Midtown Scholar’s Menagerie: Everything, Everywhere

Midtown Scholar’s Menagerie: Everything, Everywhere

Although based in the renovated remnants of a historic movie theater, and originally beginning as an online storefront, the Midtown Scholar as it presently stands can best be described as a haven for bookworms and casual readers alike, feeling like a lodge of sorts, where its shelves are stocked with a vastly diverse array of literature, so much so that the average customer may not know where to begin.

Overview of the Midtown Scholar from the Gallery, looking down on the main stage. Photo taken from Flickr.

As described by the owners, Eric Papenfuse and Catherine Lawrence in an interview on their YouTube channel, every aspect of the Midtown Scholar’s structure from the ground up was deliberate– each panel, light, even the newly furnished stage in the center of the establishment were all placed there with the larger design in mind. The space exists to connect the consumer with one another, and with Midtown Scholar’s collection of texts, which sets itself apart from other independent bookstores through its scale and scope. For all intents and purposes, the Scholar could serve as a library, its collection of 200,000 texts rivaling most comparable institutions; what differs from the rest, however, is the presentation.

An excerpt from the reading “On Collecting Art and Culture” by James Clifford highlights a similar sentiment, as he describes ethnography as a form of collecting, relating it to the contemporary Western notion of “collection,” being that whatever items a collection consists of, they will fade without proper care, Clifford describing it as a “rescue of phenomena from inevitable historical decay or loss” (231). In this sense, the Midtown Scholar has an incredibly unique definition of collection, having it range dramatically in genre. Their collection is free-flowing and rapidly changes, and Papenfuse describes their desire to stock five unique titles over five copies of one in the same aforementioned interview, highlighting their sentiment towards collection. A diagram showing the layout and a full breakdown of all the genres and categories present in the store can be found below.

A full floorplan of the Midtown Scholar, highlighting their extensive collection of texts. Highlights all major areas of the store. Taken from the Midtown Scholar Facebook Page.

Aside from the over 200,000 titles housed in the Midtown Scholar, they have two cafes, an art gallery, and a stage at the center of the establishment that serves as a platform for authors, speakers, and artists to perform for the community; that, at its core, is what the Midtown Scholar seeks to engage with through every facet of its construction: the community– to foster a warm, thoughtful, ever-changing space that has something for everyone. It’s difficult to nail down precisely what “type” of bookstore the Scholar is, seeing as its genres range from Pennsylvanian historical accounts, to jewelry and textiles, even having a full catalog of texts on social sciences, the Scholar holds true to its namesake, baring a collection that would inspire envy in any academic.

I feel as though the two cafes located within serve as a microcosm for the overall feel of the bookstore. This too is difficult to articulate as “feel” isn’t all that descriptive of a term, but it’s essential to understand that this idea seeps from the very cracks of the foundation, as if the bookstore itself has a discernible personality. 

To elaborate, the Midtown Scholar is an inherently social space, but the average consumer may not immediately jump at this opportunity, so they head to the fringes where both cafes are located. Upon my visit to the store, most people were centralized around these places– reading, discussing, observing– before that same cafe broke them out of their shells, prompting a sort of adventure through the self-described “labyrinthian” layout by Catherine Lawrence. 

This term aptly describes the spiraling layout of the Midtown Scholar, composed of four floors with dramatically different subjects on each, allowing the appeal of the texts themselves to draw readers in and guide them on their path through the store. When they purchased the property, owners Papenfuse and Lawrence connected the basements of the two, adding a subterranean level to the store entirely of their own creation. It’s often said about mesmerizing places such as this, but I genuinely felt as though I could get lost within the establishment. When I visited the bookstore, one of the first things I noticed was how the texts were arranged in a near-overwhelming manner; shelves that tower over the consumer are what compose a majority of the store. 

View of the main stage in the Midtown Scholar during Olafur Arnalds’ performance in 2011. Taken from the Artist’s website.

Specifically, those shelves and the books contained on them reminded me of an excerpt from Lydia Pyne’s Bookshelf, where she describes the relation between a collection and how its displayed on the shelf, saying “In other words, how books are cataloged, shelved, and displayed shows a certain worldview and a particular system of thinking—aesthetic, pragmatic, categorical, or out-and-out haphazard, even” (33). The way Midtown Scholar views its collection is as an amalgamation of knowledge, and this is reflected in the broadness of what’s contained on the shelves. As stated earlier, it’s difficult to nail down what type of bookstore the Scholar is as it is such a wide-spanning store, but the message spoken through the shelves are clear: the sky’s the limit.

Despite how initially chaotic things may seem within the Scholar, everything is painstakingly organized and cataloged, which is worthy of admiration when one knows the extent of their collection. I’d like to place special emphasis on the upper level of the store, where the gallery, humanities, arts, and ephemera sections are located, among much more. 

While this is by no means the most “important” area of the store, any of which can be argued to be, I feel this is the best reflection of the beliefs of the owner on the design of their store. The shelves on this floor are as broad as the rest in the establishment, but they incorporate their dedication to the arts and humanities, having a balcony to overview shows, a gallery with work from local artists, and the upper level is dedicated to texts discussing arts and cultural interests. 

The lighting and woodwork throughout the entire store is worthy of note, but it feels more intimate on the upper level due to the small space, soft lights shining on specific paintings and books; the grain of the wood making the upper level seem like a cabin, quaint and cozy, where one can take a seat on the chairs and open a text they’re interested in while observing the art.

Overall, the layout of Midtown Scholar encourages the consumer to choose their own experience in the depth of what they offer, carpe diem if you will. The warm and welcoming design, community-driven layout, and intentionality of each detail lends this bookstore an indescribable uniqueness which attracts those from all walks of life to engage with literature in this manner. Regardless of your age, identity, or level of education, Midtown Scholar goes above and beyond in fostering a welcoming environment, despite how overwhelming it may feel when first entering.

Texts Cited

Clifford, James. “On Collecting Art and Culture.” The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2002, pp. 212–249

Pyne, Lydia. Bookshelf. Bloomsbury Academic, 2019.

Videos Used

The Midtown Scholar. LIVE | The Story of an Independent Bookstore with Catherine Lawrence and Eric Papenfuse. YouTube, YouTube, 27 Apr. 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpdFCTpNQj4&t=3432s. Accessed 1 Nov. 2023.

People & Place: Midtown Scholar’s Indelible Influence

People & Place: Midtown Scholar’s Indelible Influence

First opened in 2001 by married couple Catherine Lawrence and Eric Papenfuse, the Midtown Scholar Bookstore has grown from a humble book retailer to what can best be described as a trove of literature; with six floors in the present location carrying over 200,000 rare, used, and unique texts, any patron would be forgiven for losing track of time within its walls. Additionally, Midtown Scholar contains two cafes within its sprawling halls, providing visitors with ample refreshments and a foyer to enjoy them in. Outside of the collections it houses and shops within, Lawrence and Papenfuse also sought to change the community in which the bookstore resides for the better, spreading grassroots transformation through the medium of literature. The owners cite an interview they participated in on their website, saying that “Ideas change people’s minds and affect people’s directions and sensibilities – tie people together or fracture them apart – and so, books transform,” showing that they wish to foster a comfortable space where people can discover more than just their next favorite title (History and Mission).

