Thursday, September 16, 2010

'Confessions of an Indie Bookstore Clerk'



Our friend Karen Lillis has a memoir in progress titled, "Bagging The Beats At Midnight:
Confessions of an Indie Bookstore Clerk." Here's an excerpt via Undie Press.

"From age 27 (the age that rock stars die) to age 35 (the age that women stop stating their real age), I had the privilege of working at St Mark’s Bookshop in Manhattan’s East Village. During my short decade as a bookstore clerk, books were the stuff of my daily life: My friends were bookshop employees and bookstore hounds, and my friendships revolved around the books we recommended to each other, enthused about, lent out, insisted be read, threw across the room, and gave each other with heartfelt inscriptions. When I was in the red, I looked for ways to sell books on the side of my dayjob as a bookseller. My retirement account was a pile of stowed-away first editions which I hoped would increase in value. Days off were often spent at used bookstores. Weeks off were spent in the bookstores of other cities."


Keep reading here.

4 comments:

nygrump said...

seems to be an issue with this website, even when I try to access via google

Marty Wombacher said...

I like the excerpt and can't wait to read the book. Sadly in the future I foresee a memoir about being the webmaster of Amazon.com

Anonymous said...

"From age 27 (the age that rock stars die) to age 35 (the age that women stop stating their real age)"

What kind of "indie" woman supports that aging claptrap? You had me then you lost me, sister.

Anonymous said...

I (10:44) was unduly harsh, having now read the excerpt, which was wonderful. Still, I don't know if I'd lead with that sentence. But I do apologize for being so short.