The Seven Stairs by Stuart Brent audiobook.

Genre: biography

In The Seven Stairs: An Adventure of the Heart, Stuart Brent recounts how a book-hungry ex-GI returns to postwar Chicago and bets his future on an idea that feels equal parts romantic and reckless: opening a small independent book and record shop in a rough neighborhood, guided more by taste and conviction than by business training. Brent begins with the quiet dread of an empty storefront and the practical puzzles that follow - finding stock, meeting rent, attracting the right readers, and learning which dreams a bookseller can afford to keep. As the shop grows into a gathering place, the memoir becomes a lively portrait of mid-century literary life, filled with oddball customers, aspiring writers, famous visitors, and the daily improvisations required to survive in a trade where passion does not always pay. Along the way Brent shares hard-won lessons about publishing, promotion, and the economics that shape what ends up on shelves, while also tracing the personal costs of building a life around books. Warm, candid, and sharply observant, this is a love letter to reading and to the stubborn art of keeping a real bookstore alive.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:09:10) Chapter 02

(00:31:37) Chapter 03

(00:48:18) Chapter 04

(01:02:23) Chapter 05

(01:22:08) Chapter 06

(01:44:19) Chapter 07

(02:02:19) Chapter 08

(02:21:24) Chapter 09

(02:38:09) Chapter 10

(03:03:18) Chapter 11

(03:33:05) Chapter 12

(03:52:07) Chapter 13

(04:15:13) Chapter 14

(04:34:38) Chapter 15

(04:56:52) Chapter 16

(05:26:10) Chapter 17

(05:57:26) Chapter 18

(06:16:47) Chapter 19

(06:50:42) Chapter 20

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