Brattlecast #54 - How to Start a Book Shop

09/03/19 • 15 min

Brattlecast: A Firsthand Look at Secondhand Books

So you want to start a book shop? Good! Ken’s not afraid of the competition; he’ll encourage you. He wishes every building on his street could house a different independent book shop; he’s a proponent of idiosyncratic small businesses as an antidote to the bland, big-box sameness that plagues most American cities. So what advice would Kenneth Gloss, with his years of experience, impart to the neophyte bookseller? It’s simple: just be in great physical shape, and know everything.

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Brattlecast #53 - Objectionable Material

The past is a nightmare, but we can’t erase it. It’s important to preserve historical documents, to make them available, and to let them teach us the terrible lessons of history. But, as a bookseller, what do you do when the contents of these documents are truly vile? Is it ethical to make a profit by selling a photograph of the victims of Nazi concentration camps, or to keep a book on bomb making in circulation? And should you eschew the controversial novels of today, when they tend to become the classics of tomorrow? Join us for an exploration of these thorny issues on this week’s #brattlecast.

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Brattlecast #55 - Casey at the Bat

From baseball tragedy to book shop treasure, we’re taking a look at the journey of Casey at the Bat. The poem was first printed in the San Francisco Examiner in 1888, popularized on vaudeville, and, in 1901, published in the very valuable first edition in the studio with us today. It has been reprinted hundreds of times since, and remains enduringly popular with collectors of both literature and baseball memorabilia. Plus a discussion of a variety of other home-run hits of baseball literature.