My first read of the year is a little book of conversations between Paul Yamazaki and his friends. Yamazaki is the primary book buyer for City Lights Booksellers in San Francisco and he’s been doing the job for over 50 years. In “Reading the Room,” Yamazaki’s love for books and ideas can be felt on every one of the 99 pages.

Whether he’s talking about books or his wonderful range of life experiences- spending weekends as a teenager in Los Angeles watching blues and bluegrass greats at the legendary Ash Grove club, joining the world of revolutionary politics as a college student in San Francisco and finding himself at City Lights, or having a cigarette with Sonny Mehta when Toni Morrison and Alexander McCall Smith come over to bum a smoke- Paul Yamazaki is a gifted storyteller.

As much as the stories in the book are Paul’s tales of requited love about books and bookselling, “Reading the Room” also reveals how much his fellow book people hold him in close and tender regard. Rick Simonson of Seattle’s Elliot Bay Book Company writes in the forward: “Paul Yamazaki carries the immensity and humility of being human with an integrity, passion, purpose, and radiant spirit that is rare among us.” Simonson is not alone in his sentiments. The advanced praise at the front of the book from acclaimed writers and booksellers speaks to Yamazaki’s influence on the world of letters and the beauty of living the life of the mind. 

Paul Yamazaki in his own words:

“I have an almost obsessive quest for excellence in detail and execution, and I look to people who put the time in for inspiration, whether it’s Coltrane or Steph Curry. We all have different capacities. I’ll never be able to shoot three pointers the way Steph does or play A Love Supreme the way Coltrane does, but I can explore the limits of what is possible for me to accomplish.”

“Each page of a book that broadens our horizons feels both daunting and wondrous.”

“The length and breadth of the possibilities of joy are extended by the more we know and the more able we are to make our own informed decisions.”

The Bookseller Who Brought Hardcovers to America’s Most Famous Bookstore