bookstores

Bugs and Bookstores

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Kleenex-small-boxJust read a ShelfTalker piece from Publishers Weekly about the challenges of staying healthy if you are a bookseller. Let’s just say that it is not easy when one works with the public all day to stay healthy during cold and flu season. The writer talks about parents who stop at the store with obviously sick kids to pick up books, on the way to the pediatrician. Handling cash and credit cards of those who may not have coughed into their elbows is a recipe for time off.

I suppose there is no way we are ever going to have perfectly germ-free environments no matter how many “safe sneezing and coughing” videos we watch and how many hand sanitizers and sprays we use. What you would hope for instead is some common sense and courtesy. The truth is that booksellers aren’t the only ones affected. Cafe workers have to handle germy cups and plates. Other customers may handle books or other articles a sick person has touched including door handles. In our go-go culture we’ve been trained to do just that until we are laid out, sick as a dog, sick.

Instead of passing along sickness to the fellow bibliophiles, here are a few thoughts:

  • This is a great time to catch up on reading the books you have. Take that cold or flu medicine, get into your jammies, get a cup of hot tea, and snuggle up with a good book.
  • Need books? Here is where an e-reader is really helpful. You can borrow them from the library or buy them online without putting a single person at risk.
  • There are also many sources of free books such as Project Gutenberg, the Internet Archive, and a number of free Kindle books on Amazon, and other online sources that you can read on a tablet or computer.
  • That’s not possible? You can reserve books online at your library and pick them up with minimal contact, particularly if you have self-checkout. Can the books carry microbes? It’s possible but most die within hours or days in a dry environment. Maybe if your kids are sick, you can make sure they use hand sanitizers and wait three days before returning the books.
  • You can put a call out on Facebook to your friends that you are desperate for books. Let them know your favorite types. And maybe they can bring some chicken soup as well. If not, the books are a good substitute!

Many of us develop good relationships with our booksellers. They are our friends. If they work at an indie store, it is not always easy for them to take time off if they get sick.

Love thy bookseller as thyself!

Cold Weather — The Book Lover’s Friend

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In our patch of the world, the weather forecasts for the next week are downright chilly and our weather man even used the dreaded “polar vortex” phrase last night. It occurred to me that for the book lover, this is not such a bad thing:

1. I can feel good about not doing yard work when sleet is flying! No one else is out there either.

2. For the same reason, it is a good time to prowl your favorite book store. The ones that serve hot coffee or tea or cocoa are especially nice.

3. Or maybe it’s time to check out the latest additions to your local library. Ours even has a fireplace!

4. It’s a great time to catch up on those reviews and book lists for new ideas of books you’d like to read.

5. If you feel the need to do something that is considered household work, this is a great time to cull your own personal library and donate or sell those books.

6. Christmas is not too far off and it can be fun to think about the books you might give a literary friend!

7. If you log your books on Goodreads, LibraryThing, or a similar site, it is a great time to catch up on these entries and let your friends know what you’ve been reading.

8. Don’t forget, as Winston Churchill famously counselled, to “fondle” your books! Look through your shelves, open up something you’ve wanted to read some day and skim through some sections just to get a good sense of why you might still want to read that book, or not!

9. Of course, this is a great chance to catch up on past posts from Bob on Books (had to get a promo in somewhere!). A great place to start are my “The Month in Reviews”  posts which I do at the beginning of each month of books I reviewed the previous month.

10. Last of course, and what we’ve all been waiting for, is that this is the chance to snuggle up in that comfortable chair, with comfy shoes or slippers, a warm drink, and that book that will transport us into book lover bliss!

So when everyone is bemoaning the arrival of chilly weather or, as people in my city do, go bezonkers at the sight of a snow flake, you can quietly smile to yourself and think of the good book just waiting for you!

Book Store Creeps!

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Have you ever had an encounter with a book store creep? It could be that we go to book stores often enough that we’ve had more chances to have this problem. I say we, here, because my wife tends to have these encounters more often than I, and usually, but not always with men who are acting creepily. I guess book stores are not exempt from this type of behavior. Here are some kinds we have encountered:

The Hit-man. This is the guy (usually a guy) who is trying to hit on women and mistakes the book store for a bar, or perhaps just isn’t the kind who frequents the bar. What is weird is that my wife and I are not young. Usually I will discover this has happened when my wife suddenly starts shadowing me in the store–our interests are relatively dissimilar, so when this happens I know something is up. These people need to find books on appropriate boundaries and cultivating healthy relationships!

