Beach's Own Print Culture

 In these memoirs I really enjoyed reading the chapter “A Bookshop of My Own”, because it clearly depicts how much Beach wanted to create a setting for people to come and read and exchange ideas.  Her passion for her shop was very clear and her desire to create a community of readers and a place for passionate people, like herself, to come and enjoy themselves was inspiring. Her passion clearly worked because she says of her opening the shop, “…when the first friends began to show up. From that moment on, for over twenty years, they never gave me time to meditate”(21).  She created a place where people could lend and share each other’s books, which created a large community of readers.  This is something that I believe is a strong aspect of a print culture network. She tells readers that “each member had a small identity card, which he was supposed to produce when claiming the deposit as the expiration of his subscription, or when he was broke. This card was as good as a passport, so I was told”(22). Her membership granted access to a world of literature and exchange of ideas. This was her cultured network, and her community of readers.