Heavily contrasting the elitist concepts covered in Laura Miller’s Reluctant Capitalists, the owners have consistently sought to foster a sense of community in spite of organized booksellers and chains that continue to have a stranglehold on the field; rather than removing the human aspect like many chains have chosen to do, Lawrence and Papenfuse instead sought to characterize their storefront in the diverse image of Harrisburg, welcoming those from all walks of life. Even the layout of the store contrasts all standardized notions of what a bookstore “should” be, the sprawling shelves and spiraling levels don’t make it the easiest to locate a specific text, but may just lead you to finding something new altogether.

Looking at the demographics of Midtown, the neighborhood in Harrisburg this bookstore is located in, we quickly realize there’s a stark contrast in the people that live here– a sizable percent of individuals here make less than $15,000, with even more making between $35k and $75k; moreover, a majority of the population of Midtown is made up of people between the ages of 25 and 44, with a notable amount being those above 65 years of age. Generally speaking, this area is populated more with singles and married couples than families with children, though families make up a small percent– this lack of family has likely contributed to the abundance of humanities and social spots within walking distance of each other.

From a geographical point of view, Midtown Scholar is located directly in the middle of a diverse community of individuals from different backgrounds, incomes, and heritages. Immediately surrounding the storefront are multiple shops including grocery markets, cafes, and retail shopping centers, highlighting the frequent traffic this area gets. Moreover, a majority of the landmarks surrounding Midtown Scholar are social or interactive spaces; museums, art galleries, yoga, taverns, and more– the topography of this area heavily suggests that this is a flourishing community, deeply invested in the arts and humanities. For readers who prefer a crisp breeze over an armchair by the fireplace, there are three outdoor parks and gardens within walking distance of the bookstore, allowing one to read their titles wherever they’re most comfortable. Not as prominent as other features in this neighborhood, housing is largely centralized in townhouses, with larger living complexes like the Linden Terrace Apartments towards the Susquehanna River also taking up a good chunk of the population. As mentioned above, worship centers in this area are largely Christian, with an international, non-denominational house of worship not far from Midtown Scholar. Community highlights of the arts and humanities include galleries such as Vivi on Verbeke, a painting gallery with assorted sculptures of what can best be described as a clash of nature and americana, or Pocket Park, an interactive studio geared towards families with children that allows them to express their creativity. Harkening back to Tim Cresswell’s essay Place, Midtown Scholar has forged something more than a location within their walls– existing outside of a brick and mortar location, this bookstore has helped redefine the very place it exists within, Papenfuse even serving as the 38th mayor of Harrisburg to further affects his constituents’ quality of life, focusing many of his efforts on the neighborhood of Midtown.

All in all, Midtown Scholar exists in the populated center of a thriving neighborhood of many different lifestyles, and has ample options for food, shopping, worship, entertainment, and more, giving any visitor a wide range of options to choose from on their trip. If any location’s attempt to redefine the notion of bookstore has succeeded, it would without a doubt be Midtown Scholar, having helped shape its community for over two decades.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Sources

Images:

https://uncoveringpa.com/midtown-scholar-bookstore

https://www.visithersheyharrisburg.org/listings/midtown-scholar-bookstore-caf%C3%A9/707/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mhoffman1/9060576278

https://www.fox43.com/article/news/local/dauphin-county/midtown-scholar-harrisburg-publishers-weekly-bookstore-of-the-year/521-d50a4ae9-b492-4523-9d70-2148bea5429d

Articles:

https://uncoveringpa.com/midtown-scholar-bookstore. Accessed 18 September 2023.

https://www.midtownscholar.com/history-and-mission. Accessed 18 September 2023.

Maps & Misc:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1i9TqQIov8VQh8b1_Cqw_ybgezV4iKTg&ll=40.26961690000003%2C-76.8911064&z=17. Accessed and created 18 September 2023.

https://vivionverbeke.com/. Accessed 19 September 2023.

DJ Ernst: Where Books Are More Than Profit

Upon meeting the collections of rare and used books organized in DJ Ernst Books, in a sense, one is also meeting the owner himself. The shop is packed and overflowing with books, so much so that the paperbacks are stacked in rows on the floor along the bookshelves that line the store walls. More than that, a visitor first meets the display at the center of the shop, stacked with a mix of antique, leather-bound tomes about history, and more modern books about rivers and nature. The lack of labels here forces you to examine this center island and find a pattern for yourself, to decode the mind of the bookseller and why he organized those specific books together. To the immediate left of the entrance is a small rack of inexpensive greeting cards that I did not notice the first or the second time I visited the store. The vast array of books from many different time periods packed into this small, homey, and well-lit store completely distracted from that aspect of the shop’s products.

Along the walls, there is no shortage of signs, pictures, illustrations, and genre labels on the shelves. One is met with an almost overwhelming array of knowledge and literature. To the left begins the history books, one of the most common genres here in DJ Ernst. Instead of dedicating one section of the store entirely to history, the owner creates subsections of specific kinds of histories and mixes them with many other genres. On the left side of the shop, illustrated children’s books are right next to books about ancient history, as well as the Civil War and Pennsylvanian history. DJ Ernst’s Books has a wide collection of literature about history, as well as antique books that fall under that umbrella because of their age. Perhaps the owner split this particular genre across the entire store because he would rather not dissuade any customers who might not particularly enjoy or be interested in older subjects. If the left side of the shop was dedicated solely to history it would be very easy to ignore one half of the bookshop’s experience because of disinterest, or lack of previous exposure to the subject.

On the right side of the shop, history continues, along with poetry, and even a section just for books autographed by the author. Most notably, there are also sections for books about hunting, fishing, and the outdoors. If you are from the town of Selinsgrove, from the local area in general, or a town very similar to it, this will feel familiar to you. It might feel like this collection was made just for you, which in many ways is true; a bookstore’s collection oftentimes reflects the community, especially if it’s DJ Ernst Books, whose owner is very ingrained in the community around him.

Up ahead towards the back of the store and right across from the cashier’s counter is even an entire bookshelf sectioned off for more paperbacks, each for one dollar. Almost all of the bookshelves in the main area of the store have three rows of paperbacks lined up on the floors, and up front are even more. Most of the paperbacks are novels, such as science fiction novels or other creative works. None have expensive binding or those that would be considered rare and antique, in contrast to the center of the store, as well as everywhere else, that gives the beautiful and historical books a proper pedestal to placed upon.

