In my world, the words “magic” and “bookstore” clearly belong together. If you’re not sure about that, read My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read and Shop. As Richard Russo notes in his introduction, writers form lifelong attachments to bookstores, and this book is a demonstration of that devotion. More than 60 writers, including Isabel Allende, Rick Bragg, Dave Eggers, Fannie Flagg, Ian Frazier, Pico Iyer, Chuck Palahniuk, Ann Patchett, Edith Pearlman, Francine Prose, Lisa See and Lee Smith, offer love-letter essays and stories about their favorite bookstores. Complementing each chapter are delightful sketches of the bookstore by illustrator Leif Parsons.
From small-town bookstores that you’ve never heard of (John Grisham writes about That Bookstore in Blytheville, Ark.,) to the well-known big-city Strand Book Store in New…