Tuesday, January 20, 2015

First Chapter/First Paragraph: The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop


The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee was one of my Christmas gifts this year.  I'm eager to get started on it, especially after reading the opening for today's First Chapter First Paragraph - Tuesday Intros, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea.  I encourage to stop by to see what other bloggers are diving into this week.



Here's the First Paragraph of The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop:

When I walk into a bookstore, any bookstore, first thing in the morning, I'm flooded with a sense of hushed excitement.  I shouldn't feel this way.  I've spent most of my adult life working in bookstores, either as a bookseller or a publisher's sales rep, and even though I no longer work in the business, as an incurable reader I find myself in a bookstore at least five times a week.  Shouldn't I be blasé about it all by now?  In the quiet of such a morning, however, the store's displays stacked squarely and its shelves tidy and promising, I know that this is no mere shop.  When a bookstore opens its doors, the rest of the world enters, too, the day's weather and the day's news, the streams of customers, and of course the boxes of books and the many other worlds they contain--books of facts and truths, books newly written and those first read centuries before, books of great relevance and books of absolute banality.  Standing in the middle of this confluence, I can't help but feel the possibility of the universe unfolding a little, once upon a time.

I think this book and I are going to get along just fine.  How about you?

8 comments:

  1. I came really close to clicking "buy" on this book the other night when I saw it on my Nook reader! I'm thinking I may just do that soon!

    Linda in VA

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  2. I love the cover! And the intro. Now I want to run out and buy it! I'm not buying any new books right now though, so onto the wish list it goes. Maybe the library has it . . .

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  3. I've read this book! I remember really liking it...but then it's about books, so how can you go wrong. I hope you enjoy it! :)

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  4. Jane, this is a great into and great cover -- I'd keep reading. enjoy

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  5. I love the first paragraph and would continue reading. It describes how I feel when I unlock the door to the library, alone with the books before we open for the day.

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  6. That is a superb opening for a book!

    How could anyone who loves books not be impressed by these words? It very much echoes feelings that I have had.


    I look forward to reading about your thoughts on the completed work.

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  7. I love that beginning - but it makes me long for a local bookstore that doesn't have a cat.

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  8. I too love that beginning, and although I've read the book, it was a long time ago. Time, perhaps, for a reread?.... Thanks for the reminder of such a good book.

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