Literati Bookstore might have broken a record. Hilary and Mike Gustafson opened their Ann Arbor, Michigan, bookstore in 2013 and within six years won Publishers Weekly’s prestigious Bookstore of the Year award. Since its inception, the bookstore has seen rapid growth in size (now 4,000 square feet), events (about 200 annually), and offerings (they added a coffee shop). Mike also published a book about the store, Notes from a Public Typewriter, which was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered. The general bookstore sells new books and specializes in categories like literary fiction, poetry, and cookbooks. Here, Mike talks about hosting Patti Smith, eco and feminist book clubs, and a resident ghost.

How would you describe Literati Bookstore to the uninitiated?

Literati Bookstore is a general interest, small-but-mighty, curated, events-focused bookstore in the heart of downtown Ann Arbor, Michigan. We occupy all three floors of a historic brick building, one of which definitely has a ghost. (As far as we can tell, the ghost does not handsell.)

If Literati Bookstore were a religion, what would be its icons and tenets?

We unintentionally opened on Easter, so this question is unintentionally funny to me. I think most who visit us can witness firsthand that the book is not dead. Obviously, all who enter are expected to click-clack something on our public typewriter and behold the smell of new books and hot coffee. At night, sometimes words are spoken into microphones, people applaud, floors creak, pages turn, and the typewriter click-clacks away….Wait, independent bookstores aren’t a religion?

Which was your favorite event and/or most memorable disaster?

The day we opened, we ran out of receipt paper. Neither of us (my wife and fellow co-owner, Hilary) went to business school, so that makes sense. I drove too fast to buy more, because the next day was April Fool’s Day and I couldn’t stomach the cruel joke of a bookstore handing out post-it notes as receipt paper because it didn’t anticipate anyone would actually buy anything. 

My favorite event was hosting Patti Smith at the Detroit Institute of Arts on Valentine’s Day. Smith, who lived in Detroit, read and sang songs with her family on stage. One of the songs she sang was an audience sing-a-long of “Can’t Help Falling in Love With You,” which was coincidentally our wedding song. Hilary and I slow-danced in the back of the theater, and I mentally took as many snapshots as I could, trying as hard as I could to slow down time while simultaneously bathing in it, realizing in that moment that nothing would ever top that experience, booksellingwise. 

How does the bookstore reflect the interests of your community?

I don’t think any independent bookstore our size could survive if didn’t reflect the interest of the community. Beyond specified curation, since we are downtown, we host many events as well as book clubs like our Feminist Book Club and Eco Book Club. Ann Arborites love to learn, so as part of our Local Learning at Literati Series, we invite local experts to teach the community their skills, like calligraphy or drawing the human form.  

What trends are you noticing among young readers?

The resurgent interest in analogue among younger people is real and powerful. I’m old enough to remember when people said email would kill off cards. Cards are one of our bestselling items. Or when people said the word processor would eliminate the need for journals and notebooks. Journals and notebooks sell very well among younger people. Younger readers are passionate about new voices and new ideas but also about real, physical books and real, physical bookstores. They take photos of books. They create bookstagram accounts. They build bookshelves in their apartments. They enthusiastically celebrate the beauty that is the physical, analogue book. I’m not sure that was predicted 10 years ago. 

What are your favorite handsells?

Anything by Anne Carson. Her words can rewire a brain. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann was probably the book that sent me into the mysterious and financially frightening world of wanting to open an independent bookstore. A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold taught me to look closer. I like books that force a reader to slow down and savor each word and every sentence. So, everything by Marilynne Robinson.

Karen Schechner is the vice president of Kirkus Indie.