My bookstore : writers celebrate their favorite places to browse, read, and shop / edited by Ronald Rice and Booksellers across America ; introduction by Richard Russo ; afterword by Emily St. John Mandel ; illustrations by Leif Parsons.

Martha Ackmann : The Odyssey Bookshop, South Hadley, MA -- Isabel Allende : Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA -- Rick Atkinson : Politics & Prose Bookstore, Washington, D.C. -- Wendell Berry : Carmichael's Bookstore, Louisville, KY -- Jeanne Birdsall : Broadside Bookshop, Northampton, MA -- Rick Bragg : The Alabama Booksmith, Birmingham, AL -- Charles Brandt : Chapter One Bookstore, Ketchum, ID -- Douglas Brinkley : BookPeople, Austin, TX -- Liam Callanan : Boswell Book Company, Milwaukee, WI -- Ron Carlson : Changing Hands Bookstore, Tempe, AZ -- Kate Christensen : Word, Brooklyn, NY -- Carmela Ciuraru : The Community Bookstore, Brooklyn, NY -- Meg Waite Clayton : Books Inc., Palo Alto, CA -- Jon Clinch : Northshire Bookstore, Manchester, VT -- Mick Cochrane : Talking Leaves Books, Buffalo, NY -- Ron Currie, Jr. : Longfellow Books, Portland, ME -- Angela Davis-Gardner : Quail Ridge Books & Music, Raleigh, NC -- Ivan Doig : University Book Store, Seattle, WA -- Laurent Dubois : The Regulator Bookshop, Durham, NC -- Timothy Egan : The Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle, WA.

Dave Eggers : Green Apple Books, San Francisco, CA -- Louise Erdrich : Magers & Quinn Booksellers, Minneapolis, MN -- Jonathan Evison : Eagle Harbor Book Co., Bainbridge Island, WA -- Kathleen Finneran : Left Bank Books, St. Louis, MO -- Fannie Flagg : Page & Palette, Fairhope, AL -- Ian Frazier : Watchung Booksellers, Montclair, NJ -- Mindy Friddle : Fiction Addiction, Greenville, SC -- David Fulmer : Eagle Eye Book Shop, Decatur, GA -- Henry Louis Gates, Jr. : Harvard Book Store, Cambridge, MA -- Peter Geye : Micawber's, St. Paul, MN -- Albert Goldbarth : Watermark Books and Café, Wichita, KS -- John Grisham : That Bookstore in Blytheville, Blytheville, AR -- Pete Hamill : Strand Book Store, New York, NY -- Daniel Handler and Lisa Brown : The Booksmith, San Francisco, CA -- Elin Hilderbrand : Nantucket Bookworks, Nantucket, MA -- Ann Hood : Island Books, Middletown, RI -- Pico Iyer : Chaucer's Books, Santa Barbara, CA -- Ward Just : Bunch of Grapes Bookstore, Vineyard Haven, MA -- Lesley Kagen : Next Chapter Bookshop, Mequon, WI -- Stephanie Kallos : Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park, WA.

Larry Kane : Chester County Book & Music Company, West Chester, PA -- Laurie R. King : Bookshop Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA -- Katrina Kittle : Saturn Booksellers, Gaylord, MI -- Scott Lasser : Explore Booksellers, Aspen, CO -- Ann Haywood Leal : Bank Square Books, Mystic, CT -- Caroline Leavitt : McNally Jackson Books, New York, NY -- Mike Leonard : The Book Stall at Chestnut Court, Winnetka, IL -- Robert N. Macomber : The Muse Book Shop, DeLand, FL -- Jill McCorkle : Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill, NC -- Mameve Medwed : Porter Square Books, Cambridge, MA -- Wendell and Florence Minor : The Hickory Stick Bookshop, Washington Depot, CT -- Barry Moser : Lemuria, Jackson, MS -- Howard Frank Mosher : Galaxy Bookshop, Hardwick, VT -- Arthur Nersesian : St. Mark's Bookshop, New York, NY -- Kate Niles : Maria's Bookshop, Durango, CO -- Ann Packer : The Capitola Book Café, Capitola, CA -- Chuck Palahniuk : Powell's City of Books, Portland, OR -- Ann Patchett : McLean & Eakin Booksellers, Petoskey, MI -- Edith Pearlman : Brookline Booksmith, Brookline, MA -- Jack Pendarvis : Square Books, Oxford, MS.

Francine Prose : Strand Book Store, New York, NY -- Ron Rash : City Lights Bookstore, Sylva, NC -- Tom Robbins : Village Books, Bellingham, WA -- Adam Ross : Parnassus Books, Nashville, TN -- Carrie Ryan : Park Road Books, Charlotte, NC -- Lisa See : Vroman's Bookstore, Pasadena, CA -- Brian Selznick : Warwick's, La Jolla, CA -- Mahbod Seraji : Kepler's Books, Menlo Park, CA -- Nancy Shaw : Nicola's Books, Ann Arbor, MI -- Jeff Smith : The Book Loft of German Village, Columbus, OH -- Lee Smith : Purple Crow Books, Hillsborough, NC -- Les Standiford : Books & Books, Coral Gables, FL -- Nancy Thayer : Mitchell's Book Corner, Nantucket, MA -- Michael Tisserand : Octavia Books, New Orleans, LA -- Luis Alberto Urrea : Anderson's Bookshops, Naperville, IL -- Abraham Verghese : Prairie Lights, Iowa City, IA -- Audrey Vernick : BookTowne, Manasquan, NJ -- Matt Weiland : Greenlight Bookstore, Brooklyn, NY -- Stephen White : Tattered Cover Book Store, Denver, CO -- Joan Wickersham : The Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough, NH -- Terry Tempest Williams : The King's English Bookshop, Salt Lake City, UT -- Simon Winchester : The Bookloft, Great Barrington, MA.

When you think of your favorite bookstore, what comes to mind? Is it the physical space? Books stacked in rows and piled high, labeled with staff recommendations? Do you think of the owner who knows each of her customers by name and can always press into your hands the perfect book that you are sure to love? Or is it the intangible thing that draws you there: the anticipation of a new discovery, or the feeling of community or of being at home? The relationship between a writer and his or her local store can last for years or even decades. Often it is the author's local store that supported him during the early days of his career and that continues to introduce and hand-sell his work to new readers. But, as many of the authors also point out, writers are also readers and customers. For them, as for most of us, a bookstore often serves as an anchor for the community in which we all live and work -- the place that introduces us to new authors and ideas and that sets our children on a path to becoming lifelong readers and lovers of books.