Additionally, what may be hard to miss are the countless instructions and warnings scrawled on older, yellowed slips of paper that are taped almost everywhere you look. All are messages from the owner to his customers to take care of his books. Some say messages along the lines of “handle with care,” others more descriptive warnings such as “treat older books as if they were glass,” or “dust jackets on children’s book do not often survive.” If it was not clear before that the owner of DJ Ernst cares about his books and regards them as special kinds of object, it is more than clear now.

In the back, beyond the view of the customer, is a section dedicated to extremely rare books. One would think that storing product outside of the customer’s view would be counterproductive to sales, especially considering that so far the shop is full to the brim with product and wants to remind you of just how much is in here. However, considering the mind of the bookseller himself, it makes perfect sense. DJ Ernst Books is very much a personal bookstore, which more so than anything else reflects the interests, tastes, and preferences the owner has for literature.

If we begin to think of the collections of books in the store as the owner’s personal collection he is willing to share with customers, the decisions made about the interior of the store begin to fall into place. In “On Collecting Art and Culture,” Clifford says that collection is “accumulation of possessions, the idea that identity is a kind of wealth” (218). DJ Ernst is not someone who thinks of the book as only a product or an object for profit, instead, it is the collection of interesting and important books apart of his identity that is valuable to him. The owner is clearly someone who cares about the aesthetic and historical value of the book. He elevates the expensive and rare book to its own sections at the top of shelves, not simply for the fact that they are expensive, but because they are well made and have important value. He eagerly discusses the different kinds of interesting and unique ways of binding and design; he is clearly someone who thinks of the book as its own expression of art in both the content and the material in which it is presented. The fact that so many of the books are historical also reflect the owner’s deep interest in older objects, older time periods, and the aesthetic value that comes with those time periods.

 

Works Cited

Pictures

All pictures courtesty of Eneida Giboyeaux

Text

“On Collecting Art and Culture.” The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art, by James Clifford, Harvard University Press, 2002, pp. 215–250.

Map

Created with www.thinglink.com

The Anatomy of a (Mon)Dragon

When you first enter Mondragon, you do not actually enter the physical store. Instead, you enter a long hallway that leads up into the apartments. The hallway is lined with books. If you remember from my last post, this is the hallway in which people take free magazines, post flyers for local events, and sometimes take the occasional book or two for reading when the store is closed. The front door to Mondragon sits among these shelves of books like the teeth to the mouth of a dragon.

 

You enter the store and enter the “Front Room” (as labelled by Sarajane). Like the hallway, it is cluttered with books. Everywhere your eye can see, there is most likely a book. Except when there’s not. When there’s not, there is art from local artists or a record player that exudes the sounds of jazz. To your right is where the worker sits, usually surrounded by books. And then in a little corner of the Front Room is a free coffee nook. You can take a mug and pour some coffee or hot water for tea and add whatever you like to make your coffee exactly the way you wish.

***

Just beyond the coffee nook is a hallway. There are three options to go down. There is the “Side Room,” the bathroom, and the “Middle Room.” You go to the Side Room and see, again, a cluttering of books and art. In front of you is a bench and table. To your left there is a hole in the wall. This bookshop used to be a doctor’s office and the Side Room used to be where the receptionists would sit. As you peruse the selection of books, you notice that they mostly deal with international history. When you start travelling on your right side, you start with US History from the beginning. As you move along, you get to the International History section. This section takes up the largest wall in this room. The next section of books you hit then is the Economics section. Before you know it, you are back in the hallway.

***

You continue into the Middle Room. As usual, this room is packed with books, more so than the rest due to the island in the middle of the room housing their Shakespeare collection. The amount of books in this room may intimidate you, so you decide to check out half of the collection of books in this room before you head on over to the room full of novels. As you do this, you see a selection of plays from various playwrights throughout history. And before you head into the hall, you stop to look at a small wall of books covering film and media.

You step into the hall and see a small bookshelf covering a miscellaneous selection of genres from sports to literary criticism to comedy.

***

You finally find the “Back Room.” The Back Room has a lot of books but surprisingly not as many as the other rooms. One and a quarter walls are covered with fiction top to bottom. Rare copies of fiction are placed at the top of the shelves to be displayed. Three quarters of another wall is a mixture of nonfiction, poetry, and literary criticism. At the end of this grouping of books, on a table by the window, sits a table with baskets of records of many genres and a variety of sizes. Looking through the fiction section, you find books that you have seen before or heard of before. You pick up the ones that have been recommended to you.

***

Leaving the Back Room, you go back down the hallway, but now from a different angle. You can see the Front Room through the cut out where the register sits.

You enter the Middle Room again, but now, the room seems less full than before. This time, you venture to the sections that you missed. You pass the LGBTQ/ Women/ Africana/ Indiginous Studies section. This section is larger than you expected; most used book stores don’t carry a section on diversity specifically. On the same wall, there are sections on Culture, Philosophy, and Art. And finally, there is a small collection of Graphic Novels. If you do not know where to look, you might miss them. This section is the smallest and in a tiny bookcase under a window. You have never heard of most of the Graphic Novels in this section. But, there are some that look really interesting to you.

***

By the time you return to the tiny hallway between the three first rooms, you realize you have finished drinking your coffee and have been done for a while. You make a stop in the bathroom to drop your mug off in the washing basket.

You then reenter the Front Room and realize you have missed so many books in this room. As a matter of fact, you have missed walls of books. When you explore, you find a section on Agriculture and Gardening, Cooking, Music Theory, and a small section on Birth/Life/Sex/Death which is mostly a tiny religious/ spiritual section. While in the Front Room, Tiger will probably snuggle up to you as you sit and look through the sections.

You buy the books you want after having a pleasant conversation with the owner about gardening and/or books and/or Tiger. Like that, you exit the store the way you came in.

***

Mondragon has a large, large, collection of books. As stated in previous posts, this collection is made up entirely of donated books from people in the surrounding area. Benjamin’s idea of a collection of books is particularly interesting, especially when analyzing Mondragon. Benjamin says, “The period, the region, the craftsmanship, the former ownership– for a true collector the whole background of an item adds up to a magic encyclopedia whose quintessence is the fate of his object.” (Benjamin 60). While Mondragon may not sell their rare books in store, every book feels rare in the way they are marketed. First, the experience of browsing allows the consumer to find treasures within the store, like the Graphic Novel section. Mondragon does not have the newest books coming out of the press, but what they do have are books with a history. In some books you can see the yellowing of the page, pen markings of certain sections, or the wear and tear on the bottom of a book from being taken on and off shelves. When a consumer shops used, they shop the history of the book. Like I said in my previous post, Mondragon feels like a shrine to books. But, along with being a shrine, it also destroys books. Sarajane categorizes and picks out books specifically to be used for craft nights in which people take apart a book and use it to create art. This art can be seen all around the store. This complicates Benjamin’s position before because, in a way, this destruction of books is a destruction of a collection. I am continually mystified by people who worship the physical object. Bookriot, a website for the modern bookworm, reported on the destruction of books in an article called, “Books Are Not Sacred Objects.” In this article they argue that books are simply an object. They quote Rachel Fehrschleiser, an editor in Big Six publishing,

“They used words like ‘sacred’ and ‘deface’ and ‘murder.’ My best guess is that these people have little experience working in a bookstore, library, or publishing house. Books are made from wood pulp. If they don’t sell, to wood pulp they return.” (Schinsky).

