The reader-in-residence doesn’t have to write an essay. They don’t have to host a book club or moderate a panel discussion. They don’t have to contribute to a blog or create sponsored content. They don’t have to do anything, except show up to the bookstore a couple of times per week and read.
Braun wanted to break that cycle. Is the residency replicable? Maybe. Is it scalable? Probably not. But that has never been the point. The point is to envision what a bookshop can do, not what it already is, Braun said.
“Having gone through undergrad and grad school — even though they were great experiences — there was that constant drive to show that you understand. To make something of your understanding. I’m like, you know what, we kind of just need understanding. We don’t always need proof of it,” he said.
The reader gets a small stipend for their three-month stint — $50 per month for books, and another $50 per month for coffee. They also have access to Perelandra’s wholesale book catalog. The overt goal of the residency is to foster a space for people to experience literature more thoughtfully. The underlying goal is to make them want to smash their phones with a sledgehammer.
“We do so much reading now, but it’s mostly reading for information at best. At best. At worst it’s like a pure little shot of dopamine before moving to the next post,” said Steven Shafer, Perelandra’s current reader-in-residence. “It is almost the exact opposite of what I’ve gotten to experience here.”
Shafer was selected the way all of Perelandra’s readers have been selected so far: Through word-of-mouth. The first book he read during his residency, which lasts through March, was “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley. He had different takeaways this time around, almost 20 years since he first read the book.
“When you’re 18, you feel like ‘Yeah definitely, fight the man! Become a revolutionary!’ And then 20 years on it’s kind of like, ‘Eh, I’m definitely part of the system.’ I don’t know if I’d be the one necessarily to step up and try to burn it all down. I’d probably say, like, let’s take a breath, there’s a lot at stake here.”
That’s kind of the formula of the entire bookstore: A little bit of fight the man mixed with a little bit of let’s take a breath.
“We do so much reading now, but it’s mostly reading for information at best. At best. At worst it’s like a pure little shot of dopamine before moving to the next post,” said Steven Shafer, Perelandra’s current reader-in-residence. “It is almost the exact opposite of what I’ve gotten to experience here.”
Shafer was selected the way all of Perelandra’s readers have been selected so far: Through word-of-mouth. The first book he read during his residency, which lasts through March, was “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley. He had different takeaways this time around, almost 20 years since he first read the book.
“When you’re 18, you feel like ‘Yeah definitely, fight the man! Become a revolutionary!’ And then 20 years on it’s kind of like, ‘Eh, I’m definitely part of the system.’ I don’t know if I’d be the one necessarily to step up and try to burn it all down. I’d probably say, like, let’s take a breath, there’s a lot at stake here.”
That’s kind of the formula of the entire bookstore: A little bit of fight the man mixed with a little bit of let’s take a breath.
by Parker Yamasaki, The Colorado Sun | Read more:
Image: Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America
[ed. See also: Bring Back the Big, Comfortable Bookstore Reading Chair (LitHub).]
[ed. See also: Bring Back the Big, Comfortable Bookstore Reading Chair (LitHub).]
