“The Book Man” by Courtney Hollender

In his introduction to Life Stories, a collection of New Yorker Profiles, David Remnick confesses that “the Profile is a terribly hard form to get right.” Conceived as a form to describe Manhattan celebrities, the genre now travels widely and along all emotional and occupational registers. One quality runs through many of the best Profiles, though, notes Remnick: a sense of obsession. “The Book Man” is one student’s foray into the genre of the Profile. It was written in an “Introduction to Creative Nonfiction” course and is based on her service-learning experiences for which she earned an optional fourth credit.

Link to PDF.