This goes back to an important part of Mondragon’s identity. Mondragon is a store that is conscientious to world politics and environmental conservation. With this destruction of books, they reduce, reuse, and recycle. Their stock is in a constant state of renewal. In my group’s interview with Sarajane, she told us that her office is cluttered with donated books that she simply cannot put out due to the large volume of books already in the store. This process of recycling books helps create more room in the sore, reduce waste in dumps, and still worships the book, but in a different way.

_________

MAP

Map courtesy of Sarajane Snyder.

IMAGES

Photos courtesy of Richard Berwind

SOURCES

Benjamin, Walter. “Illuminations.” Schocken Books: New York.

Schinsky, Rebecca J. “Books Are Not Sacred Objects.” BOOK RIOT, Riot New Media Group, 20 Aug. 2012, bookriot.com/2012/08/20/books-are-not-sacred-objects/.

Snyder, Sarajane. Personal interview. 22 February 2019.

Marketing Your Collection: Journeys through Books-A-Million

The bookshelves on the sales floor of our Books-A-Million are short and low, running back toward the end of the store and giving the perception of rows upon rows of books.

We know, of course, from our research, that this is one of the smallest Books-A-Million stores in the country, (about 85 x 42 feet) but that doesn’t stop them from creating the illusion of space, with five-foot tall shelves that seem to stretch much further than the shop would allow. Laura Miller, in Reluctant Capitalists, describes this movement in bookstore architecture, discussing the “bright colors, contemporary materials for shelving and counters, bold, signage, and good lighting.” (92) She goes on to explain that “aisles were wide and shelves were low to create an open, uncluttered feel.” (92) So maybe there’s a method to this odd arrangement, but it still feels a little magical, even in a chain store. Bookstores always seem to look bigger on the inside.

The short shelves serve another purpose as well. Along with allowing me to find my boyfriend when he’s fully engulfed by the shelves around the corner, the short shelves Let you see the rest of the store from any standing spot, as long as you are tall enough. There should be a “You Must Be This Tall For Our Psychological Marketing Techniques To Work On You” sign at the door. At 5’6” I can stand in the Science Fiction section and read the signs lining the top of every other bookcase in the store, as well as turning to see the section markers on the taller shelves that line the perimeter of the room. This means that while I may be sidetracked by the board games in the store window or a brand new cookbook by my favorite chef, I can always see every genre the store has to offer, enticing me over to new sections where a face-out book might catch my eye. This was purposeful in the design, allowing customers to avoid asking for help.

The placement of the genres is purposeful too, handed down a corporate ladder by someone who has probably never seen this particular store.

It is an odd kind of collection, the corporate bookstore. In his essay “On Collecting Art and Culture,” James Clifford asks “What criteria validate an authentic cultural or artistic product? What are the differential values placed on old and new creations? What moral and political criteria justify ‘good,’ responsible, systematic collecting practices?” (221) In the case of Books-A-Million, it’s an algorithm. Sure, if a customer wants a particular book they can order it to the store or to their house, so there is some influencing the algorithm, but that is all it is. The algorithm has a little help from the ideals of the people in charge, hence the oddly large number of shelves dedicated to bibles and Christian living in every Books-A-Million branch, but generally the collection of books at BAM is a collection of what sells. And it is a collection of what sells, expertly manipulated for optimal marketing. Kids have to go all the way to the back of the store for children’s books, past every conceivable endcap and stack of toys or books right at eye level. Sci-Fi and Fantasy are holed up in the back near the Children’s books with a romance buffer between the lesser genres and the highbrow fiction that no literary purist would dare cross. In “Unpacking My Bookstore,” Walter Benjamin asserts that “there is no living library that does not harbor a number of booklike creations from fringe areas.” (66) However, I think even Benjamin would be shocked at how little of the bookstore real estate is taken up by books. The shelves in the store, which has 12- or 14-foot ceilings, cover less than half of the vertical space, and the main selling point seems to be anything other than the books. At last years BookExpo America in New York, the entire back of the showroom floor was dedicated to things you could sell in your bookstore other than books. The theory is that those things bring in more money. After all, who goes into a bookstore for books anymore?

Follow the shopping carts from the back of the store for a glimpse at what this fascinating power of algorithmic collecting and marketing can do.

 

Sources:

Benjamin, Walter. Illuminations. Mariner Books, 2018.

Clifford, James. “On Collecting Art and Culture.” The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth- Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art, pp. 215-251. Harvard University Press, 1988.

Miller, Laura. Reluctant Capitalists. University of Chicago Press, 2007.

The Collection of Religious Objects, Not Just Books

An example of the different editions of bibles that are displayed in the bible room.

As I connect the floor plan to the owner’s collection in Bible Depot, I can’t seem to think there is a specific reason everything is displayed the way it is. Although the collection is in great abundance of different objects, it’s not hard to tell what this collection represents. It consists of religious books, CD’s, and movies, crosses, urns, jewelry, kids’ toys, and of course, Bibles. Thus, the collection consists of more religious items than anything else. “The critical history of collecting is concerned with what from the material world specific groups and individuals choose to preserve, value, and exchange” (221). The common factor the collection represents is the religious items, so no wonder the name of the store has a religious affiliation to it.

When one sees the outside of Bible Depot, they wouldn’t think the store is very big on the inside. It might not be that big on the outside, but on the inside it looks pretty big because the store is set up and displayed in a way to fit all of their objects in this space. Then, when the person does walk into Bible Depot, they might think, “how do all of the objects fit in the store with the amount of shelves, and bookcases are in this space.” There are so many objects in the store, I wonder how they fit all of it, while still looking presentable. The way the owners of Bible Depot keep everything so organized and not bundled in confusion, is that they have a floor plan and compile all objects in the rooms based on the types of products they sell.

An example of “artifacts” that is in Bible Depot.

As you can see, there is a lot going on in this floor plan but somehow it makes sense. Each object is particularly placed in a section that makes the most sense to the owner. The card room in the back, consists of mostly cards, with an addition of  a DVD library and crosses. The Bible room consists of, yes you guessed it, bibles. It has a place where you can customize your own bible, and it has all different editions of bibles for all different ages in the room. The CD room consists of CD’s, kids’ religious TV shows, and instrumental soundtracks.

