For centuries, the role of the bookseller—or librarian, or literary friend—has been akin to that of the country doctor: get to know patients through time and experience, then lovingly place the right prescription in their hands at the right time in their lives. In a world of Amazon.com and crowd-sourcing, has that central role of a personal literary mediator been lost? Susan Elderkin, a bibliotherapist at The School of Life in London and co-author of The Novel Cure, speaks on how and why to recommend books.
Posted November 20, 2014