Connie Brooks was excited to pass along an article in the publishing journal Shelf-Awareness about my new job as Recommender-In-Chief at the Battenkill Bookstore. The job began last Saturday with my appearance in the bookstore from ll a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays to help people find books they want and love to read. But this is the information age, and the job mushroomed – phone calls, face-to-face, Facebook requests, live e-mails, Ipad blogs.

Bob Gray of Shelf Awareness – my inspiration for the Recommender-In-Chief when he was at the Northshire Bookstore in Vermont – wrote beautifully about the importance to readers of someone human for them to speak to and learn to trust. In this new role – this is my first new job in more than 30 years (like all good booksellers, Connie is tight, I have to fight for working conditions like tea and snacks, I need something to grouse about, like all employees). This is a job I am qualified to do.

I read obsessively, have written 23 books, and I have noticed on recent book tours that the new generation of independent booksellers has something in common – they are too busy surviving to read many books or to take much time away from ordering and manning the registers. Bookselling, like everything else in American life, is getting complicated, and the days when I could schmooze with people like Bob Gray are gone. When the big chains popped up, the handsellers faded and as the independents rise again, there is still a void. Nobody has time to talk to book buyers. Amazon’s algorithms are interesting, but software is not as endearing as me and Red.

So it seems appropriate for writers to step in and fill some of the void. We love bookstores, we love books, and I found Saturday that there is very special trust between readers and writers. They are on the same page, as it were.

So I’ll be back at Battenkill Saturday from ll a.m. to 2 p.m. You can call the store – 518 677 -2515 – or e-mail requests through Connie at [email protected] You can e-mail requests at any time. Red is coming with me, mostly to draw customers. He is more popular than I am.

I won’t have too much time to chit-chat either, and this is not about my books but all books. Please visit or call or e-mail. It would be great if you could purchase your books through Battenkill or your local independent bookstore. These stores are islands of life, individuality and thought in the Corporate Nation. We need to keep them, the world would be barren and gray without them.  They are where ideas live and can go to be safe while much of the country is watching the poisonous dialogues on cable news and out of Washington.

I am thrilled that the Battenkill experiment is taking off, and it is as good a thing for me as it is for Connie. I am staying connecting to the world of books, to the works of other writers, and the passions and interests of readers. How curious, in the digital age, for a writer in a small upstate town and bookstore to work together this way. Thanks to technology for that. And thanks to Bob Gray for his wonderful piece.  Maybe Maria will bring me lunch again, as good wives do sometimes for their working men. Hope to talk to you Saturday.