No-point policy: Left Bank Books’ mission-driven approach to bookselling

| Junior Scene Editor

Buying books for class can often feel utilitarian, especially when going straight off a syllabus: you walk in, and ask something like, “Can you please show me where to find ‘The Great Gatsby’?” and in a moment, you’re holding what you were looking for. Semester after semester, it can become a routine, nothing more than a list to check off so you can just get on with life. For the tightest of schedules, an online purchase through a site like Amazon makes for an even faster transaction — one click and books are bought in an instant.

(Sophia Hellman | Student Life)

Sitting on the corner of Euclid and McPherson in Central West End, Left Bank Books offers an entirely different take on the book browsing experience. Established by a group of WashU graduate students in 1969, Left Bank is a mission-driven bookstore that doubles as a community space, making a point to form genuine connections with its customers. It may not be the usual visit, but if you were up for the trip, the perfect birthday gift or a handpicked novel for chilly, lazy days could be sitting a mere two Metrolink stops away.

 Danielle King is the general manager of Left Bank Books as well as its “Jane of all trades,” according to her business card. She helps with nearly all parts of running the store, whether it’s buying books, training staff, or working behind the scenes. With this insight, she spoke to the uniqueness of the store. 

“I work with some of the most empathetic people on the planet who want to see people, and we have customers who will come in and be like, where is that girl who was talking to me two weeks ago about romance books?” King said. 

King went on to explain that at Left Bank, employees are always open to building a connection with their customers. 

“That’s not always going to happen, but creating a space where that’s possible is both to your benefit and theirs,” King said. 

Hence, their no-pointing policy that means the staff will walk alongside their customer instead of pointing to where a book is located, making recommendations to ensure their client is taken good care of.

These relationships aren’t limited to the store. Left Bank runs about 250 events per year, ranging from events with local poets to dignitaries including Hillary Clinton and Jimmy Carter. 

“We talk all the time about being not just a bookstore but a community space,” King said.

Boasting tight relationships with writers and professors at WashU and Saint Louis University, Left Bank also hosts events such as poetry readings, consistently hosting WashU’s English department. It also holds open community events and has its own organization aiming to increase public access to books and their authors called the Left Bank Books Foundation.

One of the foundation’s recent undertakings is the Literacy & Justice Project, which offers anyone, especially young people, free copies of select banned books in response to the increasing amount of book banning in public schools. King went on to discuss reasons for this widespread increase.

“[It’s] [u]sually because a group that’s either oppressed or marginalized in some way is being assertive. So, it’s not surprising that you see an uptick in book bans after things like Michael Brown and George Floyd,” King said.

Currently, Missouri is ranked No. 3 in the nation for the most banned books, so Left Bank Books always ensures that banned books are in stock. Banned or not, each title in the store is handpicked through a careful selection process, but take it from King, who works directly to make these choices.

“We’re a tightly curated store, we go through a lot of back and forth within ourselves about what we should have and what we shouldn’t have,” King said. “[We] [g]et the books that for sure [clients] want to read, and the books they’re not sure they want to read.” King said. “And that’s a little bit of the alchemy.”

King elaborated on the dual nature of the book buying process, which prioritizes both universality and representation. 

“I’m not going to not have Neil Gaiman, he’s one of the most popular fantasy authors of all time.  But…I’m also going to have P. Djèlí Clark, who is probably not a name as many people have heard, but who writes books that are amazing and, as a black man writing this, he is an underrepresented voice,” King said. “We buy books we think are interesting, but we also buy books we think are doing something important.”

King invited anyone interested to come and visit Left Bank Books. 

“This is a place where when you walk in the door, you will be greeted by people who love books and stories, and whatever you’re hoping to get out of the purchase of a book, there is always something added to it by giving it a little depth, a little relationship.”

(Sophia Hellman | Student Life)

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