It's the question I get asked most often, besides "Do you buy books(1)" and "How does trade credit work(2)," : what do you read? At least once a week some witty soul will ask "So, have you read all the books in here?" I will glance around at the thousands of books lining the shelves of my shop and nod gravely. Of course. Of course I have.
You don't become a bookstore owner without a deep passion for books. My earliest memories form around trips to the Frost Free Library, a beautiful old granite building surrounded by a town green. Seeing as I grew up in southern New Hampshire where not only frost but snow and icicles covered the building for much of the year, the name really confused me as a kid. The original granite building was so cold in winter you had to keep your coat and gloves on to wander the stacks. The children's area was in a white clapboard addition, and it was here I grew to love the mystery and wonder hidden between the cardboard covers of books. When we moved South a few years later I felt like an emigrant in a strange new country where people ate food I had never heard of and the local speech had such a nonchalant ebb and flow my proper New England ears could not even begin to cipher it. I turned to the authors and stories I adored to give me a sense of familiarity and comfort. It would be a book, "A Ring of Endless Light" by Madeleine L'Engle, read so many times the cover finally cracked and fell from the binding, that would become my grief therapy when a few months after our move my older sister was killed in a car accident. Books have carried me through awkward adolescence, stressful college years, and the lonely times life inevitably forced me through.
These days, like many of my customers, I struggle to find as much time to read as I would like. Trying to balance the needs of my business, the needs of my son, and my own downtime is a challenge. Life is busy. It can be easy to feel guilty for indulging myself in an hour or two of time just for me. But I have to remember when those feelings hit it is exactly that downtime that allows me to function at my optimal levels when I'm doing things for my business and for my son. Balance in life is not selfish; it's necessary. Those disappearances into fictional worlds keep me healthy and happy in the real one.
So, what do I read? Over the next weeks and months I'll be letting you know. As I read I'll be posting blogs here about the books I'm reading, giving my opinions and sharing my insights. If you're interested, take a look. If you've read the same books--I'd love to hear back from you to see what your thoughts are, too, especially if they differ from mine.
Thanks for taking time to read this far. I know you could've been lost somewhere in a book instead.
Just because I know someone is going to ask:
(1) Yes, I buy books. I pay cash for high demand books. High demand means the ones everyone is asking for that I don't have copies of, usually stuff that's been published in the last few weeks, or that's linked to a movie or a scandal. I am probably not going to pay cash for your decade-old Dean Koontz paperbacks. Why? Because I already have enough of them.
(2) Trade credit is what I give for books that I can use, but that don't meet my for-cash requirements. Trade can be used for 1/2 of your purchase. This means if you buy a book that I have priced at $6, you can use $3 of trade toward that purchase, and you will owe me $3 plus tax. I give trade credit for books that are in good condition, that I'm not currently overstocked on, and that I think will sell within the next 18-24 months. I do not take ex-library books, textbooks, serial romances, hardcovers without their dust jackets, book club editions (check the dust jacket--if it doesn't have a price on the inside corner, it's a BCE, and you can leave it home,) hardcover romance, pornography, or books that smell of mold, mildew or show evidence of bug infestation. Really--if it looks like this, would you want to buy it? No, you wouldn't, and no one else does either. I'm probably not going to give trade credit for your decade-old Dean Koontz paperbacks either, because I still have plenty of them--but you never know. :)
