Troubled Sleep, the newest used bookstore in Park Slope, has gorgeous vintage tiled floors that date back to a time when the space was a French Bistro. I spoke with Alex Brooks, the manager and book buyer of the shop about community entanglement, obscure occult orders, and the palm-reading aspects of buying and selling used books.
Lior: Tell me a little about what a day in the life looks like as a bookstore manager, bookseller, and bookshop keeper. It can be such a romanticized role.
Alex: It’s totally romanticized. Everybody comes in here and says, “Oh I always wanted to run a bookstore,” and I’m like, “Well, half of it is lifting heavy boxes, and the other half is like being a moving man, but it’s good—you get your exercise in.” Day to day, you have your regulars: you have the people you see consistently and I think the people you interact with the most are the ones who come to sell you books repeatedly. And that’s kind of your cast of characters. That’s your crew. They’re all different types, luckily most of them are pretty nice, and I’d say I’m friends with a bunch of them now. I look forward to them coming by and we have these ongoing conversations with different installments. Some of them are more challenging because they bring unusual or obscure books that I’m not familiar with and some of them honestly have greater knowledge of those books than I do. For example, [Alex gestures towards a bookshelf] This one shelf up here came from a friend of ours who lives in the neighborhood and brings us books. He’s a great guy, love seeing him, love chatting with him—but it’s a challenge because he has all these books relating to the occult. Oh, Blavatsky is in there. I wasn’t aware of the Rosicrucians either. Have you heard of them?
Lior: No!
Alex: Yeah, it’s this occult order that was formed in Germany in the 17th century.
Lior: Oh, Lord…
Alex: Yeah, I’d never heard of them until yesterday, till he brought these books in.
Lior: That was your yesterday. You’re in this constant community entanglement, community discussion. So, you’re connected to the collective that is connected to Codex (a delightful used bookstore on Bleecker).
Alex: Yeah, good knowledge.
Lior: How did you become the person to be, like, I’m going to take this on, I’m gonna be the guy for this shop?
Alex: You’re a Codex fan; you go there?
Lior: I am!
Alex: Nice, I love Codex.
Lior: Codex is special.
Alex: I was working Friday nights there for a while, it was kind of fun cause you’d get that Friday night crowd of people who are out Downtown. And they’d just come in hot with energy that is too rowdy for a bookstore. I’ve been working at the other shops for a few years and just earned the trust of the bosses. I was looking to step up and I thought I could bring a little more to the table and add some value to the collective, and then we just got hooked up with this space.
Lior: Was it a role that you had been imagining yourself in for a while? Like, as a literary nerd, book lover…
Alex: You flatter me. I enjoy working in bookstores for sure, but not everybody does. A lot of book nerds don’t necessarily want to be public facing, or dealing with people.
Lior: Totally, it’s actually very social.
Alex: It is.
Lior: More so than people would even visualize.
Alex: I’m not necessarily great at the social element but I like it. I like seeing people all day, especially coming out of the way the world has been the last couple of years. I really missed social interfacing.
Lior: Do you feel like you’re a palm reader of sorts when people bring their books to sell? Or when they bring their selections to purchase and you’re like, “Oh! You’re choosing this book at this time in your life.” Like, you give them a little bit of wisdom, what you see reflected in their choice. Do you feel like you get to know people a little based on what they buy here or what they bring?
Alex: Oh, definitely. When people bring their books to sell, then you get a full reading.
Lior: Totally, you’re like, that’s your life!
Alex: Right, like this guy who brought all the occult books yesterday, he brings so much stuff, so much variety—he’s the ultimate man of mystery. Every box of books he brings us opens up a new labyrinth of his life. I think I’m always doing it on an unconscious level, the palm reading based on what people buy. The best is when someone buys a book I really like and we can just share that enthusiasm.
Lior: Well, what are you reading that you’re excited about these days?
Alex: Let’s see, what’s in my pockets here…
Lior: Oh, very cute! That’s a very good book pocket, a perfect little novella sleeve [Alex pulls out two books from his vintage Carhartt jacket pockets].
Alex: Definitely, it’s good for a novella or the mass market size.
I’m the kinda guy who takes two books for a subway ride. This book, The Housemaid, is by this writer, Amma Darko, who is Ghanaian. It was published by Heinemen, part of a great African writer’s series. I believe she’s still alive; I think she was born in the fifties. Darko has maybe six or seven novels and this is one of her best-known books. Unfortunately, they’re out of print now and, like, only available online which is so lame, but it makes the print copies, like, all the more precious when you can find them. So I picked this one up and it’s great so far—I like reading literature from a faraway place to get a taste of a different culture. [Pause for customer interaction—the customer and Alex talked about a bookstore that no longer exists that wasn’t enjoyable to go to but they both wish still existed].
