Kristine Kaufman has been a bookseller for more than 35 years, working for others in various stores until 1998, when she became the proud owner of her own Snow Goose Bookstore, in Stanwood, Wash.
On your nightstand now:
My bedside stack is arranged geologically. The top layer, which gets turned over rapidly and frequently, currently contains The Illusionists by Rosie Thomas, In the Kingdom of Ice by Hampton Sides and The Aftermath by Rhidian Brook. The next layer is made up of books I prefer to read at a glacial pace, with time for pondering in between reads. The Reach of Rome by Alberto Angela and the late Tony Judt's Ill Fares the Land have been those bedrock books for the past year or so. And at the bottom, sadly, is a little book titled Morning Cup of Yoga by Jane Goad Trechsel. Like deeply buried rock, it undoubtedly contains valuable nuggets that would greatly enrich my life, but will probably only be unearthed through a seismic book cataclysm. But I rest easier knowing it's there.
Favorite book when you were a child:
East of the Sun and West of the Moon by Peter Asbjørnsen and Jøorgen Moe. My parents' library contained a battered old Heritage Club edition with Kay Nielsen's stunning illustrations, which I read over and over. I can take it off my own shelf today, catch a faint whiff of my father's pipe tobacco embedded in the pages, and I'm six years old again.
Your top five authors:
Louisa May Alcott (my first real author crush), Jane Austen, Barbara Pym, John Boyne and Robert Goddard. Not a single disappointing book in the bunch.
Book you've faked reading:
Very delicate question for a bookseller. To customers, I would never fake reading anything, but I would happily parrot reviews or other booksellers' opinions as a substitute to actually reading the book myself, perhaps implying that I certainly should read it or that I fully intend to read it at some later date.
Book you're an evangelist for:
At the moment, my favorite handsell (booksellerese for "push") is The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker. Not only is this a wickedly clever mystery, but it also has some of the best tips on writing I've ever read.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Professionally, lots--that's what makes the bookstore's shelves so colorful. Personally, Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, illustrated by the Canadian artist Charles Van Sandwyk. Even though I already had several versions of Willows, I absolutely needed to own this gorgeous edition published by the Folio Society. Beautifully slipcased, spine and boards decorated with old-fashioned gilding, heavy, creamy paper, and fabulous illustrations--the kind of real book you just have to pet as you read.
Book that changed your life:
Honestly, I think they all have. Book by book, I've built my life by being a reader, each one adding a little something to my understanding of the world. And I'm not done--the next book I read, and the next and the one after that, will change my life a little more.
Favorite line from a book:
"George was fond of peeking in windows." This is the first line of the story "The Tub" in James Marshall's George and Martha. In just seven words, it gives you character, motivation and a foreshadowing of the conflict to come.
Which character you most relate to:
I love this quotation from Marion Garretty: "A novel is a chance to try on a different life for size." I don't think it shows any weakness in my own personality to say that I can almost always find a character to become for the span of time I spend inside a book. Reading, I get to imagine being a little more like Mr. Toad, or a little less like Emma Woodhouse.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker blew my mind.