The store’s traffic configuration through the bookstore is that when one enters the store they usually veer right and go all the way down that aisle. When I first went to Bible Depot I followed this traffic configuration but when I got to the end of the first room, I didn’t  know where to go to next because of the amount of aisles and different doors I could go through; I was a little overwhelmed. But what I find unique about this floor plan is that there are actual doorways one has to go through to get from room to room. To me, this creates an effect that since I left one room and entered another, it’s like a whole new world and I’m going to see something completely different from what I saw in the last room.  This effect worked to an extent, because although I felt this when I walked from the room on the right from the entrance, to the CD room, I didn’t feel this way when I walked from the room on the right from the entrance to the room next to the bible room. This is because both rooms have similar book sections.

This is an example of one of the sections that is similar in two of the rooms in Bible Depot.

The books are either kids’ religious bedtime stories/books, or self-help books. I wonder why the books that have two sections in the store are the children books and the self-help books. I guess it’s because they are what the owner values most in the collection. But books aren’t the only objects that the owner values most in the collection because jewelry and urns also have a couple places in the store where they are displayed. According to Clifford, “Religious objects can be valued as great art, as folk art, or as cultural artifact. Such objects have no individual “power” or mystery–qualities one possessed by “fetishes” before they were reclassified in the modern system as primitive art or cultural artifact” (226). It makes sense to me that the religious objects in Bible Depot can be classified as artifacts because there are many crosses, statues, and posters in Bible Depot that seem to be valued and that’s why they are displayed/sold.

Another thing that I found interesting in this floor plan is that the owner lives in the store. It is located in the middle of the bookstore and takes up half of it. When one is in the bible room, card room, and entrance way to the card room they see doors that link to the house. This is interesting to me because even though half the bookstore is taken up by the house, it doesn’t feel like that. It feels like there is so much room because of the amount of items the store contains. The store can also feel like it has a lot of room because of the way the shelves and bookcases are displayed and the amount of items to each shelf and bookcase.

The owner, Nancy Ney, describes the store as “crunchy,” which to me, means that she is able to get all the items and products visible in the store without it being too much of a clutter, too overwhelming, or messy looking. When I first came to the store, I’m not going to lie, I was overwhelmed, but that’s just because I didn’t know what to expect. I thought the store was just going to sell bibles and I really didn’t know what else they were going to have in stock. This might be because I’m not that religious and to me a bookstore should just have books, but an overabundance of books. Bible Depot doesn’t just have books, they have so many other objects that just add to the collection of the store. Thinking about the collection now, it makes sense as to why all the objects Bible Depot sells are being sold. Each object represents something different to the owner and maybe that’s why it’s part of the collection. The book genres don’t vary much, so I feel like if someone were going to go to Bible Depot they’d be looking for the other objects the store has and not the books.

Sources

Text:

Clifford, James. The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-century Ethnography, Literature, and Art. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1988.

Images:

Courtesy of Michelle Principe

 

A Million Books for Millions of Readers: Books-A-Million and their Collection of Literature

According to Peter N. Miller, historian and Dean Professor at Bard College, collection is more than just an ordinary past-time or desire of the materialistic consumer; collection represents more than just owning every version of an object, even the rare ones, and displaying them for all to see. Collection, and the act of collecting, is a behavior that brings a sense of purpose and identity to an object and its owner, (How Objects). How this could possibly relate to a Books-A-Million; specifically one that sits in a dying shopping mall in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania; is even more complicated than the idea of collection itself. Books-A-Million, although it looks like every other chain from the outside, provides a collection of literature inside meant to open doors to any reader in the Susquehanna Valley. From children’s books, to classic literature, to bestsellers, Books-A-Million hopes to find a happy medium between the aesthetic bookstore and the department store through its collection.

In order to understand Books-A-Million’s collection, we must first dive into the store itself. Below is an interactive floor-plan that displays all of the available genres of literature in this BAM! and how they are placed throughout the store. Take some time to hover over each of the icons, which provide a virtual walk-through of the store.

 

After taking some time to venture through the aisles of diverse literature this Books-A-Million has to offer, it may appear overwhelming to the average book-buying consumer. Books stretch across every square-inch of the store, some even spilling out into the hallway of the mall during certain times of the year. Considering the way that these book genres are arranged; for example, cookbooks finding a place right by children’s storybooks and across the way from fantasy novels; it may even seem impossible to find that one book desired among thousands. Perhaps there is a method behind this madness?

Try to view this store through the lens of the consumer. Books-A-Million may appear to have too large of a collection, but this could be beneficial depending on what one is looking for. For the Standard Consumer, which Laura J. Miller in her book describes as the consumer seeking convenience and comfort in their shopping experience, this bookstore is a great place to find the kind of books the general population may be looking for, (Reluctant Capitalists). Selling literature that may be found useful in day-to-day life; such as cookbooks, study guides, self-help books, and more; the consumer looking for efficiency and ease in their experience can come to Books-A-Million and get exactly what they’re looking for. Not only that, but any books unattainable in store can be easily found online through their website. 

For one that wants that aesthetic bookstore experience, the Entertained Consumer, Books-A-Million strives to improve the way it presents their store so one may feel welcome to come and stay a while, (Reluctant Capitalists). Although this particular Books-A-Million doesn’t have the room to provide a sitting area or a café like other chains, they make sure to lure in the book adventurer through their assortment of genres. Books-A-Million’s variety of literature gives readers that fall into a niche a chance to find something new, and vice versa: for within these broad genres lies a sort of specificity. 

Unlike the independent bookstore, which may be more limited in what it stocks due to the personal preference of its owner or limited resources, Books-A-Million and the power of the corporate chain allow for, truly, a million books for millions of readers. The convenient system of the store caters to those that aren’t into spending hours in a bookstore, while the collection of diverse literature caters to those who want an immersive experience. Books-A-Million, like many other retail chains of its kind, wants to be the home for any and all readers. Its collection ranges from beginner novels to prestigious classic works, presenting itself to a huge market. Although Books-A-Million isn’t the end-all-be-all of bookstores, it is a starting point and valuable resource for anyone hoping to get their hands on the novel they’ve been looking for.  

 

Sources

Nonperiodicals

Miller, Laura J. Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption. The University of Chicago, 2006. Print.

Audiovisual

The Absolute. Woman shopping in a bookstore. Digital file. http://theabsolutemag.com/6461/books/indiebound-uniting-local-independent-bookstores-with-loyal-customers-one-shopper-at-a-time/

Fluke, Sarah. Aisles of books in Books-A-Million, Selinsgrove, PA. Digital file, 2019.

Web sites, e-sources

Miller, Peter N. “How Objects Speak.” The Chronicle Review, 11 Aug. 2014. Accessed 27 Mar. 2019.

