations of booksellers across America. Rick Simonson has worked at Seattle's Elliott Bay Book Company, one of the US's leading independent bookstores, since 1976. He is Elliott Bay's senior buyer and founded their internationally renowned author reading program forty years ago. He presently serves on the governing boards of Copper Canyon Press, the University of Washington Press, and UNESCO Seattle City of Literature.