Member-only story
Ten Fictional Booksellers: My Favorite Characters from the World’s Most Noble Profession
They Know What Book You Need Before You Do
I was clearing out the glut of articles I habitually bookmark “to read later” recently, when I came across an interesting LitHub piece from a couple of years ago titled “50 Fictional Booksellers, Ranked.” Anything about books and bookselling will immediately grab my attention, so I’m not sure why I didn’t read it when I first saw it, especially since as a former bookseller I enjoy seeing how close to (or more often, how far from) reality these heroes of the bookish world are portrayed.
Lists like this are also fun to argue about, since no two people’s Top 50 anything (or Top 10, for that matter) will ever match up exactly. The only time such a debate is not fun for me is when someone puts out a list of Springsteen’s Top 10 songs and eight are from the Born in the USA album; that just makes my head explode, and if you put “Glory Days” in your Top 100, I don’t think we can be friends anymore.
The LitHub list was pretty solid, though they had to get creative to bring it up to 50 (including such minor characters as Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons and the bookseller from Beauty and the Beast seemed a bit of a stretch). They did list one gem I did not expect, the unnamed narrator…
