Interview with a Bookstore: Hullabaloo
When Your Neighborhood Doesn't Have a Bookstore, Open One
Before Hullabaloo, Crown Heights was a neighborhood that was without a bookstore. I wanted to create a space that not only had a great selection of books, but also served as a meeting and mingling space for the community. Hullabaloo opened in November, 2013. The store hosts book clubs, readings and writing groups, lectures and classes, always free of charge. I couldn’t imagine living in a neighborhood that was without a bookstore. To my taste, it’s fundamental to the pleasure of living in any neighborhood.
–Michael de Zayas (owner)
What's your favorite section of the store?
Michael: Architecture.
If you had infinite space what would you add?
A nightclub.
What do you do better than any other bookstore?
Abhorrence of horizontal bookshelves.
What’s the craziest situation you’ve ever had to deal with in the store?
The first night Hullabaloo was officially open a fight broke out amongst a group of middle school girls right in front. One came into the store with a jagged-edged broken bottle in her hand. The police came and made some arrests. No one bought anything.
What’s your earliest/best memory about visiting a bookstore as a child?
My aunt and uncle owned a bookstore in North Carolina called Intimate Bookshop. I was ten years old at the time and they told me that I could have any book that I wanted from their store. I remember being overcome with this sense of freedom and wonder. My book of choice on that day: a history of the Dallas Cowboys.
If you weren’t running or working at a bookstore, what would you be doing?
Well in addition to Hullabaloo, I also own Little Zelda, which is a literary-minded coffee shop, a bar called Two Saints, a hair salon, four bagel shops called Nagel’s Bagels (a family name), a wine store about to open called Simple Syrup, and I’m working on opening a movie theater and arts complex which will be called Inter/mission. However, to answer your question, I would be reading these works of Elena Ferrante I keep hearing about…
SLIDESHOW: Hullabaloo Books Staff Recommendations
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- ALLISON (ASSISTANT MANAGER) RECOMMENDS: At once macabre and whimsical, Shirley Jackson sets a vivid scene of small town paranoia and acquaints us with a family that has dark secrets. Jackson supplies the reader with an ample amount of dark undertones found embedded in everyday life.
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- MICHAEL (OWNER) RECOMMENDS: Sure, it sounds dumb. But it is work of distilled genius. (Or, a genius job of plagiarizing Richard Koch’s 80/20 Principle.) Bottom line: dream big, do more, here’s how. Radically impacted my life this year, and sent me into a vortex of dreaming big, with a total focus of doing “less.” Example! I now don’t use a phone. (If you don’t use a phone, please tell me about it. I’m ready to form a self-help group.) Creating time to think up plans and projects where the goal is doing what matters most is what’s really at the core of this book. (And any passionate lifestyle.)
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- VALERIE (VOLUNTEER) RECOMMENDS: The debut novel from Alexandra Kleeman the chronicles narrator, A’s amorphous appetite and identity. A lives with a strikingly similar roommate, B, dates the blandly handsome, C before dropping everything to join a cult devoted to the tasteless snack, Kandy Kakes. In alternately horrific and comic fashion, the book sifts through the parameters of desire, consumption, and the desire to disappear from yourself. Kleeman’s novel is a creepy, disorienting delight.
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- JACQUE (VOLUNTEER) RECOMMENDS: Perfect prose, deep plunges into the internal lives of the characters. The Hours is magically still and eventful, quiet and tense. It’s a love letter to Virginia Woolf. It’s the only fan-fiction to ever win the Pulitzer. It’s amazing. You should read it.
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- T (VOLUNTEER) RECOMMENDS: Poetry is daunting. It feels like if you don’t know it then you will never understand it. Unfortunately, thinking this way can cut a person off from life changing reading. Poetry is like art vs. porn-if you let go of any preconceived notions you will know good poetry vs. bad when you see it. Don’t look for meaning, just read it. Out loud if possible. Don’t be put off that Dickinson was taught in school. She is a master beyond her time outside of time, even let it wash over you. It will change you without even your noticing.
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- RACHEL (VOLUNTEER) RECOMMENDS: After studying at Reed College, Portland, I felt I better understood the strange, insular and anachronistic liberal arts world that the characters in The Secret History inhabit. Tartt has a cult following for a reason, and I think her debut novel is her most thrilling.
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- MARISSA (VOLUNTEER) RECOMMENDS: A story of human suffering, love, hope, faith and demonstrates the universality of those experiences. McCann weaves together the stories of a dozen people who start as strangers and find each other from all over the world. So gorgeous!
