Reiss has a roster of such slogans, some of which he’s put on little placards around the store. Boosterism comes naturally to him: he has been working in retail since he was six years old, although it took him half a century to find his way into the book trade. He’d never been much of a reader, even after he opened the Booksmith, but somewhere along the way he became one—a salesman so good that he sold himself on the books he was selling.