Tag Archives: used book shops

The Best Part is still People

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OK, so in just under two weeks I’ll be an official author, with my book launched. Thus it’s only right that I get to sit back on my newly-minted laurels and pontificate about the authorial life, right?

Actually it’s not a far stretch, because the coolest thing about being an author is the coolest thing about being a bookseller: the people that you meet.

People like Kim Beattie (Goodwill Librarian on FB) Robert Gray (Shelf Awareness columnist) Jennifer and Harte and Sarah (booksellers at Ebenezer Books in VT and Bookstore Plus in NY) to name a few of the new friends in the bookslinging crowd, plus some wacko bibliophiles on Twitter and a whole bunch of authors and about a thousand really lovely people who are READERS.

Readers make the world turn. And they’re interesting souls. A couple of publicity things I did recently netted a whole bunch of people emailing to say hi, and telling me about their library experiences as young’uns: how they had to pay fees because they were out in the county, or how their local library closed because the town grew too small to support it; or their work in various bookstores across the States (and England and Canada, in two cases) and the bookstores that are special to them –one woman is driving back across two states to celebrate the 20th anniversary of a bookstore in her hometown–or how they read real books to their grandchildren in shelf-lined rooms with comfy armchairs.

They are so very, very sweet, these human connections made from books. (And granted, they’re being made on computer, but still it’s just like sitting down with a cup of tea and talking to the people who email; I swear in some cases I picture the person with a mug, in others holding a china cup and saucer, without even thinking about it.)

So maybe that’s the coolest thing about books in general: they always come back to people. That’s the people who wrote them and put their ideas out there for us to enjoy (or shred); the people who gather around them to talk and laugh and discuss; the people who sell them to us and ask us what we thought about them and listen to what the book brought up in us, for better or for worse; and the people who read them, and validate those who write.

Huzzah for book people! You are a great tribe and I’m so happy to be a part of you.

Caption Contest VII (The LAST ONE)

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Okay, all you kitten lovers and bibliophiles out there: have at it! This is the last caption contest of the seven St. Martin’s Press has sponsored. Cassie, back in the bowels of the Flatiron Building in NYC, waits to give the winner a print or e-copy of The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap. Here’s the photo, and captions are due by midnight on Monday, Sept. 24.

If you are unfamiliar with either figure in this photo, on the right is my husband Jack. On the left is staff kitten Owen Meany. (There’s a blog about how Owen got her name if you scroll back to late June. Yes, her name.)

Put your captions under comments, keep it family-friendly of course, and have fun! Also, congratulations to Callie the Flower, who won Caption Contest VI with her entry comparing Shakespeare to tuna. (The contest is Aug. 29 if you’d like to see what she wrote and what inspired the writing.) In second place was Kaylee with “To sleep, perchance to dream; aye, there’s the belly rub.” Which might give you an idea about the photo she was captioning. BTW the cat in the Shakespeare photo is named Garfunkel and he was adopted by a family in the same week that the contest ran. If you read this blog regionally, we have the world’s friendliest female cat here, Agnes Grey, looking for her forever home. Agnes is a total snuggle bunny who likes to ride on your shoulder like a baby. Come see her if you’re in town!)