What is the role of the bookstore in the contemporary, digital age? What services does it offer that mammoth entities such as Amazon lack? Can bookstores change the way we read? In his eloquent and impassioned debut, In Praise of Good Bookstores, bookseller Jeff Deutsch argues that bookstores are much more than commercial enterprises. Rather, they are civic institutions which promote unquantifiable values: community, friendship, self-reflection, meditation, and more. Drawing upon economic, literary, and art history, Deutsch also calls upon his personal experience as director of Chicago’s renowned Seminary Co-op Bookstores to make the case for the personal and public necessity of good bookstores.

About the speaker: 

Jeff Deutsch is the director of Chicago’s Seminary Co-op Bookstores, the first not-for-profit bookstore whose mission is bookselling.

Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Deutsch will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.

This event requires advance registration.