Naming the Bookstore

Writer Ann Patchett lives in Nashville, which between December 2010 and May 2011 lost both of its bookstores. You read that right: Two years ago Nashville, Tennessee, a city with a population of almost 600,000, had only two bookstores. And then it had none.

Patchett – the author of eight books, including the novels Bel Canto and State of Wonder – thought someone should do something about it. Someone else, of course: “I wanted to go into retail about as much as I wanted to go into the Army.” Then she met Karen Hayes, a sales rep for Random House.

Patchett describes that meeting in “The Bookstore Strikes Back,” in the December issue of The Atlantic:

Karen pulled a business proposal out of her bag and handed it to me.

“It’s called Parnassus Books,” she said.

I looked at the word, which struck me as hard to spell and harder to remember. I shook my head. “I don’t like it,” I said. How many people would know what it meant? (In Greek mythology, Mount Parnassus is the home of literature, learning, music, and, I think, a few other valuable things.) I had wanted a store called Independent People, after the great Halldór Laxness novel about Iceland and sheep, or perhaps Red Bird Books, as I believed that simple titles, especially those containing colors, are memorable.

“I’ve always wanted a bookstore called Parnassus,” Karen said.

I looked at this woman I didn’t know, my potential business partner. I wanted a bookstore in Nashville, but why should I be the one to name it? “You’re the one who’s going to work there,” I told her.

Patchett and Hayes did become business partners, and Parnassus Books opened on November 16, 2011. The following Saturday – the official grand opening – “an estimated 3,000 Nashvillians came through the store,” Patchett writes. Local and national news outlets clamored for interviews. A year later, customers “are lined up outside most mornings when we open our doors.”

Patchett concludes that Karen Hayes was right: “Parnassus, I could finally see, was perfectly named, as she had known all along it would be.”

Read “The Bookstore Strikes Back.” It will give you hope.

Comments

[Nick]

The perfect holiday season true life story !

[Kelly]

Nashville didn't have any NEW bookstores. It did (and does) have one of the biggest used bookstores in the entire Southeast -- and it has lines waiting outside every day. It pains me every time I hear this repeated by Patchett, as it makes it sound like Nashville had NO access to books, when in fact they have access to tons and tons of very low-priced books of all kinds. It's great that she opened a new store, but can the misinformation about no bookstores end?

[Nancy Friedman]

@Kelly: Apologies--the fault is mine, not Patchett's. Here's what she says in the article (parentheses hers):

"(In candor, I should say that Nashville has some truly wonderful used-book stores that range from iconic to overwhelming. But while they play an important role in the cultural fabric of the city, it is a separate role—or maybe that’s just the perspective of someone who writes books for a living.)"