If I Owned an Airport Bookstore

I would stock it with books from independent publishers, and leave out books that display a full cover photo of the author on the back. I would fill the magazine racks with literary jounals and let the "news" stand down by gate 14 keep all those glossy celebrity rags. We'd sort the displays by how long your flight was. Only an hour? We suggest the latest issue of One Story (buy two just to be safe!). Got a long haul across continent or ocean? We suggest something heftier, a novel, a collection of stories thick with options.

The people who worked at my bookstore would know and love books and would roam around the terminal offering recommendations on what weary travelers should read. Maybe they could carry small stacks of poems and give them out for free. The staff would be made up of people who are the sort that dig the idea of free poetry.

There would be a corner of my bookstore with low shelves, stocked with kids books and those little play tables so parents could entertain their kids while they browsed the shelves. I think stressed parents would be greatful not to be wrestling the kids into slippery chairs at the gate and would buy books from me for both of them.

We'd offer discounts for passengers with a delayed flight (take ten percent off every hour your flight lingers, half off if it's canceled!).

Comments

[Eileen]

This is charming!

"The staff would be made up of people who are the sort that dig the idea of free poetry". I think all bookstore employees should fit that description :)

[Jessie Carty]

i would love to work in that book store!

[Rachele Alpine]

It sounds like you might have been delayed or in the airport recently! I love the idea of discounts for delays; I could have gotten some books pretty much for free after flights I've been on recently. Perhaps we could run all bookstores this way! :)

[Robbie LaFleur Moore]

Did you see the New Yorker cartoon about a week ago with the flight attendant talking to the people on the plane? The tag line was something like, "We will be landing soon. Please turn off your books."