different reactions

Going to the Kinokuniya bookshop in Sydney, and looking in the 'literary criticism' and 'essays' sections often makes me want to write. No other section has that effect, and no other bookstore either. 

At the start of Anna Karenina, Tolstoy tells us that happy families are all the same but unhappy families are all different. They're unhappy 'in their own way' he tells us. I would say that, with bookshops, it's the opposite. All the really good bookshops I know are very distinctive. They have their own flavor. 

Somehow, they don't even have the same books. You would think they would - that being good bookshops they would have the good books - but it seems like there are so many good books out there that each good bookshop can stock a different selection of good books.