![]() ![]() This is one of the ways that our business, then, is not necessarily about Selling You Stuff. ![]() Some of what I read in those books I would say not only completely changed my thinking but possibly saved my life. I sought therapy at the time, but because I’m a voracious reader, I also scoured the shelves of bookstores for whatever I could find on the topics of depression and suicide, and more general mental health topics. And I will say, on a personal level, that after a suicide in my own family, I not only experienced a serious depression myself but became aware of a whole family history of depression that had gone unrecognized. When we do things like that, of course we’re always using our own personal experience or our interests as a guide to thinking through what our customers’ experience is likely to be. So when I reorganized that section, maybe a year ago, I split out several of the topics where I felt that someone looking for a book was going to want to be able to easily see everything we had on that topic. Another store might call it the Wellness section, but you’re always trying to parse questions like: Does Freud go into self-help, or do we have a separate Psychology section for the books that are theoretical as opposed to advice-giving? When we opened we just had them all in one big shelf organized alphabetically, but as the section grew it started to become obvious to me that it would be very frustrating for someone looking for books on a specific topic, such as grief or food disorders or addiction recovery, to have to browse alphabetically through everything we had. Our Mind-Body-Spirit section has always had very fluid boundaries. A biography of Virginia Woolf could be in the biography section, or in our Writers & Writing section, or even next to her fiction in the Fiction section. People on staff may have different ideas about that for the same book. While we do keep books roughly organized by subject matter, our driving motivation is to figure out where to put a book so that its ideal customer is going to run across it while browsing. Unlike libraries, where organizing and shelving of the books is an information science, in bookstores it’s an art. When did you start the depression section, and why? Prior to starting it, where were books about depression shelved? And because my husband, who helped me open the store, has an extensive background in international children’s literature, we also carry children’s books in more than 40 foreign languages. I’m a trained chef and James Beard Award-winning food writer, so as you might expect, our cookbook section is especially extensive. We’re a general interest store, though we do have two specialties. The antiques and oriental rugs give it a homey feeling, and communicate the sense that you’re not necessarily in a place that’s all about Selling You Stuff. ![]() People describe it as “European” or “old-fashioned” and part of what they mean by that, I think, is that it doesn’t feel the way most retail spaces today do feel: sanitized, pre-packaged, homogenized. What differentiates Bookends & Beginnings from other independent bookstores?įor one thing, it’s the physical space we’re in: This old garage down an unassuming alleyway is full of rustic charm. Via email, Barrett told me about the origins of the store’s depression section, how books are selected for it, and why sales figures aren’t paramount when it comes to these mental health titles. Also related to mental health, Bookends and Beginnings will discuss anxiety at its next Very Short Introductions Book Club on May 28. Armstrong, creator of the blog dooce, as well as Mary Cregan’s The Scar: A Personal History of Depression and Recovery, Daphne Merkin’s This Close to Happy: Reckoning with Depression, among other titles. In late April, the depression section featured several memoirs, including the recent release The Valedictorian of Being Dead: The True Story of Dying Ten Times to Live by Heather B. Department of Health and Human Services states that one in five Americans experienced a mental health issue in 2014, it seemed fitting to find out more about the bookstore’s depression section, which is featured prominently at the top of one of its bookcases. Since May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and the U.S.
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