[ Irish KC ]
Kansas City Irish Festivals, Music, Pubs, & Events by an Artist in Ireland

Speaking of Bloomsday in Kansas City, Tom Shawver of Bloomsday Books has written a lovely piece of what it means to run this most wonderful of bookstores that takes its name from the most famous of Irish books:

Over 11 years ago, Nancy and I opened Bloomsday Books. We’ve never regretted the decision, despite all the moves. The business has had such a profound meaning on our lives that I wanted to share some things that have made it so special.

There are moments when the shop seems like a magic chamber when customers I’ve not seen before enter the front door and a look of contentment spreads across their faces. I see it almost every day.

They relax, gaze around, focus on an area of interest, then a specific book. For a while they are in a protective cocoon, free of the anxieties and demands of home and workplace. There is a correlation between their external attitude and their self and they are no longer strangers. I’ll look up from whatever I’m doing and without speaking there is an instant rapport, an intuitive understanding that for the moment, at least, we are both in the right spot, a gathering place of like-minded souls, a place of transition between the street and home, neither tavern or church or country club; where one can be alone without self-consciousness to explore the universe of ideas.

When I decided to give up the practice of law to sell second-hand books, I was concerned that friends and colleagues would think I was lowering my goals, stooping to the banal labor of exchanging old merchandise for money, accompanied with a few phrases of politeness. But the happy events of our first day, a store filled with customers excited to have us in their Brookside neighborhood dispelled those thoughts for good.

Over the years I’ve discovered and rediscovered the grace and honor of this career and my enthusiasm for the shop is as great as it was when Nancy and I first opened. Some mornings, before the customers arrive, I gaze at the books on the shelves, my eyes fixed on the linear patterns and bright colors. Then I’ll get up, pull one down and begin reading, turning the pages without guilt. As a bookman, after all, I’m entitled to do this during working hours and I’ll think again how very lucky I am to be here.

The French poet Lala wrote what sums up nicely Nancy’s and my love for this business:
     As gold is the sign of merchandise,
     Merchandise is also a sign
     Of the need that summons it, of the
     effort that craves it,
     And what you call exchange I call
     communion.

Bloomsday Books is located at 313 E. 55th St., near the intersection of 55th and Brookside Boulevard in the historic Crestwood Shops.

UPDATE August 2007: Bloomsday Books Looking for Partner

UPDATE February 2008: After 13 years Bloomsday Books closes its doors.

See Bloomsday Books’ Website
And Bloomsday is of course on MySpace
Phone: 816-523-6712

See Also:
Special friend to Bloomsday Books: Bob Smith
 

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 6th, 2006 at 2:01 pm and is filed under Irish Business, Literature & Irish Writers. You can follow responses via my RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.