I spend a reasonable amount of time in Major Metropolitan Airports, so I like to think I’m familiar with airport bookstores. When I passed through Charlotte’s airport recently, many of the usual bestsellers were prominently displayed on the newsstand shelves. The bookstores in CLT also had a similar volume of books as others I’ve seen – about three shelves of books.

But, man, were there a whole lot of romance books on these bookshelves. Given the limited shelf space, it’s notable that the romances took up 20-25% of the total. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such a wide variety of romances in any bookstore.

Another 10-15% of the shelf space was dedicated to books about books, or books about readers: The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams, The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin). These are the books that Book Girls read to show how much they Love Reading. (I am writing this for “a bookish blog”, so definitely a case of glass houses here.)

If I had to guess, these shelves target at former Book Girls, turned Book Moms. The booksellers at CLT have found a target demographic, and are going all in.

When bookshelves converge…

Seeing so many shelves dedicated to Book Girl tastes is – kind of cool? We used to see Serious Readers putting down obviously feminine literature, so it’s nice to see those tastes openly recognized instead. In some ways, it’s astounding that the booksellers at CLT have dedicated so much shelf space to this specific segment of female readers.

But it’s also kind of sad, because I like the idea that everyone reads, and so bookstores are of discovery. I’ve picked up dozens of books in stores that fall totally outside my usual book-finding sources (CrimeReads and Instagram), on based on an eye-catching cover. Just this year, I’ve been able to find:

• Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach: I love Mary Roach’s writing style but I had no idea she had published a new book! I read through this cover-to-cover, annoyed all my friends and co-workers with anecdotes about seagulls at the Vatican and the difficulties of bear control, and immediately bought a copy to share with my closest law student friend.
• The Verifiers by Jane Pek: I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard of this book before I found it at Compass. Love the more modern take on what it means to be a detective, combined with an examination of social networks.
• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi: Oh my god, this book was INCREDIBLE. I often get impatient with literary fiction and rarely pick it up, but I’m so glad I did this time. I happened across this in Seattle or SF somewhere and the writing and story blew me away.

(For a sampling of some of my other favorite airport finds, check out my list of airport finds…)

The importance of serendipitous discovery

My point being that bookstores are a critical way to break out of algorithm-induced book sameness. Books have an amazing ability to open up readers to new perspectives and stories, but it’s impossible to get that diversity when the selection consists only of bestsellers and stereotype Genre Fiction. (To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with Genre Fiction – just with stocking only specific Genres in a general-purpose bookstore.)

Even more egregiously, I’m the most likely to have an open mind when I’m traveling. When I’m wandering through an airport, I’m usually in the middle of leisure time. It’s a great time for me to experience something with a different perspective. Airport bookstores have such great potential to encourage literary diversity right when I’m most open to it, but instead tend to amplify the same stories and voices.

Of course, most airport bookstores are chains, with Hudson Booksellers and CNBC coming top of mind. Yet in some ways, you might expect that chain stores could more effectively curate interesting selections of books. Between their ability to aggregate data on nationwide reading patterns and their increased purchasing access, there’s real potential to leverage economies of scale to enable increased discoverability. But instead, we get the same three repetitive shelves of best sellers in every newsstand in every airport.

It seems that airport bookstores must choose between mimicking algorithms to target travelers with known likes, or curate a selection that challenges them. But when they choose the former, airport booksellers reduce the potential of their inventory to deliver education and empathy.

My favorite airport bookstore

Of course, I’m spoiled by Compass Books in SFO Terminal 2. I usually have to stop myself from purchasing way more than I can carry whenever I peruse their shelves. While there are still gifts and snacks, they take up a much smaller share of the store. Compass feels like a bookstore, not a gift shop with an obligatory shelf of bestsellers. They serve as a shining example of what an independently-run airport bookstore can achieve.

Even though it seems likely that CNBC and Hudson News will maintain their prominent place in the airport ecosystem, I hope that we see more truly independent bookstores in our airports. Every traveler deserves the thrill of a lucky book find, the joy of traveling serendipity.

Stay cozy, and stay curious!