iheartbookstores will acknowledge being more than just a little bit obsessed with the names of things.  This fascination is cross disciplinary, encompassing maps, books, people and all things in between.  Found within that spectrum are the humorous, the obscure and the weird. 

 

To consider names only from the perspective of entertainment value would disregard the fact that there is power inherent in the naming of things.  Humans have a history of asserting control and ownership over things with names to quantify, categorize, define and create a narrative.  Culture Decanted notes that, "across many cultures, the first recorded actions within the universe are semiotic in nature."  Indeed, the importance of names and naming are recurring themes in literature as well:

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     "It matters what you call a thing."

      Solmaz Sharif, Look: Poems

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     "What others call you, you become.  It's a terrible magic that everyone can do -- so do it. Call

     yourself what you wish to become."

     Catherynne M Valente, The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two

     

     "I have always been obsessed with naming things.  If I could name them, I could tame them."

     Eve Ensler, The Vagina Monologues

 

As the pieces that would eventually become iheartbookstores were being assembled, a wunderkammer of sorts began to accumulate.  The collected curiosities, as you will observe shortly, create unique narratives with their names.  Drawing again from literature, T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats showcases the absurd side of selecting a name for something.

 

"You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter

When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT

NAMES.

First of all, there's the name that the family use daily,

Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James,

Such as Victor or Jonathan, or George or Bill Bailey -

All of them sensible everyday names.

There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,

Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:

Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter -

But all of them sensible everyday names.

But I tell you, a cat needs a name that's particular,

A name that's peculiar, and more dignified,

Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular,

Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?

Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,

Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat,

Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum -

Names that never belong to more than one cat."

 

The last line here is key to what iheartbookstores observes in regards to booksellers' praxis of nomenclature. Far beyond a mere marketing ploy, a great name not only communicates who you are, but helps to distinguish you from all of the other "cats." Why settle for being just The Bookstore when you can be Professor Neewollah's Rare Books & Fine Curiosities & Magic Emporium.  A name so fantastic it required the use of not one, but two, ampersands!  This bold act of naming secures a narrative that's definitely all their own.  A tactical choice that is at once deliberate, whimsical and memorable.  It makes iheartbookstores want to visit - how about you?