THIS PAGE CONTAINS MEMORIES, STORIES, HIGHLIGHTS, PICTURES, EPHEMERA, ETC FROM SKYLIGHT BOOKS TWENTY YEAR HISTORY!
The REAL TRUTH about working at Skylight Books by John Rossiter (Young Jesus):
"I don't want to paint working at Skylight as the dream zone many people assume it is. It is a job with things to do and (some difficult) people to deal with. You may be surprised to learn that I have not and do not intend to read The Alchemist. I can't tell you which Bukowski is the most chill because I actually think all of them are unchill. Honestly, I have no opinion regarding Interior Design or Business.
Still, (HERE'S THE TURN) I recognize that some people do . And the main thing about selling books is learning to care about the things you do not care about. I think Skylight is a great place for that. If you want to talk about Bukowski or The Alchemist or doin' biz I am down. It might legitimately suck, but if you're reading those books for thoughtful, empathic, and/or strange reasons, you can hang at the store all day. If you wanna talk about where you grew up or why you think the earth is flat even better! If you wanna talk about Mircea Cartarescu or Julio Cortazar or Elena Ferrante or Muriek Spark or Frank Stanford or books about birds or poems about rivers or essays about improvisation YOU HAVE MY HEART. Maybe that's the thing about Skylight. It's not a dream zone. We're all too busy or stressed out or socially inept to be dreamy. But we all love books and if you do too (or even if you just like sitting under INDOOR TREES) we'll probably get along. If you come in enough and the talks are good maybe I'll read The Alchemistif you tell me to enough. But probably not AND arguing is way more fun anyway. DO YOU REALLY WANT A WHOLLY POSITIVE RETAIL EXPERIENCE? No! No one wants a wholly positive ANYTHING. But Skylight is a totally REAL zone. The real deal NO SPIN ZONE.
Anyway, I've learned a lot here. It is often really sick. Books rule. All my best friends work here. I've fallen in AND OUT of love here (no one wants a wholly positive anything etc etc). It's good. Skylight's good. Twenty years, dang you know? Right?"
