Tag Archives: used books

My Poor Husband

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Those who read this blog regularly know that my husband and I live above the used bookstore we own and operate in Big Stone Gap, VA. This living arrangement leads to some fun handyman projects around the house-cum-bookshop: like painting the titles of novels on our porch steps, so they look like books lying sideways. Or putting up one of those lighted reindeer at Christmas, the one with his head down like he’s grazing, and adding a pair of glasses and a copy of Night Before Christmas.

Jack is a naturally gifted handyman who built all the shelves in our bookstore–including a set of floating shelves upstairs that the customers don’t see. Floating shelves look cool, but they are not space efficient for a shop that is climbing rapidly past 38,000 used books. So we go with the simpler model downstairs.

The project we are most looking forward to currently is the arc de books, copied from a bookshop in Lyon, France. Jack’s been studying on how to build the thing, and I’ve been squirreling away the books we can no longer sell-1990 computer manuals, damaged classics, and those Reader’s Digest Condensed Books. (These are the pigeons of the bookselling world; they leave their crap everywhere.)

Unfortunately for Jack, the interest of friends and fellow bookshop operators in this plan has been piqued. People are sending photos and websites of cool book projects–and I am dreaming big. (Thanks Carolyn Jourdan and Jim Mentink for the photos that appear today.) Jack is keeping his head down and drinking the good whiskey.

Don’t you think these would look nice in our shop, downstairs or up?

I could see myself luxuriating in this tub…

and we could totally use the piano shelf upstairs.

Since Jack is in Scotland right now, leading his annual tour of folkies through Scotland and Ireland, I think I could get a few new projects into his “honey do” jar without too much of a fuss, don’t you? After all, he’s a very handy guy around the house.

Hi Ho the Glamorous (Bookstore Owner’s) Life

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My friend Pamela read yesterday’s post about kittens overrunning the bookstore, and said, “Do you ever get stray books?”

Why, yes. Yes, we do. Friday afternoon a couple called to say they were renovating their basement and had “several” boxes of old books they wanted to donate to Tales of the Lonesome Pine Used Books and Internet Café. About 700 volumes total, they thought.

“Lovely!” I said, swallowing a gulp. “Come on down!” Then I hung up the phone and poured myself a stiff one. Dear Lord, don’t let them be more than 10% Readers Digest Condensed Books, I prayed, sipping.

Free stock sounds good when you’re first starting in the biz, but as the years roll by, you begin to understand that the amount of time spent sorting such gifts is…. hefty, while the amount of income from finding gems among the dross is ….. not. It’s like panning for word gold.

But really, that’s what running a bookstore is anyway: searching out the hidden treasures in books and people, and trying to match the right mind to the right idea at the right time. Size ’em up; pair ’em off. It may not be lucrative, but it’s rewarding.

It’s nice to have 700 more titles to add to the mix, but they must be sorted and shelved so the right minds can lay claim to them. So if you’ll excuse me, the blog has got to be short today, because that’s just the stack from the front room table. The side counters and a section of floor in the mystery room remain to clear. Check back tomorrow, when I’ll either be finished, or dead….. :] And come visit! There’s a great book in here for you, I feel sure.