Lisa Gozashti knows books. She’s been with Brookline Booksmith for 20 years and is currently a co-owner and co-manager of the literary hotspot. In the past ten years, she’s been putting a more significant emphasis on the events at the Booksmith, and it shows. The extensive calendar of programming for all ages and interests has taken reading from a solitary activity and turned it into a community celebration.
“When you hear the author and they open up the process for you, somehow you hear their voice when you pick up [the book] again,” says Gozashti. “It comes to life in a totally different way.” The Booksmith hosts a wide range of regular events including children’s story time, young adult and adult author talks, and the Small Press Book Club featuring works by independent publishers. During February they offered a “Blind Date with a Book” when visitors could buy a book covered in brown paper with only a description of it written on the front.
One of the most groundbreaking programs at the Booksmith is the Transnational Series, which focuses on works concerning migration and exile, particularly books in translation. “Authors are often from elsewhere in the world, and often they come with a publisher and a translator, so we’re having three individuals in dialogue. And that illuminates the whole world of literature,” says Gozashti. “It’s integral to the human exchange. We’re always translating for each other; that’s sort of what communicating is.”
Gozashti’s passion for literature comes through in every word she says about the Booksmith. She radiates enthusiasm. The store owner says she always takes notes during their programs, desperate to preserve each word for further inspection later. Gozashti says she currently has 12 books in her reading queue and she just finished “Lost Children archive” by Valeria Luiselli, about the immigration crisis at the southern U.S border. Luiselli spoke at the Booksmith for the Transnational Series last month.
On April 27 Brookline Booksmith will celebrate Independent Bookstore Day in many ways. Bookworms can visit the store on a trolley tour that will take groups of readers to seven different indie bookstores in the Boston metro area. In-house the Booksmith will be hosting games like “Book Fishing” when bibliophiles can drop a fishing line behind a curtain and pluck their own free book from the used bookstore section. Afterward, take a literary-themed Instagram shot at the photo booth replete with props like Sherlock Holmes’s hat and pipe. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
No matter what program visitors participate in, Gozashti hopes it impacts their reading experiences going forward. “What happens is a one-time experience of meaning-making. Things come out in that dialogue that you would never have the chance to hear otherwise,” she says. “All of these sparks of genius are in the air. One is altered, one is changed, and that’s the goal.”