Lior: I’m curious about who has inspired you and your literary path. Who has taught you and who has taken you on as a book person?
Alex: I would say primarily the other people I work with in the shops. You know, our original shop, Book Thug Nation, goes back till 2009, so I was a customer originally. Through these shops, I’ve discovered more books and more writers than at any other place. . .Now, I know how to look for them myself.
Lior: And how did you start learning about how to look and cultivate your own sense of ownership and taste?
Alex: It takes a while, you know. I started from this place where if I look back at my reading taste. . .
Lior: Oh my God.
Alex: There was a point when Book Thug Nation just opened and I was looking for William Faulkner, looking for romantic poets and the stuff that I read in school. You don’t realize how big the world of literature is and how much else there is to read. Not that there’s anything wrong with reading William Faulkner or romantic poets, old verbose white men. . .
Lior: They have their space.
Alex: Right, they have their space. But there’s so much else and that’s our general ethos here, especially with the fiction—we’re always trying to have fiction in translation, keeping it international, the Russians too.
Lior: The Russians!
[Pause for book purchase The customer purchases a book by Andy Warhol and comments that he thinks Warhol is underrated].
Lior: I’ve never heard someone say they think Andy Warhol is underrated.
Alex: Maybe as a writer?
Lior: Oh, absolutely. Even just witnessing the community entanglement, how it happens, how people are so happy to be here—people are thirsty for this; I was like thank God this shop exists!
Alex: It takes on a life of its own.
Lior: I love that about what a bookstore can be. Are you writing anything these days?
Alex: I wish! I was actually on a good streak with writing until we opened up this place. I’ve never published anything; I’ve never been able to apply serious effort, but I like to read and I think everyone who likes to read plays around with writing.
Lior: Absolutely.
Alex: It’s just all about the reading, I think—when I read, I write.
Lior: I find that is true.
Alex: You write, too?
Lior: Yeah.
Alex: You find that link between reading and writing?
Lior: Oh, totally. If I’m not reading, or if I’m not inspired by what I’m reading, it’s hard for me to write. It’s like a well that dries up.
Alex: If you’re not watering it. . .
Lior: If you’re not watering it, it’s like [makes dried-up noise].
Alex: Oh God, that’s a scary sound! You’re right, though. That’s why if I start reading a book and it doesn’t inspire me at all, I have no patience for it. I’m not going to waste my time.
Lior: I think that’s valid. So, the name of the shop…I read Dead Souls was a potential name?
Alex: That’s what I wanted.
Lior: So that’s what you wanted to name the store, but you didn’t want to offend the church across the street?
Alex: Indeed, we wanted to be respectful.
Lior: I feel like the vibe that Dead Souls gives off is totally different from Troubled Sleep. I mean the word “dead…”
Alex: It’s a lot putting “dead” in your name, but then again, I think humans have a death urge and a death fascination, so I don’t think it would have been bad for business necessarily. I think it would have drawn people in. I’m an enormous fan of the book, Dead Souls, by Nikolai Gogol. I would name anything after that book. I don’t really know the book, Troubled Sleep, by Jean-Paul Sartre—I’m not much of a Sarte-rian.
Lior: What would you say to students who are just beginning their own literary path? What would you want students to know?
Alex: In general, if you talk to people about having a career in books or even just having an interest in books, there are always going to be people around you who say discouraging things. People say discouraging things to me all day. They come in and say, “Oh a bookstore, huh? Tough business. Good luck!” There are people who talk about the Internet or reading PDFs, but the thing is, those people are all wrong. That’s the great truth of it; no matter what happens with smartphones, or streaming TV, or people ordering books off of Amazon, I think the written word is here to stay. People will always like to read physical books. For anyone who is thinking about a career in writing, there will always be demand for that and there will always be opportunities for that. It’s not going away. Books have been here for a long time and are going to stay here for a long time. One of my older buddies said to me when I was thinking about opening this store: “Any job you do in life, whether you’re an investment banker or a custodian, there will be competition. Somebody else will try to do your job better than you, so you better do what you’re good at. What you’re naturally talented at. Cause that’s where you’re going to be the most competitive.” If you’re a person who’s into books and into writing, then that’s what you should do. I don’t want to speak like I’m all wise, but I believe in that.
Lior: I love that. I think it’s a really hopeful note to end on.
Check out Troubled Sleep, take yourself on a date, browse the ever-evolving selection of new and used books, and say hi to Alex! Who knows what you might find, or what might find you.