Man oh man, The Booksellers will leave you bibliophiles happier than pigs in slop!
It's a quiet, simple, sweet little indie doc that unfolds at a handful of rare and used book stores, book fairs, college libraries, large institutions, leathery reading clubs, and magnificent private libraries, all of which (save the University of Pennsylvania and one New Jersey warehouse in which a dealer stores some 300,000 books, ephemera, and other unique curios) are sprinkled throughout a few dense blocks in NYC.
We're introduced to 20 or more quirky, mostly white-haired antiquarians slouching in tweed jackets with elbow patches who hobble to and fro with limping gaits down long rows of stacks, thick, smudged eyeglasses dangling loosely from bronze chains suspended around their wrinkled and turtled necks.
We receive a fascinating education about the past and present state of rare book dealings, then—to my great joy—several promising predictions about books' future (primarily demand and diversity).
If you love reading (surely the closest equivalent to lollygagging for hours in someone else's mind), The Booksellers is a unique rabbit trail through the business of books as objects, their significance to culture, and, most entertainingly, the eccentrics who populate the profession.
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Just beware the cats. They are, apparently, obligatory Keepers of the Kingdom—the fuzzy, arch-backed gargoyles astride every counter, ceaselessly purring alongside warm, rattly cash registers as they take their toll.
