Jack fails to make it in time – again – – –
Well the latest big surprise yesterday was an email telling me that ‘Tales of the Lonesome Pine’ was voted one of the top three bookstores in SW Virginia by readers of a Virginia wide tourism magazine.
I thought to begin with that it was some kind of scam, but after exchanging a series of emails with a nice lady it became clear that it was genuine.
This immediately raised a few questions –
The bookstore closed over a year ago and the building is now a private dwelling again, and the new owners probably wouldn’t want hordes of folk knocking on the door or even just walking straight in.
There again – who voted and how did they not know we’d closed?
To be clear, we had the best time running that bookstore for fourteen years and made it into a real community hub. We made many friends along the way. The only reasons we sold up and moved was that Wendy’s job could be handled more easily from where we are now in Wytheville, it felt like time to move on and the building needed more TLC than a seventy-eight-year-old guy could contemplate.
I tried to find out whether we would have been first, second or third, but for understandable reasons we couldn’t be told. I also asked if our votes could be transferred to our good friends at Oracle Books in Wytheville but no dice there either.
wendy-welch.com/2012/08/28/a-virtual-tour-of-tales-of-the-lonesome-pine-used-books/
Sometimes life is just weird – – –
That’s a hoot and a half! I do hope there are few readers for that review who take it to heart and plan a trip to see the LB of BSG. Can’t believe I said that. May there be many readers of other things though! Loved the old tour of the store! Thanks, and a day late for you is always forgivable!
A friend gave me your book. I went to college at Lees-McRae in NC, dated a boy from Big Stone Gap, and fell in love with the mountains. Later read Adriana Trigiani’s book “Big Stone Gap” and now this book from 2012 (but new to me now) takes me back to my youth and all I loved about the mointains and the people there
Thsnk you.
Glad you enjoyed them!