Emma Straub lists five reasons owning a bookstore is harder than it sounds: public access brings chaos, staff management is demanding, weather destroys inventory, thousands of daily emails overwhelm her, and she's constantly pressured to write blurbs for unsolicited books.
You're living my dream life that you have a couple bookstores, right?
It's only a dream life if, if, if you don't own them. Like, it's, it's not a dream life, I promise. I promise. I can give you a thousand reasons why you don't want it.
What are the top 5 reasons not to do it?
So number 1, you're open to the public, which means anyone can walk in. That comes with complications. Number 2, managing Humans.
Savages.
It is rough. Natural disasters. Rain, snow, weird toxic smoke. Number 4 reason not to do it. You get too many emails. You get so many.
Who's emailing you?
Oh God, everybody's emailing me.
How many emails a day? The number is in the thousands and I just don't pay attention to it.
Okay. Number 5 reason not to open a bookstore. I'm just gonna say something controversial. Too many books.
That's impossible.
I know, I know, I know, I know. And yet it's true. People send me so many books that I don't want. People ask me to do so many things that I don't want to do.
Like what?
Like blurb.
If their book isn't good, you have to pretend like you're busy.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So those are my top 5 reasons.
