The Life of a Bookseller

Otherppl with Brad Listi

Brad Listi

Arts, Society & Culture, Books

4.8 • 554 Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2024

⏱️ 81 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A new 'Craftwork' episode entitled 'The Life of a Bookseller.' My guest is Paul Yamazaki, principal book buyer for City Lights Bookstore. His new book is called Reading the Room: A Bookseller's Tale, available from Ode Books. Yamazaki has been the principal buyer at City Lights Booksellers, the legendary San Francisco bookstore and publisher founded by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter Martin, for more than fifty years. A champion for national and global literature, writers, publishers, and independent bookstores, Yamazaki was the recipient of the National Book Foundation's 2023 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. He has mentored generations of booksellers across America. Rick Simonsonhas worked at Seattle's Elliott Bay Book Company, one of the US's leading independent bookstores, since 1976. He is Elliott Bay's senior buyer and founded their internationally renowned author reading program forty years ago. He presently serves on the governing boards of Copper Canyon Press, the University of Washington Press, and UNESCO Seattle City of Literature. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Subscribe to Brad Listi’s email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Twitter Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody, welcome to the program.
0:05.0	This is The Other People Show, a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
0:13.0	I'm Brad Listy, I'm your host, I'm in Los Angeles. I appreciate you tuning in, hope you're doing okay, wherever you happen to be. Don't forget to subscribe to this show wherever you listen.
0:24.6	You can also subscribe on YouTube, follow the program on social media, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and Blue Sky.
0:35.6	So today I've got a craftwork episode for you.
0:38.4	It is called The Life of a Bookseller.
0:41.8	I will be in conversation with Paul Yamazaki, who for more than 50 years, has been the principal book buyer for City Lights bookstore in San Francisco.
0:54.8	Paul Yamazaki has a new book out called Reading the Room,
0:59.2	A Bookseller's Tale.
1:01.7	It is available from Ode Books.
1:05.4	I don't think it's any big secret that the business of publishing can from the outside looking in seem mysterious,
1:13.6	opaque, difficult to understand.
1:19.6	And there are certainly a great many people in the literary food chain whose work and contributions
1:24.6	don't get the credit that they deserve. Booksellers are, in my estimation,
1:31.3	close to the top of this list. People who work in bookstores are on the front lines, so to speak.
1:42.0	They are the intermediaries between books and the people who read them.
1:47.1	And booksellers play an instrumental role in shaping the tastes and intellectual and philosophical
1:53.8	and even spiritual lives of communities of readers.
1:59.8	Paul Yamazaki has been a key figure in one of the most beloved
2:04.7	and influential independent bookstores in the United States for more than a half century.
2:13.3	I'm so pleased to have him here on the show. My conversation with Paul Yamazaki is coming up
2:20.9	in just a bit. So a quick reminder about my weekly email newsletter before we get going. You can
	...

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