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Meet New GLIBA Board Member Joanna Parzakonis from this is a bookstore & Bookbug in Kalamazoo, MI!

12/21/2018

1 Comment

 
Picture
Where do you work and how long have you been there? 
We opened Bookbug in 2018 and its now neighbor this is a bookstore in 2017. These places and their purpose are my work and my loves.

Where might we be surprised that you have also worked? 
My first gig out of college was opening and sorting mail (and identifying template form letters from a giant, clumsy binder) for then Vice President Al Gore's Senate office. It was not meaningful work, but it was the kind of job I thought I needed when I went to D.C. with no experience. Also, it paid me nothing. I worked nights and weekends at a busy restaurant where I became strangely (obsessively) invested in being the best server I could be. I was (stupidly) embarrassed to tell people about that job, but it is the one--more than the one on Capitol Hill or any of  others thereafter--that helped form me into who I am to customers today.

What do you like to read? What's your current favorite book to handsell? 
I love to read elegant, powerful sentences. Period. If there are several upfront in a novel, a work of non-fiction, a children's book, I'm had. Some customers and colleagues also know me as a passionate reader of and advocate for wordless picture books and graphic narratives. This may seem contrary to my claim about elegant, powerful sentences on a page. It is not.

This season I am loving to handsell There There by Tommy Orange, Breakout by Kate Messner, Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse by Marcy Campbell, These Truths by Jill Lepore, Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, and We are all Me by Jordan Crane

Who are you when you're not in the store? 
I am not a person who compartmentalizes myself. I realized, especially in young parenthood, how frequently I was asked to do this, in a way that people of a differently-presenting gender than mine were not. My work is my life and my life is my work. I do not leave my family and passions outside of my workspace (the bookstore), and I do not leave my work to tend the bookstore and its mission outside of my home, my travels, and my interactions with friends. I love being the bookstore person to a young child who recognizes me at the grocery, and I love being the expressive girls' soccer fan/dance-party enthusiast to the young soccer player or middle-aged acquaintance who recognizes me in the store. I am the same person in all places of my startlingly generous life.

What's your favorite bookstore other than the one you work in? 
My answer to this question has everything to do with the fact that these stores: Kramer's Books in Washington, DC and McNally Jackson in New York's SOHO were profound and necessary havens/ inspirations to me during a time in life when I needed to lean on them. This was well before I understood (and was distracted by) the complexities of a bookstore's operation, and I was able to appreciate these stores for how they embraced me quietly and personally, alone. I remember traveling to both by foot, though they were assumed far from where I lived, and I would always leave them less tired and more nourished.

this is a bookstore & Bookbug
3019 Oakland Dr, Kalamazoo, MI 49008
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Twitter @BookbugKzoo
Instagram @bookbugkzoo
1 Comment
Mallory J link
6/27/2022 12:51:43 pm

This is a ggreat post thanks

Reply



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  • About
    • Join GLIBA
    • Bookstore Members
    • Board of Directors >
      • Past Board Members
    • Our By-Laws
    • Publisher Members
  • Catalogs
    • Summer Catalog
    • Holiday Catalog >
      • Holiday Catalog for Publishers
  • Events
    • Spring Forum 2023 >
      • Spring Forum 2023 Publisher Guidelines
    • Rep Night 2023
    • Past Events >
      • George Saunders
      • Spring Forum >
        • Spring Forum 2022
        • Spring Forum 2021
        • Spring Forum 2020
        • Spring Forum 2019
        • Spring Forum 2018
      • The Lit Show >
        • The Lit Show: Chapter 3
        • The Lit Show: Chapter 2
        • The Lit Show: Chapter 1
      • Heartland
      • Group Bookstore Events
      • Rep Night >
        • Rep Night 2019
        • Rep Night 2018
      • Chicagoland Bookstore Crawl >
        • Chicagoland Bookstore Crawl 2022
        • Chicagoland Bookstore Crawl 2018
  • Bestsellers
  • Heartland
  • Awards
    • Heartland Booksellers Award
    • Voice of the Heartland >
      • Past Winners
  • News
  • Amazon Instructions Poster
  • Publisher Promotions
  • Publishers, Authors and Industry Affiliates Info
    • 2023 Publisher Opportunities
    • Advertise with GLIBA
    • MIPA
    • Bookseller ARC Requests and Preferred Reading Genres
    • For Authors
  • YouTube Channel
  • Past Holiday Catalogs
    • Holiday Catalog 2021
    • Holiday Catalog 2020
    • Holiday Catalog 2019
  • Bookseller Resources
    • Publisher Imprint Graphics
    • Rep List
    • Publisher Social Media
    • Reporting Your Sales
    • New York Trip
    • CHILOVEBOOKS
    • Tools of the Trade
    • Anti-Racism Resources
    • Covid-19 Resources
    • The Independent Bookseller
    • On-Line Links
    • Advocacy
  • Board Information