Inside America's Bookwars

Hi everyone.

First off: Thank you so much for all your kind words about ChairmanMe coming to a close a few weeks ago. It's popular to denigrate Silicon Valley, even among those still working in it. But the place shows what makes it so unique and enduring when a company closes and everyone congratulates you.

I renamed this newsletter, and I hope you'll stick with it. I'll still be writing about what I see in the tech world, about feminist issues, and all of the things I've written about my whole career.

But I also want to write a newsletter in this space about our experiences being on the front lines of the bookwars in America today.

You may not know that a year ago, my partner Paul Carr and I pulled money out of our Palm Springs house to give the community something that it didn't have: A bookstore. ANY bookstore. The only bookstore, in fact, in the entire Coachella Valley had been a mall Barnes & Noble in Palm Desert, thirty minutes and a dramatically different political reality from Palm Springs. (Ron DeSantis books took over their front tables when it came out.)

We expected it would be a fun small side thing for our family, a business that our kids could even participate in as they grew up, a way to meet all the most interesting people who come through here, and a way to give back to this lovely city that has become our other home.

What we did NOT anticipate was that it would become a seven figure revenue business in less than a year, that would have double the average revenues per square foot of independent bookstores, that we would take on a neighboring right wing writer's festival, or that we would become the hub for all that matters about books and reading in America today in our small, liberal city, across the street from the city's most famous drag bar.

I also didn't expect how delightful it would be to run. And for once, we way underestimated how well it would do.

I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that once again we are in principled fights after the Pando days, or that we are once again pushing for underrepresented folks after six years of ChairmanMe. This time, we just have way more revenues and profits out of the gate as well. I guess we've discovered the only thing harder than building an independent bookstore is investigative journalism and equality at work.

Typically, we have a charmed life as booksellers. We are the only bookstore in a market where millions of people come every year to read by a pool, in strolling distance from all downtown hotels, and the people who live here love to read. They've typically chosen to move here to slow down in some way, leave the rat race and enjoy life more.

And they love local stores. We have never once heard a customer say, "I could get this cheaper on Amazon." Being in the gayest city in America (per the New York Times) also means that we are blissfully left out of most of the cultural wars that are leading to threats, vandalism, and other terrible costs of running a bookstore elsewhere.

And yet we are not immune. The other day, Paul was scanning the shelves to restock things and fill holes as we do most hours of most days.?

He noticed a book turned around, so that the spine was inside and the pages were out. He shrugged and made it right again.

Then he noticed the same thing on another shelf. And another.?

Wait a minute: Michele Obama, Stacey Abrams. . . He realized all the books that had been flipped were written by Black women.?

About the same time, two men came in looking for Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” along with some other banned books. We had one in the system and just did a full inventory days before. But it was nowhere to be found.

In looking in every section it might have been put in, I went to the Black non-fiction section. I found another flipped one, and quite literally a chill went down my spine. I turned it around to see a book on George Floyd. And then I found another one: A book on critical race theory.?

I felt so violated. Someone had come into our space, our store that stands for inclusion, and did the most petty, stupid, racist protest imaginable. I have no idea if this had to do with our statement on the very right wing, anti-trans, pro-waterboarding lineup at the Rancho Mirage Writers Festival or if there was just a lone racist in town this week. But we NEVER experience stuff like this in Palm Springs and that is an ENORMOUS PRIVILEGE compared to every other bookseller in America right now.?

The closest we’ve come was a woman who came in and scowled and asked if we “had” to listen to Oscar’s drag brunch every weekend. To which Paul said, “No we get to listen to it every weekend.”?

We don’t mince words when it comes to our values and if we ever see this again that customer will be asked to leave.?Meantime, we’ve put the books they were childishly trying to silence on the featured front table.?

We will never tolerate hate in our store.?And if you think we'll back down from this fight. . . .well, you don't because if you read this newsletter you know me well enough by now.

Each week, I'll post a newsletter in this space about the good and the bad and crucial importance of bookselling and what we are reading and why we love it. I hope you'll stick with me, as I'm bobbing and weaving yet again! (And if you want to talk more about books, I recently launched a book club here.)