The Book Shopper

"Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?" —Henry Ward Beecher


The Book Shopper is a spirited and witty guide to the world of disheveled used bookstores and dusty basements where shelves sag under the burden of so many books. In the limitless sea of books, here's one that will make you laugh as it helps you find your way to titles and authors you'll really want to read.


"This predilection [for browsing used bookstores] has grown into a real (albeit quirky) passion for thinking about the many ways books affect our lives—how and where we shop for them, the people we know who read them, the small passages that stick in our heads for years only to reappear at the oddest moments. The minds of book people are mosaics of ideas, thoughts, and phrases that have originated in books . . . I'm fascinated by how we hold and shape these fragments, how they coalesce into what I call my book shopper state of mind." —from Chapter 1 of The Book Shopper


Murray Browne has published numerous essays, book reviews, newspaper articles, feature stories, and technical articles. His essays and reviews have appeared in The Elysian Fields Quarterly, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, and The Grand Rapids Press. Browne grew up in East Central Illinois, and received a BA in English and radio-television from Indiana University and a master's degree in information (library) sciences from the University of Tennessee. A proud father of two grown daughters, Browne currently lives in Decatur, Georgia, and works as a media content analyst for Turner Broadcasting.