Interactive Image courtesy of ThingLink. All photos tagged within the Interactive Image were also taken by Sarah Fluke. 

For The Collector

Comics Metropolis is a world of fantasy, loaded with superheroes and games for the collector to choose from. It is organized as a store for collectors by drawing extra attention to collectible items and treating them as sacred with their packaging and handling.

Stepping in the store, customers are first in a hallway between two doorways. To the left, a series of figures, figurines, board games, decks of cards, and more. To the right, a plethora of comic books ranging from oldies but goodies to more modern, contemporary comics, as well as an entrance to the spacious game room. Below is an overview through a floor plan I drew, with each blue tab symbolizing a photograph.

The first time I entered Comics Metropolis, my instincts told me to turn left. Maybe it’s the shopping baskets on the other side of the doorway, marking a sense of beginning, encouraging you to peruse the items hung on the racks and stocked in the shelves. In the very center of the room is a display of miscellaneous small figurines, covering the remaining three sides of the rack. Lining the walls are corner shelves with action figures from Ghostbusters, Star Trek, Transformers, Warhammer, Gotham, Star Wars.

Stepping deeper into this room, customers will find themselves entering yet another room with a display of figurines. However, this room seems to have more board games than the last. Varying from Warhammer to several versions of Catan, classics such as Monopoly and Risk. A few of these options are in a locked glass case while others are out in the open on shelves, same for selections of cards and dice on display. To return to the hallway, customers must turn around and walk back through the rooms of collectibles. Walking back through the room gives customers the opportunity to revisit comics they were maybe uncertain on or catching their eye one last time.

In the hallway, random boxes of comics line the wall and a small display of discounted comics stands before an inclining staircase.

Stairs
Stairs by Chris Naiman

Turning right into the store, customers are welcomed to a room of comics. Comics Metropolis has about 25,000 comics, some of which are stocked based on customer influence. During our last visit, Laura [Payne] was telling us about how they are now beginning to stock items related to Pokemon because customers were inquiring about Pokemon cards, which can be found amongst the variety of other card decks, or even books about Pokemon can be found by the graphic novels. Customers requesting certain items to be stocked by a store they love reminds me of a point from an essay titled “How Objects Speak” that goes, “The more intimate the attachment to the person, the more the person remains in the object. … Objects speak to us through the memories that belong to them”. The emotional attachment customers may have had (or still have) to Pokemon deepens the appearance of those products in the Paynes’ collection at Comics Metropolis. Memories belong to customers seeking out those objects and those objects speak to us especially so when our favorite stores start to carry them and we see them on the shelves.

Immediately to the left of the doorway, people can find a wall of high-end, ungraded comic books above $1-2 comic bins.

High End Comics
High End Comics by Kaitlynn Yeager

They are regularly packaged with plastic and a backboard, however they are not as expensive as comics that may be found at the front register because they are ungraded. These comics could easily speak to collectors just as much as the encased ones up front. Placing them on the wall not only draws attention, but adds value to them rather than the bargain ones organized in bins. It’s showing that perhaps they’re more valuable because they’re above the floor.

Moving along, beside the $1 and $2 bins, customers can find a longer shelf of graphic novels and manga, showcased in the photo here.

Graphic Novel Shelf
Graphic Novel Shelf by Chris Naiman

This is a place where I spent a lot of my time during my last visit, just glancing at the titles. I felt that the more I stood and stared, the more that seemed to reveal to me, including remakes of classics such as Robin Hood and Beowulf and comic versions of famous television shows, like Rick & Morty. The options surprised me. Above this shelf are boxed collectible statues, as seen in the photo, one of which being Batman on a horse, the most expensive statue in the store. These too are above the floor, similar to the ungraded comics hung on the wall. Putting them close to the floor may diminish their “value”.

On the other side of the store are three displays of comics ranging from anything Marvel and DC to even Star Wars. The white shelf in the back of the room, closest to the game room, begins the newest comics in the store circling clockwise. On a fireplace separating the displays is a home for select collectibles.

Fireplace by Chris Naiman
Fireplace by Chris Naiman

 Collectibles are placed thoughtfully throughout the store, this place being one where customers can see the collectibles at eye level. They are raised higher than the bargained and typically priced comics, but they’re not quite as high or “honored”, as the others in the store. Most homes put framed photos or trophies on their fireplaces to show off achievements, status, or value, which shines through in Comics Metropolis, as if putting certain items on a pedestal.

At the very end of these displays, closest to the register, is another place for customers to find discounted books in a bargain bin. Not only that, but on an endcap are 30%/discounted trade paperbacks and graphic novels. Those consist of books that Albert and Laura are hoping to push out to sell, with cheaper prices.

Discounted Books by Jacob Tashoff
Discounted Books by Jacob Tashoff

The central point of this room is the structure in the middle of the room. This is probably where customers beeline once they walk in the door. Beginning in the back, by the shelves of graphic novels, starts the alphabetical assortment of comic books from the 2000s and beyond, wrapping around to the other side, ending in Z. Below the comics from the 2000s are drawers full of older comics, also assorted alphabetically. Next to the “Z’s”, there is a small section of mixed comics that Albert hasn’t had the time to sort through yet. When asking him about it, he seemed to chuckle at the “mess”, but it reminded me of another quote, one by Walter Benjamin: “For what else is this collection but a disorder to which habit has accommodated itself to such an extent that it can appear as order?” (60). It may seem disorganized to someone like Albert who has everything else in this display organized alphabetically, but to customers, it’s just another great spot to get immersed in titles. Or, in a collector scope, it’s another place to find a one-of-a-kind comic.

At the register, customers can feast their eyes upon the most high-end comics in the place. The comics hung on the wall behind the register, organized in four rows of three, are encased 9.8 condition graded comics. These comics are for sale with some pretty expensive prices. Like the statues and collectibles within the rest of the store, these are hung up to showcase their value and present them to the customer in a way that says, “this is important.”

Other high-end comics reside in the glass case the register rests upon, one of which being $600 since it has the first appearance of Electro. Another comic I was shown by Albert was a Batman comic signed with a certificate of authenticity in the back.

Certificate of Authenticity by Kaitlynn Yeager
Certificate of Authenticity by Kaitlynn Yeager

Especially because of the presence of these collectibles and valuable objects and figurines, I would say that Comics Metropolis is a bookstore for the collector. Down to the way Albert and Laura handle the comics they stock, they too even agree that books (or in this respect, comics) are sacred items that must be treated accordingly. By packaging every comic in basic plastic and a board shows care. Same goes for the presences of locked glass cases throughout the store — it exemplifies that the bookseller has to handle the items out of the case prior to selling them to the collector. If the item was not “sacred”, perhaps Albert and Laura would leave them out on a standard shelf, open for anyone to touch or pick up. They certainly wouldn’t package every single one. Additionally, the placement in the store of the high-end comics as well as the locked glass cases shows hierarchy of value.

