'When We Have Excellent Books, They Sell'

“People tell us all the time that civilization is finished, that the world is coming to an end. But then we look at our sales details and we smile.” 

John Byron Kuhner posts a rare dispatch of hope from the world of books, the beating heart of what remains of our civilization. In “Good News From an Independent Bookshop,” published recently in First Things, he recounts his purchase of a bookshop in Steubenville, Ohio, and his surprise at the quality of books his customers buy. One morning only two people visited his shop. One bought a complete Plato, the other a complete Aristotle – two of the basic texts of Western civilization. “I learned then and there,” Kuhner writes, “to never underestimate my customers.” He tells us Steubenville is “an unusual town.”

 

He admits his shop also stocks “piffle”: “But you don’t feel bad about selling Bunnicula when you sell St. John of the Cross’s Dark Night of the Soul, The Screwtape Letters and Moby-Dick all on the same night.” Kuhner briefly describes the good news: “When we have excellent books, they sell.”

 

My nephew is an enthusiastic, genre-defying reader, a genuine small-d democratic when it comes to his choice of books. On Saturday, while we sat with my brother in hospice awaiting “the distinguished thing,” Abe and I talked about Epictetus and Montaigne in between swapping memories of my brother, his father, and mutually buoying our spirits. “You know what did not sell?” Kuhner asks. “A single one of the Amazon bestselling books of 2024.” Books and life, as well as death, always intersect, if you pay attention.