If that photo, above, makes your heart flutter because, like me, you love books — not just reading but actual, physical, fill your shelves and stack them on your bedside table books — you will adore The Booksellers, D.W. Young’s wonderful documentary about the rare book world.
Not only do we get a behind-the-scenes tour of some of the best bookstores in the U.S. and London, but we get to really understand the process — and the joy — of snagging treasures like Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex (which Bill Gates purchased at auction for more than $30 million) and uncovering secrets like pulp romance novels that turned out to be written under a pseudonym by Louisa May Alcott (which were discovered by legendary dealers, Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine B. Stern).
The collectors’ enthusiasm and passion are infectious, and it’s obvious they’re doing what they do out of love, not for the money. They shlep heavy cartons of their wares to book fairs and sacrifice personal space to make room for more books. And, as author Fran Lebowitz hilariously observes about the grumpy old men who used to own dozens of bookstores on 4th Avenue in Manhattan (once known as Book Row), “They don’t want to sell you anything because they just want to sit there and read all day.”
Because this is a documentary about books, you know there are lots of eccentric characters. These collectors get excited about everything from giant books with centerfolds of fish to books bound with human skin to vintage book jackets.
But, in case you’re thinking these people are as dusty as the old bookstores some of them inhabit, the filmmakers are actually optimistic about the future.
There’s no question the internet and the kindle have completely changed the way book collecting and selling is done but, thankfully, there’s a new generation happy to take the baton. They’re young, diverse, tech-savvy and ingrained in pop culture. There’s a young black woman archiving everything hip hop, and a young white woman who appears regularly on Pawn Stars as a rare book expert.
These are the people who will make sure books will live on — not just as objects of nostalgia but as sources of magic, understanding and joy.
Savor this documentary, then treat yourself to a new book.
You can stream The Booksellers here from my favorite theater, the Angelika Film Center.
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