Ann Patchett

We use each other's spaces.

We...

help them fundraise.

We're just really there for one another and people say, oh, that's crazy.

Those are free books and we're trying to sell books.

It's not that at all.

We're readers and we need to make a place for all readers in all different ways.

Yeah, even at TED, I've had so many people come up and say, I used to be such a reader.

Right.

but not anymore, now I'm too busy, and now I have to read all the things on my phone.

And I think maybe the most compelling case for actually reading a physical book that I can make to these people is, okay, you want your children to be readers, right?

You don't want your children to just spend their whole life scrolling on their phones.

it's not enough that you read to them they have to see you reading i remember when i was a kid if my parents were reading a book they were having a conversation with an adult another adult yeah and in the same way that if your mother was talking to another adult you didn't walk into the room and interrupt that conversation and they always said that's what reading a book is

So you have to be respectful of that and you have to model how important reading is.

You have to be able to think in a long format way.

You have to be able to see a larger picture.

And that's what we get from books.

What matters is that you read, and people read in all sorts of different ways.

I like a physical book, and I sell physical books, but do I care if you are reading on your phone?

I don't get it, but I'm glad you're reading.