The Overly-Familiar. This person may be trying to hit on you, but more often, they are just needy. Usually they will make some remark to get your attention and if you respond, suddenly, they are your new best friend and start telling you about their break-ups with significant others, their medical problems, the stuff that is broken down in their house, their economic woes and on and on (and on). Often leaving the store–or feigning a sudden need to use the facilities is the only way to get away.

The Invader. This is the person who simply pushes in front of you without even an “excuse me” or “pardon me” or a “there is something I was looking for in this section.” The only solution is to stay up close to the books you are looking at, which you usually think of too late. Mostly, I just conclude that tangling with such types is kind of like taking on the person who cuts you off in traffic–perilous to say the least.

The Camper. That’s the person who sits down in a chair, or on the floor and just occupies the very set of shelves you were hoping to look at and is utterly impervious to those social cues that you might actually like to look at the books in that area. Often, I’ll take off for a while and look at other things and come back. If they still don’t get the message, they are definitely a camper whose motto is “possession is 9/10ths of the law”.

The Flatulator. This last type is becoming increasingly popular in book stores and other contexts. Have you noticed how jokes about “breaking wind” and other such conversation is no longer limited to middle school boys? Seems that the practice isn’t either. I’ve noticed two types. One is the person who just likes to satisfy the urge whenever they have it, no matter who is around. The other is the “skunk” who uses this as an offensive weapon to keep people out of their space. Usually works!

Perhaps one lesson in all this for those of us nerdy enough to hang out at book stores frequently is to ask whether we might be inadvertently slipping into some of these “creepy” behaviors. Most of us really find our enjoyment of the book store experience diminished when we encounter one of these folks. The real question is, are we becoming one of them?

What are your stories of encounters with book store creeps? And how have you dealt with them?

 

 

Read It Again Books in Grove City

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[This store is now closed]

I mentioned a couple of posts back our recent visit to Grove City.  One of our fun discoveries was Read It Again Books, located in Grove City’s shopping district at 4052 Broadway. This is a classic used bookstore. It is located in an old two-story home on the main street of Grove City, with every room filled with shelves and tables of books by different categories.

Read It Again Books and Gifts

Read It Again Books and Gifts

When we arrived in Grove City mid-afternoon, we found the store closed but found enough to divert us until they opened at 5 pm. The owners, Lora and Lynn, work other jobs during the daytime and so just open during the evenings on weekdays, from 5 to 8 pm, from 10-6 on Saturdays (they may be opening at 8am for the new farmers market that is starting up this Saturday) and 1-6 on Sundays.

We’re so glad we came back, not only for the cookbook of ethnic recipes from Cleveland my wife found (we lived there for nine years) and a mint condition copy of E. H. Gombrich’s A Little History of the World I picked up at a very reasonable price. We also really enjoyed getting to know Lora and Lynn.

Interior - Read it Again Books & Gifts

Interior – Read it Again Books & Gifts

Lora seems to be on a first name basis with most of her customers and really makes a point of getting to know their reading interests. We saw children, teens, and adults stop in while we were there. They have a children’s room and Lora worked with a couple of the children helping them find books they would enjoy in a way that would make any children’s librarian proud. She had a book she had set aside for one of her teen customers that she thought she would like.

Lynn was involved in shelving new acquisitions and what was fun was just listening to him talk about books they acquired that he found interesting. In addition, Lynn makes hand-turned fountain pens which also are for sale at the store. These were works of art.

IMG_2163

Lucy

Of course, one can’t forget Lucy, the quintessential bookstore cat. She seemed very friendly to the children in the store and just seemed to lap up attention.

Lora claimed that this was the only used bookstore in southwest Franklin County, and from what I know, I believe she is right. What was obvious to me was that Lora and Lynn loved books, loved connecting customers with books they would enjoy and work hard to both serve their community and make a go of this business. In that, they seem to represent the best ideals of the used/indie bookstore movement. And for that, I’m only too glad to give them a shout-out!

So Who Will Help Barnes & Noble?

