Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, The Bookshop

Some books:

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

My high school best friend recommended this novel by Gabrielle Zevin.  It’s about two childhood friends who start making video games together, forming their own studio after creating a hit in college.  

The book is really about relationships, and the special bond between certain people that only comes along a few times in your life.  Zevin’s extremely successful in evoking that and other sense memories in me - that feeling in college where everything is new and exciting, and each person you meet is an untapped well of potential friendship that can last the rest of your life.  

Zevin also has a take on the death of a loved one that spoke to me:
“After five years, she could finally hear Marx’s name and not feel like weeping. She had once read in a book about consciousness that over the years, the human brain makes an AI version of your loved ones. The brain collects data, and within your brain, you host a virtual version of that person. Upon the person’s death, your brain still believes the virtual person exists, because, in a sense, the person still does. After a while, though, the memory fades, and each year, you are left with an increasingly diminished version of the AI you had made when the person was alive. She could feel herself forgetting all the details of Marx—the sound of his voice, the feeling of his fingers and the way they gestured, his precise temperature, his scent on clothing…”

Regret reading: No

Would read again: No

Would buy: No

Rating: Pretty good

The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore

I love histories about random things that interest me.  This book by Evan Friss is a prime example.  Friss takes the reader through a history of bookstores through America’s growth, each chapter focusing on a particular store at a particular point in time.  It’s a delightful account of the huge role bookstores have played in this country for 250 years.  There’s nothing I love more than browsing at a bookshop, and this book is a celebration for everyone who does.

Regret reading: No

Would read again: No

Would buy: No

Rating: Nice