March 6, 2024, 12:56pm
Who among us hasn’t wished that they could get paid to just sit and read for a little while? No strings, no work-related tasks involved—just good old fashioned American currency in exchange for reading a book of your choosing, for pleasure.
Well, fellow dreamers, I have good news! Perelandra Bookshop in Fort Collins, CO has the job you’ve been looking for: reader-in-residence.
The Colorado Sun announced the gig to the world last week by way of a thoughtful interview with Joe Braun, the store’s principal book-buyer, as well as the current reader-in-residence Steven Shafer. The details are almost too good to be true: the three-month residency comes with $50 a month for books and another $50 a month for coffee/treats, as well as access to the store’s wholesale rate on book purchases. All you have to do is pop into the store a few times a week to read for a while.
Naturally, readers are eating it up—and rightly so. Why shouldn’t we be given the opportunity to slow down, do something for ourselves, and show that not everything has to be about either consumption or production? And what better way to do that than by reading a dang physical book with a cup of your beverage of choice, in a cozy bookstore, surrounded by other book lovers?
No word yet if this model might spread, but I hope it does. Heck, one of Lit Hub’s Best Indie Bookstores in the World happens to be around the corner from me and they’ve already got the coffee/bar part in place…