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Interview / Books / Future Archives
The Bookshop Against the Algorithm
Kat Pongrace of Strand BookStore speaks to Litro about bookshops, recommendation, reader trust, small publishers and what gets lost when discovery is handed over to platforms.
Bookshops have always been places of recommendation, memory and taste. For Litro’s Future Archives, Kat Pongrace of Strand BookStore speaks about what physical bookshops still understand about readers, what large platforms struggle to replicate, and why booksellers remain central to literary discovery.
As more reading is shaped by search, retail platforms, social media, audio apps and recommendation systems, the question is no longer only where books are sold. It is who helps readers find them, what kinds of work become visible, and what cultural routes are lost when taste is narrowed by engagement.
“What we lose when we rely on algorithms to determine taste is the breadth that lives in every general bookstore.”
On bookshops, readers and community
Eric Akoto, Litro
Bookshops have always been places of recommendation, memory and taste. What do physical bookshops still understand about readers that large platforms struggle to replicate?
Kat Pongrace: Bookstores understand that reading is not a solitary vocation, but one that is social and communal. To create a space where people can connect over one of our most enduring forms of creative expression is essential to its future, and to ours.
On what gets lost online
Eric Akoto, Litro
As more discovery happens online through search, retail platforms, social media, audio apps and recommendation systems, what do you think risks being lost?
Kat Pongrace: We curate our bookstore based on the expertise of the people who work here, not the algorithmic incentivization towards engagement. There is no app that can tell you what you will want to read next based on what you most recently loved, because there are so many different ways we connect with a work. It can tell you other books by that author or other books in that genre, but that seems like such a narrow way to live. What we lose when we rely on algorithms to determine taste is the breadth that lives in every general bookstore. We thrive on curiosity and connection, not click-bait.
On discovery beyond the shelves
Eric Akoto, Litro
How can independent bookshops remain part of discovery when the reader may not be physically browsing shelves?
Kat Pongrace: There are so many ways to connect with your local bookstore and booksellers. We are always putting out book lists and collections on social media and our website, featuring staff picks, writing thoughtful newsletters on what’s new or what’s reasonating, what trends we are picking up on or what we’re loving. We create content by readers for readers, and our online community is just as engaged as our in person one.
“Bookstores and booksellers are the OG influencers.”
On small publishers and literary presses
Eric Akoto, Litro
For smaller publishers and literary presses, what makes a book easier or harder to discover across print, audio and digital retail?
Kat Pongrace: Honestly, whether or not they get it into the hands of the right bookseller. A staff pick or an indie next nomination, a newsletter feature or an IRL recommendation can determine more than we give any of those elements credit for. Bookstores and booksellers are the OG influencers, you trust us because it’s what we live and breathe and that trust can’t really be replicated by sponsored ads or paid placement.
On what should be protected
Eric Akoto, Litro
Looking ahead, what should publishers, booksellers and platforms be protecting now not just commercially, but culturally?
Kat Pongrace: I think that publishing in particular reacts too slowly to capitalize on trends–you can’t re-bottle lightning if it takes two years to publish a book. Culture is moving so fast these days, the best way to remain relevant is to take chances on unproven concepts and unproven authors, and give them the support they need to put their unique vision out into the world. Indie publishers do an exceptional job at this, taking risks based on quality and voice (however subjective) instead of trying to replicate the last big thing.
Bookshops as Future Archives
The argument for the independent bookshop is not nostalgia. It is cultural infrastructure. Bookshops keep a route open for books that do not already have the weight of the market behind them. They allow readers to be surprised. They allow small publishers to be found. They allow taste to be formed by people who read, not only by systems that track behaviour.
That is why bookshops belong inside Future Archives. They are not just where literary culture is sold. They are where it is remembered, tested and passed on.
This interview with Kat Pongrace of Strand Book Store was conducted as part of Litro’s Future Archives strand on books, publishing, discovery, cultural memory and what remains visible.
