The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: True Stories of the Magic of Reading

The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians was published in 2024 and contains contributions from booksellers and librarians located across the USA and Canada. These personal testimonies are deeply influenced by the culture and society in which their writers live, so their content is closely tied with the social context of literary industries in North America during the early 2020s. The American bookselling industry is currently dominated by several large companies that have chains across the US and/or Canada, such as Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million. Independent bookstores are still common, particularly in more affluent areas; however, like chain bookstores, they are under significant threat from falling revenue and increased competition. Public libraries exist across the USA and Canada, and school libraries are standard in most educational institutions. Funded by taxes, they function as vital community hubs and resource centers.

Advances in technology since the digital revolution of the 1990s have had a significant influence on the operation of bookselling businesses and libraries. Many bookstores now offer the option of online shopping, but independent bookstores still struggle to protect their revenue streams from the encroachment of large online retailers such as Amazon.