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James Patterson captured a great deal of attention in the book store world as he announced his intent to give away $1 million dollars to a variety of independent bookstores. A PW Daily story chronicles the first round of these grants, totalling $267,000, given after he meticulously reviewed grant requests.

B and N

The question is, what knight in shining armor is out there to bail out bookstore giant Barnes & Noble? They just announced a 10% drop in revenues during the third quarter. They say  EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) increased from $59 to $173 million over this period, but many consider EBITDA a clever accounting ploy to dress up a balance sheet. Revenues dropped in retail (including BN.com), college, and e-book and Nook sales. Were it not for draconian cuts in the Nook division (with more reportedly to come), things would have been even worse.

This is troubling news to me. In our market (Columbus, Ohio) they are the only significant retail outlet left, apart from some small indie stores with limited selections (none near us), grocery stores marketing the bestsellers, and a healthy segment of second hand stores. We’ve often been helped by book and media sellers when we have visited their stores. Sometimes that in-person assistance is far easier than searching around online when you have an idea of what you want but don’t have a particular title you are looking for.

For so many, this is just a market and convenience driven thing. Amazon is so easy to order from when you have a good idea of what you are looking for. E-books are incredibly easy to download and nobody beats Amazon’s selection, although I’m told by many that the Nook is actually a better reading device and doesn’t confine people to the proprietary format Amazon uses. Sadly, many thought Sony’s Betamax a better video format as well.

I suspect we are at a cultural tipping point. Patterson is helping indie operators attempt to innovate to stay in business. I actually wonder if some of these will survive longer than B & N, because they will figure out how to market to, attract, and serve a loyal clientele who still enjoy hanging around physical bookstores and value the service of booksellers and will pay for that privilege. I wonder if B & N needs to take a hard look at which stores in their operation are achieving this same kind of customer loyalty and both learn from them and figure out what the demographics are that make this work.

What troubles me is what will Amazon become if they face no serious competition? What I wonder sometimes is if one of the other new media giants like Google or Apple (I’m not convinced Microsoft is nimble enough) might join forces with Barnes and Noble. Apple has actually figured out how to use brick and mortar outlets to sell its products. It scares me at the same time to write this for fear of whether they might preserve physical book stores, but in some very new iteration alien to many of us.

What I wonder above all is that in turning so much of our commerce over to the virtual world, will we lose the physical spaces that add a richness to life and exchange them for our personal caves with our electronic devices that connect us to this brave new world?

Bookstore Cats

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I am not a cat lover. But for some reason I found myself thinking this morning about bookstores and cats and why they go together. Of course, you will not see a cat in any of the bookstore chains.  They probably worry about liability issues. Maybe the group of people frequenting the indie bookstores where you tend to find these cats are more respectful of the cats–keeping their distance and treating them as simply another book browser.

Orinda Books in Orinda, California features their bookstore cat right on the website's home page. They welcome you to come in and pet Ginger, who is accustomed to customers. Here you see her drawing attention to a table of books for sale. Photograph by Karen Lile. Text and photo accessed at http://mentalfloss.com/article/29928/10-excellent-bookstore-cats

Orinda Books in Orinda, California features their bookstore cat right on the website’s home page. They welcome you to come in and pet Ginger, who is accustomed to customers. Here you see her drawing attention to a table of books for sale. Photograph by Karen Lile. 

Why is it that cats and bookstores go together? Maybe the question is why cats and indie bookstore operators tend to go together? Maybe independent is the common thread. Indie booksellers have always struck me as very much their “own” persons, similar to the personality of cats who seem to allow you into their lives very much on their terms, if at all.

Why do cats and books go together? Is it that we wish we had the mythical nine lives of cats to read all the books we would like? Or is it that cats seem to represent the all-knowing creatures we are tempted to think we can become through our books?

Perhaps it is much simpler. Somehow the presence of a cat wandering the shelves or perched atop a stack of books makes these stores seem a homier, more welcome place. That’s the impression we had at one of our favorite book haunts of the past, Twice-Loved Books, an indie used book store that occupied a former homes in Youngstown, Ohio. The store is no longer. But the memories of wandering the rooms with the store cat remain. The cat just added to the whole feel of the store as a place for an unhurried browse.

I hope the bookstore cat indeed has nine lives, because it will mean the stores it inhabits will as well. I’d love to hear about your favorite bookstore cat!