 

Floorplan courtesy of Thinglink, drawn and created by Kaitlynn Yeager.

Photos courtesy of Chris Naiman, Jacob Tashoff, and Kaitlynn Yeager.

Benjamin, Walter, et al. Illuminations. The Bodley Head Ltd, 2015. (p. 59-67)

Miller, Peter N. “How Objects Speak.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 11 Aug. 2014, chronicle.com/article/How-Objects-Speak/148177/.

Knights of the Long Table

There are a whole bunch of Chatty Cathy’s at Politics & Prose—and I’m not just referring to the full-time employees who love talking your ear off about their new favorite reads. (Offering personal recommendations is, after all, part of the job description.) Since the store’s cash registers and Information Desk are located front and center, no doubt the booksellers will start a conversation with you the second that you walk through the doors. And if by chance you happen to evade them, don’t worry, a large selection on the right wall toward the front of the store features “New and Recommended Nonfiction” (italics added for emphasis). But as you keep wandering, you’ll notice that the space and its contents are just as loquacious as the workers.

When Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade opened Politics & Prose in 1984, they aimed to create a place where people could share their ideas about books and important issues. Today, the indie’s new owners, Brad Graham and Lissa Muscatine, have tasked themselves with continuing this mission and positioning the shop as “a marketplace for ideas.” But Graham and Muscatine aren’t the only forces at play; the store’s interior design is also responsible for maintaining an informed dialogue.

Take, for instance, the selection of nonfiction titles within the store. When you walk into Politics & Prose and turn right, the first three sections you’ll find are Current Events, New and Recommended Nonfiction, and Biography and History. (These sections are featured above.) The particular sequence of these genres suggests a sort of collective investigation, as if the books within these categories are speaking to one another. For instance, a reader can peruse contemporary issues from a national perspective or an individual one (but, really, isn’t the personal political?) and then explore the ways in which history informed or ignored those topics.

Even more telling of the bookstore’s dedication to dialogue is the wide array of book groups hosted by Politics & Prose. The particular texts used by each group are prominently displayed in the very center of the first floor, as if the store revolves around a tradition of discussion.

When communicating with Muscatine about the bookstore’s interior arrangement via email, she quickly listed the different genres located on each floor without any mention of merchandise or additional structures. However, when talking about the lower level, she noted the presence of “a long table where our book groups meet.”

The first time I read this phrase, I thought Muscatine’s emphasis of the long table was a little silly; it seemed like such a random detail amidst the greater genre inventory. But, upon closer examination, Muscatine’s special acknowledgement of the long table signifies her pride in her roles as both a bookseller and a book collector.

In “Unpacking My Library,” Walter Benjamin writes that “inheritance is the soundest way of acquiring a collection. For a collector’s attitude toward his possessions stems from an owner’s feeling of responsibility toward his property” (66). Muscatine, as well as Graham, are the purchasers, or inheritors, of Politics & Prose, an institution that is essentially a mass collection of books. Upon acquiring the store, Muscatine said that both she and Graham “care about the role of discourse in a democracy,” a phrase suggestive of the two owners’ sense of civic duty with respect to the contents of their store. They want to use the literature within their “library” to facilitate conversation. The long table allows them to perform this task, making the object an important component of the booksellers’ collection.

Speaking of democracy, it’s worth mentioning the Washington, D.C. section within the bookstore. Since Politics & Prose is located in the nation’s capital, housing a collection of D.C.-related texts makes sense. In fact, one of the shop’s book groups called District Reads devotes itself to the discussion of books specifically about the capital and its history.

These D.C. texts call to mind a quote from “On Collecting Art and Culture” by James Clifford. He writes about the formation of a sense of self through literal and figurative entities, stating that “identity is a kind of wealth (of objects, knowledge, memories, experience)” (218). The D.C. books at Politics & Prose constitute a form of social commentary on Washington, D.C. identity, suggestive of the ways in which residents view themselves, their city, and their collective history.

This commentary becomes even more telling when you realize that, at one point, the Washington, D.C. section contained Obama bobble heads. This kind of merchandise speaks to the capitalist ideologies underlying the bookstore as an economic institution, nuancing Muscatine’s aforementioned portrayal of Politics & Prose as a “marketplace” for the exchange between goods and currency.

Bill Clinton Chatting with a Customer at Politics & Prose
Bill Clinton Chatting with a Customer at Politics & Prose

In an attempt to push the dialogue even farther, Politics & Prose holds about 400 author events annually. (Keep in mind, there are only 365 days in a year.) Many of these events are book readings followed by Question and Answer sessions. Past visiting authors include former U.S. President Bill Clinton and nonfiction writer Patti Smith, and book subjects range from education to climate change to the Middle East. Understanding that guests have historically leaned toward the left, Graham and Muscatine make a conscious effort to host more conservative authors. In this way, they can craft the most robust, comprehensive, and inclusive discourse.

The Question and Answer sessions during these events are crucial for the flourishment of healthy conversation, serving as an invitation for both authors and readers to debate and discuss relevant, contentious topics. In this way, the people frequenting Politics & Prose become part of the store’s collection. Benjamin notes that a book collection is a “living library,” and the guests of Politics & Prose are an integral part of the bookstore’s vitality (66). Along with the words within the texts themselves, the people of Politics & Prose quite literally give the bookstore its voice.

So, with all this emphasis on political discourse, why the heck does Politics & Prose carry such a large selection of greeting cards?

Yes, that’s correct, greeting cards. Shelves full of colorful cards appear toward the back of the store, waiting to be purchased by customers. The inclusion of this type of merchandise seems really strange—until you realize that a card is a form of verbal communication between a sender and a receiver, just as a book is one between an author and a reader.

The presence of so many greeting cards reminds me of a line from Reluctant Capitalists. Quoting an indie bookseller, Laura Miller notes that the independent bookstore “functions… as a place, in this society, to exchange ideas in a way that nothing else does” (220). The same is true for letters. Many writers throughout history, including Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) and Mary Shelley (1797-1851), have used the epistolary format when composing their works. Centuries later, authors are still writing in this style—evidenced by this neat article about contemporary epistolary novels. Politics & Prose represents this literary tradition—using books, and greeting cards, as a type of correspondence and a medium for intellectual exchange.

Below you’ll find the floorplan for the First Floor of Politics & Prose, followed by the floorplan for the Lower Level. Feel free to “walk around the store” and begin your own dialogue with the interior space.




Sources

 

Texts

Benjamin, Walter, and Hannah Arendt. Illuminations. New York: Schocken Books, 1986.

Clifford, James. The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-century Ethnography, Literature, and Art. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1988.

Miller, Laura J. Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.

