Malaprop’s is one of the independent bookstores stocking my book, Exploring Asheville. The bookstore is in downtown Asheville, North Carolina. The town itself is considered the Weirdest, Happiest, Quirkiest, Place in America. And so it is, that it would have at its heart a bookstore with such an inappropriate name. “Malaprop” basically means to use of language inappropriately--the most common example being to use a wrong, but similar sounding, word in a sentence.
A malaprop would be for me to write about the great “tall tales” in my new book Exploring Asheville. Another example would be to “wrench” the dishes. And then there is the TV character Archie Bunker’s question, What do I look like, an “inferior” decorator?
I suppose the Hungarian founder, Emoke B'Racz, chose the name to express his feeling that it’s an unlikely store in an unlikely place by an unlikely owner at an unlikely time. B’Racz opened the store in 1982 with little more than a hope and a prayer. It was a time when businesses had left the downtown area for suburban malls and building space was nearly rent free. Writing about his store Emoke wrote, As a political exile from a communist country, I cannot overemphasize my passion to provide a space where freedom of expression is supported, where important literature—from authors backed by major publishers to those who self-publish—is available to all, where censorship has no place, where respect and service are practiced daily, where women feel safe, where all are welcome, and where books are the stars.
Today, our goals are the same as the ones we committed to in 1982: to be the best little bookstore in the land; to enjoy what we do while we’re doing it, and to ensure that bookselling remains a fine and noble profession.
Nashville’s writer, Ann Patchett ,[owner of Parnassus Books], in an article for the New York Times, said of the Asheville bookstore, Malaprop’s was the heart and soul of Asheville, NC, when Asheville was a sleepy little hippie town, and it’s still its heart and soul now…, a position Malaprop’s maintained by being unabashedly true to itself.
You can show your support for this independent bookstore by purchasing your copy of Exploring Asheville from them at https://www.malaprops.com/book/9781939285034.
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