Annette J.
Yelp
I've been into Literati countless times since they opened but I spent a particularly large amount of time in there around Christmas, picking out gifts for several people on my list.
It. Was. Packed.
All three floors had tons of people browsing, chatting, walking around and carrying armfuls of book each. I hadn't seen anything like that in years! And instead of getting annoyed by the crowds (which I normally do in busy shops) something magical happened--I teared up. Yes, I got overwhelmingly emotional.
Why? Because the 15 year old suburban kid in me that used to hang out in Borders for hours, pouring through books and magazines, drinking coffee, and longing to be way older and more sophisticated than I was, came back with a vengeance. And you know what? I missed her.
Sure, Borders was a chain, but it was a locally based chain and in the 90s, living in Dearborn Heights, it was the best I had. And it was actually pretty good. We had a shop full of people who knew their stuff. They held signings and readings and listening parties. You even had to take a test to just get an interview (I never got an interview). Spending my time there introduced me to worlds I never knew about. I stumbled upon a lecture and meet and greet with Lloyd Kaufman from Troma Entertainment one night (and thus a brief dalliance with Z-horror films was born), I made friends with the clerks over a shared love of Britpop (thumbing through Q Magazine and browsing the music biography section for a new Unauthorized Blur biography) and secretly caught up on the old YA series' I left behind (aka grabbing the latest Baby Sitter's Club book and skimming it in the corner, lest anyone see me).
News of a bookstore's closing has always bummed me out, to be sure, but I never realized how acutely I had missed them until that moment. The moment when I saw Literati overflowing with readers, thinkers, and yes, a few loiterers. I never realized how much I missed a place to read the chicken scratch of "staff recommendations" on index cards (although the staff at Literati has VERY legible penmanship!), to thumb through the stiff pages of a new hardcover, and the joy of noticing a book I'd never heard of before but picking it up because the jacket looked cool (sorry, I know we shouldn't judge books by their cover but it happens!) and discovering it was actually pretty great. It's the best feeling, you guys! Remember it?!
Sure, a few chain bookstores remain but there's no real soul there left. Those days are gone. It's time to go back to basics. To excellently curated shops with passionate clerks and a love of literature. To teenagers and adults and children (seriously, the children's section is the bomb) discovering new things about themselves through words. To lectures and readings, poetry and plays, cookbooks and economics, children's story time and book clubs, and a cozy basement level with a working typewriter so you can bang out some prose and tape it to the wall to share with others. That's what you'll find at Literati. It's glorious. And what a blessing to have them in our neck of the woods.
Ignore the naysayers--the printed word isn't dying. It just needed to find a more nurturing home. And if 3 floors of shoppers packed in on a December evening is any indication, its future looks secure at Literati. And I couldn't be happier.
Ps--if your inner teen also needs a coffee fix the delightful Espresso Bar on the top floor will take care of that for you. Another evening found me there, sipping a latte and catching up on a little work when (much to my surprise) my old high school debate team came in for their first public exhibition of the school year. In that moment I really DId feel 15 again!