 

Pictures

Bill Clinton < http://cache3.asset-cache.net/gc/51028369-former-u-s-president-bill-clinton-talks-to-a-gettyimages.jpgv=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=OCUJ5gVf7YdJQI2Xhkc2QMe9fPldBXFk7EUDlJUXlLWVtnFV6Q6OorxDc4baIT%2Fh96gYHN39o7h1VVHqvPhJMg%3D%3D>

 

Google Maps

Politics & Prose <https://www.google.com/maps/place/Politics+%26+Prose+Bookstore/@38.9553438,-77.0700071,17z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x89b7c9b992f1a9f7:0xb82a9184a0d413af>

 

Articles and Links

Ballard, Jenna. “Bustle.” Bustle. Bustle, 13 Aug. 2014. Web. 21 Mar. 2016. <http://www.bustle.com/articles/34809-11-contemporary-epistolary-novels-that-are-a-blast-to-read>.

Book Groups. N.p., 2016. Web. 21 Mar. 2016. <http://www.politics-prose.com/book-groups>.

Brown, Emma. “Carla Cohen Dies; Co-founder of D.C. Bookstore Politics and Prose.” Washington Post. The Washington Post, 11 Oct. 2010. Web. 21 Mar. 2016. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/11/AR2010101102811.html?sid=ST2010101102828>.

Events. N.p., 2016. Web. 21 Mar. 2016. <http://www.politics-prose.com/events>.

Hodges, Lauren. “A Community Spine.” The Los Angeles Review of Books. The Los Angeles Review of Books, 14 Oct. 2014. Web. 21 Mar. 2016. <https://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/community-spine/?utm_medium=twitter&utmsource=linesandgraphs>.

Politics & Prose Bookstore. N.p., 2016. Web. 21 Mar. 2016. <http://www.politics-prose.com/>.

J. Levine Books & Judaica: Progression of Stuff and Things

Frequently, my parents find me staring at a wall, object, or some nondescript point in the distance. Noticing the expression on my face, they ask what I’m thinking about, and will receive the usual answer: “Stuff…and things.” They may not like the lack of specificity in the answer, but it’s less of a dishonest cop-out than it might initially appear. For every thing I look at, there is likely to be a great deal of stuff my mind associates with it, taking me on a process of thought that could very well have no contextual relevance between all the stuff outside of what I’ve constructed from my own experiences. This linking between ideas (what I like to call “stuff”) and things (which are objects that act as matters of concern beyond the base function) is not a process only I can do. Let’s take a look at some of J. Levine’s bookshelves and see what you come up with.

“Things are what we encounter, ideas are what we project.” -Leo Stein

While the meanings I created from this image are likely not exactly the same as yours, there should be a significant level of overlap. Based on our own experiences, we looked at the spacing, arrangement, and content of the books in the image, and both of our minds went on a chain of thoughts and connections to reach certain ideas and feelings. This, according to Bruno Latour, is what things do to create their own sense of importance: use our experiences to attach meaning to them. With our past experiences of similar sights, the way these shelves are organized gave them a similar meaning to those past experiences, the ideas attached via that proximity.

The Levines seem to be knowledgeable of this cause and effect, and how it can apply not just to “things” in the sense of individual objects, but also “things” such as the location and grouping of objects. As is shown and explained in the diagram below, J. Levine Books & Judaica is a space organized with this association of things and ideas in mind. Each product type is grouped with others that may invoke similar feelings, allowing customers interested in one type to have a similar interest in its neighboring products. The ideas evoked by these things will guide the customer around the store, though the route taken depends on the type of customer, which ideas the customer was initially searching for, and how their path would show them the way to new things and new ideas.

Following the arrows from the entrance and its branching paths around the store, to the back, and returning to the register creates a logical progression of things and ideas. As noted in the diagram, there are two general categories of customers: those who have come in knowing what to get, and the casual shopper. Note that “casual” should not be taken to indicate a person who does not take the Judaica seriously, but rather a person attracted more to the general idea associated with the things in each section of the store more than the specific function of each product as an object. For these casual shoppers, the path splits to designate two subgroups, each with a different idea in mind.

Those attracted to the lower section of the map are intrigued by the aesthetic idea of Judaica they can own in a collection or as decoration. Such things found in this section can vary in purpose from the culturally significant Mezuzah and Kiddush cups to the somewhat comical mini Zionist action figures. Regardless of the importance to the Jewish community of these various objects, the customer who wanders this way does so due to an idea of personal importance sparked by these things. Clifford’s essay on collecting touches on the anthropological nature behind this idea: a fascination with owning artistic and culturally significant objects. Though the things in this section of the store occupy various points on the scale between cultural and artistic, they all find their way into that niche, attracting the attention of interested collectors to one place.

Considering my consistent fixation with these figures across my posts, Clifford is likely on to something.

Customers following the other path are also interested in cultural collecting, though they focus on things that carry with them ideas of learning and enlightenment. Of course, the first selections on this path are introductory books to acclimate the reader to the values present in the more specialized and significant selections towards the back of the store, where followers of this path will meet up with the group following the other path. These books, while less visually stimulating than the Judaica in the other sections of the store, also fulfill their role as things that stimulate ideas and feelings. In fact, the placement of this front section and the back section creates a sense of progression as the customer moves through the store in a single trip, or as they gain the knowledge and familiarity to spend more time in the back with each return to the store, a transition signifying the transformation from the casual shopper to the former type that is ready to move immediately to a section that once seemed physically and mentally more distant.

Due to this layout, and the sense of progression one may feel moving through the store, a multitude of ideas and feelings attach themselves to each thing. Due to this, these things will never become mere objects again, especially in light of Walter Benjamin’s thoughts on collections. Each book in his library held significance not just in terms of content, but also with regard to the thoughts and expectations that accompanied the acquisition of each book as well as the history and memories of himself residing in each copy. Things, whether they are books or Judaica, purchased at J. Levine also have the capacity to retain the identity the customer gave them from the first glance, an identity built on and augmented by the cultural and aesthetic value of each piece as well as the memories of progression and expertise created by the space of the bookstore. This holds true for anything the customer finds. Books and Judaica. Beginner and expert. Object and idea.

Stuff and things.

 

Sources

Images

Bookshelf

Mini Zionist Action Figures

Store Map: Window Display

Store Map: Danny Levine at Register

Store Map: Toys

Store Map: TMNT Kippot

Store Map

Original version of floor plan provided by Danny Levine

Map drawn with MS Paint

Annotations: ThingLink

Texts

Benjamin, Walter. “Unpacking My Library: A Talk about Book Collecting.” Illuminations. New York City: Schocken Books, 1969. 59-67

Brown, Bill. “Thing Theory.” Critical Inquiry Autumn 2001, 1-22.

Clifford. “On Collecting Art and Culture.”

Latour, Bruno. “Why Has Critique Run out of Steam?”