Jeff Deutsch, a longtime bookseller, reflects on the singular importance of bookstores. He is joined for a panel discussion with Dorothea von Moltke and Eric Maywar.

Do we need bookstores in the twenty-first century? If so, what makes a good one? Jeff Deutsch—the director of Chicago’s Seminary Co-op Bookstores, one of the finest bookstores in the world—pays tribute to one of our most important and endangered civic institutions.

He considers how qualities like space, time, abundance, and community find expression in a good bookstore. In exploring why good bookstores matter, Deutsch draws on his lifelong experience as a bookseller, devoted reader and also his upbringing as an Orthodox Jew.

Bookstores, like libraries, are essential places of discovery, refuge, and fulfillment that enrich the communities that are lucky enough to have them. This event will celebrate bookstores, libraries and the readers who love both.

Presented in partnership with Labyrinth Books, Classics Books of Trenton, Princeton University’s Humanities Council, and Princeton University Press.

Jeff Deutsch on "In Praise of Good Bookstores" in conversation with the owners of Labyrinth Books and Classic Books