Bookshop Santa Cruz has deep roots in its earthy California seaside community. The downtown store opened in 1966, and was later bought by the Coonerty family, who are celebrating their fiftieth year of ownership. We spoke with Casey Coonerty Protti, who currently runs the bookshop and has fond memories of playing in the store as a child. ZYZZYVA: What’s the coziest spot in your store for reading? CASEY PROTTI: When booksellers say that they are the community’s living room, it conjures up the dream of curling up with a great book, a comfy blanket, and a cup of tea in […]

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A dozen years ago, two bookstores closed in Nashville. Tennessee’s largest city, the Athens of the South, was suddenly without a bookshop. Thankfully, the novelist Ann Patchett came to the rescue. Along with publishing industry veteran Karen Hayes, Patchett founded Parnassus Books—fittingly named for Mount Parnassus, Greece’s mythic source of creative inspiration. We spoke with Sarah Arnold, marketing and communications director for Parnassus, about the bookstore. ZYZZYVA: What’s the coziest spot in your store for reading? SARAH ARNOLD: There’s a bench by the front window in our cookbook nook that gets nice and warm in the sun in the midafternoon. […]

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In its nearly half-century in business, Book Passage has held tens of thousands of author events, hosting presidents and Nobel Prize winners and many little-known authors who have gone on to great acclaim. Tucked into an unassuming shopping center in suburban Corte Madera, Book Passage has become the heart of literary life in southern Marin County. Drive five minutes down the road from there, and you can take a ferry to San Francisco, docking just outside Book Passage’s Ferry Building store. We talked to Elaine Petrocelli, Book Passage’s founder and president, about the Corte Madera bookstore. ZYZZYVA: What’s the coziest […]

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Brookline Booksmith opened its doors in 1961, during John F. Kennedy’s first year in office—three blocks from where the future president was born in 1917. Named for its founder, Marshall Smith, who died in 2022, the Booksmith has been a vital and valued part of Brookline’s Coolidge Corner community, just up the hill from Boston. Lisa Gozashti is now the store’s owner, along with Peter Win. ZYZZYVA: What’s the coziest spot in your store for reading?   LISA GOZASHTI: We have two comfy midcentury modernish chairs in front of a large window that faces the street, with a small table to […]

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Every neighborhood deserves at least one good bookstore. For Potrero Hill, a desirable residential area with commanding views of nearby downtown San Francisco, that store is Christopher’s Books. The small street corner shop has been in business since 1991. Jackson Tejeda is its assistant manager. ZYZZYVA: What’s the coziest spot in your store for reading? JACKSON TEJEDA: My favorite spot is in this comfy old wooden chair that we set outside the door on sunny days. Customers sometimes buy books and then sit in the chair in the sun and start reading. This is particularly enjoyable for me as a bookseller when they’ve just […]

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