Running a Bookstore

Running a Bookstore
Yoshiaki Misago (ed.) 

186 mm x 130 mm
216 pages
JPY 1,700
ISBN 9784790717706
Pub date: June 2022

The heat within books warms their readers. People gather around books. A bookstore is like a bonfire. This book describes how to arrange a bookstore’s shelves, how to speak with customers, and management skills, as well as what to aim for through work, how to apply your uniqueness, and what kind of work to create. Eighteen famous booksellers from throughout Japan, including Atsushi Horibe of Kyoto’s famous bookstore Seikosha, talk about work and life.

Reviews
“I learned a lot from the bookstore’s analogy of a bonfire and how the people who work in bookstores have thought about and practiced what they have done to keep the fires of book-related culture burning.” ―Masafumi Goto, musician

“The world is full of talk about how people will be unhappy unless the economy is on the upswing. However, what is conveyed between the lines of this book is that people do not work only for money.” ―Mitsuharu Fukumoto, bookseller

“What the 18 people have in common is a sense of entrapment and a sense of mission. Both feelings are equally strong, and they are conflicted because of them.” ―Koyuko Kimura, essayist

Table of Contents
Preface: A bookstore is a bonfire

Part I: Building fires— Creating a door to books where no bookstores exist
Chapter 1: The faith of the Kisui Kūkō Bookstore
Chapter 2: Where words open up
Chapter 3: Looking at back covers
Chapter 4: Far from the bookstore— A reading group at Teiyūdō Classroom

Three-way discussion 1: The perfect book

Part II: Stoking the flames— New value from daily work
Chapter 5: Bookstore shelving theory— “Shelf creation”
Chapter 6: Bookstore ecosystems— What people gathering in bookstores create
Chapter 7: How booksellers enjoy bookstores— A recommendation for “observations”
Chapter 8: All the work related to books

Three-way discussion 2: The book for you

Part III: Keeping the fire burning— Expanding bookstore work
Chapter 9: Widen the reader’s window— Read as if eating, write as if creating
Chapter 10: For future readers— From publishing logistics to supporting reading environments

Afterword
Book list
Map of bookstores

Keywords
Yoshio Tsujiyama, Title, Atsushi Horibe, Seikosha, Umeda Tsutaya Shoten, Maruzen, Junkudo Bookstore, Kinokuniya Bookstore, Keibunsha, bookstore clerk, bookstore owner, bookstore is a bonfire, living in a better job

Media Coverage
Asahi Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Sankei Shimbun, Sunday Mainichi, BRUTUS