Why We Can’t Resist a Great Bookstore
The Book Review - The New York Times
In this episode of The Book Review from The New York Times, host MJ Franklin visits McNally Jackson Seaport in Manhattan with producer Sarah Dimon to explore the magic and
Key takeaways
- Bookstores are more than retail spaces—they serve as emotional sanctuaries and community hubs where people form deep connections.
- The experience of browsing a bookstore is deeply personal and often transformative, with booksellers playing a crucial role in guiding readers to meaningful titles.
Main topics
- The emotional and spiritual significance of bookstores
- Personal stories from bookstore owners and staff
Notable quotes
"This is like my little family, my five kids or something." – Sarah McNally on her relationship with McNally Jackson
"Going into a bookstore is both like seeing a lot of old friends." – Jen Harlan on the emotional connection readers have with bookstores
Conclusion
This episode celebrates bookstores not just as places to buy books, but as vital cultural spaces that nurture
Transcript preview
Speaker 4 (0:00) I walk into a bookstore and I get very woo-woo and I'm like, the books will speak to me. I just have to open myself up and whatever needs to emerge will emerge. So, we're on a field trip. Speaker 3 (0:11) We're on a field trip. Speaker 4 (0:11) This is The Book Review from The New York Times. I'm MJ Franklin, in for Gilbert Cruz, and recently I left my desk, left the building, and journeyed out to visit one of my favorite bookstores in New York, McNally Jackson Seaport, down at the southern tip of Manhattan. Speaker 3 (0:27) Whoa, it's so much bigger up here than I thought it was going to be. This Speaker 4 (0:30) bookstore is low-key huge, which is also a really nice thing about McNally. When Speaker 3 (0:34) we walked in, it was just like a little entryway. But Speaker 4 (0:37) it's actually a giant bookstore. I made the trip with producer Sarah Dimon, and we went down there because the Times just started publishing guides for bookstore crawls that anyone can follow around New York City. In honor of that, we're devoting this entire episode to bookstores. We're talking to a bookstore owner. We're going to be chatting about what makes bookstores so special to readers. And last but not least, we have a ton of book recommendations of books about bookstores, about booksellers. It's going to be great. Speaker 3 (1:08) Do you feel like you pick up a bunch of books that you then carry around the entire time you're shopping until the very end and you're like, these are my babies and I have to let one go? Speaker 4 (1:15) A thousand percent. You see a book and you're like, mine, mine. I've imprinted on it. It is imprinted on me. We are in it together. So we are heading toward the back employees-only room, and we are going to chat with Sarah McNally, the owner of McNally Jackson, for 22 years. They said upstairs, there's a side room. There's the Lord of the Rings. Coming to a bookstore, it's like, oh, my friends, there's the Lord of the Rings. There's Stephen King. Speaker 2 (1:44) Hello. Hi. I Speaker 4 (1:46) wanted to start our conversation by asking a question I think a lot of readers have, which is, what is it like to own a bookstore? That's so many people's dream. Can you tell me about your relationship to this bookstore? Speaker 3 (1:55) This location? Speaker 4 (1:57) McNally Jackson in general. McNally Jackson Speaker 3 (1:58) in general. I mean, my relationship, it's like, I mean, it's like my little family, my five kids or something. The first bookstore I opened was in 2004. And so that was the space that I had almost the strongest relationship with because I, built it when I was 29 years old with my father who's a cabinet maker and on the first year anniversary of that store I drank a bottle of wine there alone, and I lay on the floor of the store, and I felt almost like every inch of that store I had touched and worked with, I hadn't had a day apart from it for that year. And that store was a profound physical relationship almost, because I worked nonstop in it for years and years and years. Speaker 4 (2:45) Can you tell me something that readers might not know about what it means to run a bookstore? Hmm. Speaker 3 (2:52) We have always been a place where people have, we've had so many wedding proposals Speaker 2 (2:57) here and even weddings and people coming for their wedding photos because they met in the stacks in our stores and then they fell in love. We've Speaker 3 (3:03) had Speaker 2 (3:03) so many beautiful stories. Here, we're trying to think very Speaker 3 (3:07) deliberately about how to make spaces where people who are readers can find and meet each other. And that, I don't know if that's like a secret the readers don't know about, but that is what... You know, in our weekly meetings, we spend about 15, 20 minutes every week talking about ways in which we can make spaces for people to find each other around books. Can Speaker 4 (3:27) you tell me a little bit about what you're seeing this summer in terms of what books readers are really excited about? Speaker 3 (3:34) Okay, well, this is the summer of horror. I mean, last summer was the summer of romance. We were selling romance hand over fist. And this year, horror is starting to really take over. And there's amazing international horror being translated, which is kind of fun, right? I want to do some kind of feature of horror from around the world to see how different, like the Japanese horror. There's some horror from like Nigerian horror and how different countries interpret, how different writers in different countries interpret what is terrifying. Speaker 4 (4:01) Every country has its like. Every country has its sea myth, and every country has its monster. Mm Speaker 3 (4:08) -hmm. Yeah. Speaker 4 (4:09) Last question, which is, can you give me a book recommendation, new or just something that you personally love? Speaker 3 (4:16) Emma Klein's new book is called Switzy, and it is... a masterpiece. It is a mother friggin' masterpiece and everybody should read it. It's about something that actually sounds depressing. I'm worried if I say what it's about, people won't want to read it. So I'm not going to say what it's about. Just, it is innovative and exciting. Speaker 4 (4:33) Thank you for the book recommendation. And thank you for just chatting in general. This has been a gift and a privilege for any book lover to get to talk to a bookstore owner and pick their brain. Thank you. Speaker 3 (4:44) Thanks for coming. Bye. Bye. Speaker 4 (4:49) How do we get Speaker 3 (4:50) up here? Speaker 4 (4:51) The labyrinth, this Speaker 3 (4:53) way. Oh, employees only. Speaker 4 (4:59) Rounding out our bookstore trip, I, predictably, did not make it out without picking up a few books that caught my eye. Speaker 1 (5:08) These are the five I'd like Speaker 4 (5:09) to get. It's quite a stack. Speaker 1 (5:12) Larry McMurch, I learned some stuff. Have you read any of Larry McMurch's stuff? I haven't, and I'm so behind. Speaker 4 (5:18) After the break, I'm talking to my colleague, Jennifer Harlan. She brings us deep into the Bookstore Crawl project. She explains how the idea came together, and she shares her criteria for the perfect route. Do you just want the back? So, I'll give you some bookmarks. Thank Speaker 1 (5:32) you. Speaker 1 (5:38) I'm Jonathan Knight, and I'm the general manager of New York Times Games. 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Speaker 4 (6:43) We're back in the studio, and to continue our bookstore celebration, I want to talk to our resident bookstore expert, Jen Harlan, a fellow editor here at The Book Review. Jen recently started a new series putting together bookstore crawls for various neighborhoods in New York City. Jen, welcome. Thank Speaker 2 (7:03) you so much for having me. Speaker 4 (7:04) I'm so excited to