美国人都在书店里干些什么？

和线上书店比起来，实体书店最好的地方大概在于能遇到形形色色的阅读的人。

所以我们特别想分享以下这几家最美的美国书店，和书店里有趣的人和事。

书店让我们相遇，阅读让我们更好地相遇。

家乡的小书店与未来的大作家

2001年，Eowyn Ivey 的家乡一家书店即将开业，她激动不已。10年后，她入围普利策奖的小说 The Snow Child 出版，这家书店卖出了最多本。

书店笑说，多亏她养活了我们这家小店。她说，可我欠这家店的还有太多太多。

In the fall of 2001, a sign appeared in a storefront in Palmer, Alaska: BOOKSTORE COMING SOON. 

Whenever I drove by, I would slow down and try to peek in the windows, and over weeks I watched boxes being stacked and unpacked and bare wooden shelves installed. I can’t remember ever being so excited about something in my hometown.

Owners David Cheezem and Melissa Behnke were among the first to read The Snow Child when it was still an unpublished manuscript. In February 2012, they hosted my book release party. Since then they have surely sold the most copies of The Snow Child of any single bookstore in the world. David openly jokes that The Snow Child financially saved Fireside Books last year. I hope it is true. It would barely scratch the surface of my debt to them.

—— Eowyn Ivey, Author of The Snow Child

一位哲学家的位移

据店主观察，随着时间的推移，这位阅读的哲学家，会从站着，变成斜靠着，然后坐下，最后干脆躺在过道的地板上，一只手拿着书，一只手撑着脑袋。好像世界上只有他自己和手里的书。

The philosopher Marshall Berman was incredibly comfortable with himself and would completely give in to whatever he was reading.

He would come in, start to browse, and then you would notice he was deeply reading for an hour or more.

As time went by on these afternoons, he would go lower and lower, from a standing position to a leaning slant and then sit right down. From the seated position he would lie down on his side on the concrete floor in the aisle with a philosophy book in one hand and a great, bearded shaggy head propped in the other without a care in the world.”

—— Chris Doeblin, Owner 

赠书的黄金年代

1969年，因为店铺搬家，书店紧急赠书。吉祥物是写着“Go West”的马车，排队的人堵满街区，每人仅有5分钟挑书。

能赠出250,000 本书的年代是值得怀念的。

In 1969 my father had to move and empty the store. As a promotion we had a horse-drawn carriage announcing ‘Go West’ to lead people to the store. Lines went around the block and we rang bells to give people five minutes to grab what they could and then give others a chance in the store. We gave away 250,000 books.”

—— Ken Gloss, Owner

全美最大的户外书店如何防盗？

Bart’s Books 是全美最大的户外独立书店。它不仅没有围墙，而且从不防盗。一次秘密拍摄证实了确实无需防盗。至于户外书店的晚间照明问题，读者们也都自行解决，不麻烦店家。

The subject of numerous TV documentaries, Bart’s was once secretly filmed from a van across the street to see how honest people were and if people would pay for books when no one was around. People came by in cars, by bicycle, on horseback, or on foot to buy books after hours. It was a rare occurrence for a visitor to take a book without paying.

Gary Schlicter, one of the former owners, says nighttime shopper “often used vehicle headlights or flashlights to help read the titles and browse.”

伊桑·霍克带妆朗诵

为了庆祝《追忆逝水年华》百年，192 Books 书店举办了24小时原著朗诵活动。许多名人都加入了，轮流接力朗诵，包括刚刚结束演出还没来得及卸妆的伊桑·霍克。而且真的有人坚持听满了24小时。

For the hundredth anniversary of Proust’s Swann’s Way (In Search of Lost Time, #1), the store hosted a 24-hour reading of the book. The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik and biographer Anka Muhlstein made the introductions. The first lines were read by poet / critic Wayne Koestenbaum.

At midnight, five hours in, Ethan Hawke wandered in, still in theater makeup from a performance of Clive, to take a turn reading. Other readers included Michael Cunningham and Laurie Anderson. Two patrones stayed and listened to the entire 24-hour reading.

罗宾·威廉姆斯最**爱诗歌！

当罗宾·威廉姆斯来到 Bookcourt 书店，就好像《死亡诗社》又上演了一次。（我们怀念他。）

While filming around the corner, Robin Williams came in and looked at the poetry section. “I fucking love poetry! I’ll be back.” He returned hours later and bought a handful of books. On his way out, he announced, “I fucking love bookstores!”

西恩·潘带来了麦当娜

爱读布考斯基的西恩·潘带着当时还在一起的麦当娜来逛书店。店员小哥告诉麦当娜有本画册上有她的照片，但是自己一直没翻到那张照片。“我讨厌男人先引起我的兴趣，然后又让我失望。”麦当娜说道。（据店主说）西恩·潘在她身后怒目。

Madonna came in with Sean Penn, who used to buy Bukowski there. I don’t think I would have noticed them except that I was thinking, That woman’s hair is an usual color of blond. Then she turned around and it was Madonna.

Our guy at the register had been a club doorman, so he knew her. He mentioned to Madonna that there was a picture of her in a photography book on the display table, but he couldn’t find the picture.

She said, ‘I hate it when a guy gets me all interested and then doesn’t come through,’ while Sean Peen glared daggers.

—— Terry McCoy, Owner