The Power of Books: A Guest Post by Lily Braun-Arnold
If the world was ending, we know where we’d want to be. Dystopian, haunting and stunningly original, The Last Bookstore on Earth explores life and love on the brink of survival. Read on for author Lily Braun-Arnold’s exclusive essay on writing her debut, The Last Bookstore on Earth.
Hardcover
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The Last Bookstore on Earth (Barnes & Noble YA Book Club Edition)
The Last Bookstore on Earth (Barnes & Noble YA Book Club Edition)
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Hardcover
$9.99
$19.99
This searing YA debut follows two teen girls as they fall in love and fight for survival in an abandoned bookstore, just weeks before another cataclysmic storm threatens to bring about the end of the world. Perfect for fans of Station Eleven and The Last of Us!
This searing YA debut follows two teen girls as they fall in love and fight for survival in an abandoned bookstore, just weeks before another cataclysmic storm threatens to bring about the end of the world. Perfect for fans of Station Eleven and The Last of Us!
When I was in high school, I’d space out during statistics and think about how cool it would be to one day publish a book. At the time, it was an unattainable daydream, which is why I still don’t think I’ve fully wrapped my head around the fact that The Last Bookstore on Earth is out in the world.
I wrote The Last Bookstore as I was graduating from high school. Every day I’d sit out on our porch, drink a Coke slushie, and listen to Alanis Morisette as I tried to bang out as many words as possible. I’m the sort of writer that needs to get their thoughts and ideas out quickly, lest they disappear, and because of that, I feel like The Last Bookstore really captures my mindset at that exact moment in my life. I was days out from graduation and mere months away from moving to college and so I wrote about the feelings of uncertainty that I was grappling with, placing them in the context of the apocalypse.
Of course, I also wrote about the power of books. I worked in a bookstore throughout high school and return as often as I can when I’m not in school (they’ll never get rid of me!), and so it was important to me to capture the sense of community that I’d found there. When I was in high school, the bookstore was a constant in my life. Liz’s bookstore functions the same way for her—despite what has happened to the world around her, she still can rely on her bookstore.
Although I might not find myself in a bookstore at the end of the world, I would definitely surround myself with my favorite books and characters. If I had to only pick a few, I think my apocalyptic library would be made up of Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson, Unwind by Neal Shusterman, We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin, and a smattering of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl comics. I’m also one of those readers who needs to be listening to music, so (assuming I had a collection of CDs and a battery powered CD player) I’d almost certainly be listening to some tuneage. Top it off with a coffee from an end-of-the-world Dunkin’ and I’d be absolutely all set—barring, of course, the possibility of an acid rainstorm that may or may not be headed my way!