Allison Arieff on William Stout Architectural Books in San Francisco

Here’s a lovely piece from Allison Arieff’s By Design blog at the New York Times.  It’s about that dying breed–the specialty bookstore:

“Shelf Life”

Great quote: “Stout is a collector in the best sense of the word. Though he joked that he began acquiring books when he realized he’d never have a 401k, it is probably more accurate to say that Stout is in complete thrall of the smell of ink, the feel of paper, the intellectual and physical heft of the literary object, the near-indiscernible sound of the turning of pages.”

After reading this, I don’t feel so bad about schlepping endless boxes of books across the country over the past few years.