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| David Bergman, one of the subjects of the documentary “The Booksellers. Photo: Greenwich Entertainment |
There’s a lot of
tweed, a couple of pocket squares and an old-fashioned waxed mustache in
“The Booksellers,” D.W. Young’s charming documentary about the book
world — or more specifically the book-as-object world, with antiquarian
booksellers trying to reinvent themselves and their industry in a
digital era.
Anybody curious about the
inner workings of unglamorous behemoths like Amazon or the ailing
Barnes & Noble will have to look elsewhere. Young made the
aesthetically wise choice to focus mainly on purveyors specializing in
rare books or niche subjects. Some are inveterate collectors themselves.
One bookseller gives a tour of his warehouse in New Jersey, where
300,000 volumes share space with taxidermied sea gulls and a masonic
throne.
Two emotional currents run through the documentary. The gloomier one
involves the older booksellers who have seen their business transform,
especially with the advent of the internet and then, within the last 10
years, the proliferation of smartphones.
Source: The New York Times
