How A Bookstore Changed My World

How A Bookstore Changed My World
This photo taken on Dec. 7, 2012 shows Bryce Hoogland of Boise, Idaho browsing books at the downtown Tatered Cover book Store in Denver. You wouldn't know it from the marketing materials festooned with skiers and beer, but Denver is one of the most highly educated and literate cities in the country. That much is obvious inside Tattered Cover, a celebrated independent bookstore with two Denver locations (and one in the suburbs) that dwarf most superstores. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
This photo taken on Dec. 7, 2012 shows Bryce Hoogland of Boise, Idaho browsing books at the downtown Tatered Cover book Store in Denver. You wouldn't know it from the marketing materials festooned with skiers and beer, but Denver is one of the most highly educated and literate cities in the country. That much is obvious inside Tattered Cover, a celebrated independent bookstore with two Denver locations (and one in the suburbs) that dwarf most superstores. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)

In the fall of 2001, a sign appeared in a storefront in Palmer, Alaska. “Bookstore . . . Coming Soon.” Whenever I drove by, I would slow down and try to peek in the windows, and over several weeks I watched boxes being stacked and unpacked and bare wooden shelves installed. I can’t remember ever being so excited about something in my hometown. But as much as I anticipated its opening, I never could have imagined how this little bookstore would change my fate.

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