18.05.12

An encounter 3,000 miles from home reminded Steven Hann of the importance of his job.

“About five years ago, I was in Berkeley visiting a friend. A girl comes up to me and says, ‘You told me to read Hart Crane, and I liked him so much, now I’m doing my Master’s on him!’” says Hann. “That really showed me that I made a difference with somebody. And I think that is important, that you do make a viable connection with the community.”

Far from an inspired recommendation during a professor’s office hours, this grad student’s fateful tip-off took place in front of what is now Milano Market, where Hann has been selling books off and on since 1974. A self-described “area book purveyor and general curmudgeon,” Hann displays a handpicked selection of science fiction and mystery-laden pleasure reading alongside more academic and theoretical books. The set-up is inherently interpersonal; customers inevitably become entangled in conversations about fiction, neighborhood gossip, haggling wars, and contentious debates over Hann’s fold-up table.

Source: CU Columbia Spectator