Sometimes, I find a place online that causes me to go visit it. Sometimes, I like it enough to go back a second time, with hopes to go back in the future. The Monkey’s Paw is one of them. It’s a second hand bookstore that sells older books. The books that can be found here aren’t the usual type you may find in a bookstore. These ones are different.
There is one thing in particular that made me want to go to this bookstore. Rather, it’s the main thing that drew me to it. In the store, you can find the Biblio-Mat. It is a vending machine that dispenses a random old book when you purchase a token and place it in the machine. Both times I came here for the Biblio-Mat. Both times I got a book from the vending machine, as well as purchasing a book from the shelves.
This leads me to this podcast. Got Books? Conversations with Booksellers is a podcast - as you may have guessed - that deals with interviewing booksellers. Stephen Fowler, the owner of The Monkey’s Paw, talks about opening the store, how he chooses the books he sells, and how the Biblio-Mat came into existence.
Being very interested in physical books and bookstores, I can say that I am biased when it comes to liking this episode a lot. With that being said, I do recommend listening to this podcast episode.
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