Selling words, one Book at a time

If you come into the shop and start talking to me about where you are buying or ordering your books from, please note that I will not guilt trip you. Sure I'm disappointed that you are choosing to not support someone's local endeavors, but it isn't my place to be that conviction for you. When you apologize and are "um, um, um-ing" your way through as you realize your 'mistake'...that's your conscience speaking, not me. As a self-employed, often of little to no money, person in this world I am well versed in the ‘cheaper is easier to process than shopping local’ mentality. However, I have become passionate about locality over the ease of my pocket book AND that the value of spending more (a.k.a. perhaps working harder or longer to have the funds) in my community far surpasses the deals the Big Boys can and do offer me. I must practice what I preach or be a hypocrite. That is not to say I am never a hypocrite, but for as long as I am a small business owner you better damn well believe I have to implement the practice in my own daily dealings. Now stop parading as the assumed mascot of my shop and the savior of its supposed downfall, address your conscience and proceed as necessary.

Customer: Are you a reader? Do you know anything about books? Mental Me: HELLO I WORK IN A DAMN BOOKSHOP THAT, OH YEAH I HAPPEN TO OWN! OF COURSE I KNOW A "FEW" THINGS ABOUT BOOKS. I believe I can read, at least last time I picked up this odd object and opened it the letters (is that what they are called?) made sense in their rows and lines. Those are sentences, right? Me: Yes *big smile* I'm a reader and the owner (but the customer interrupted before I could finish the bit about OWNING the shop). If there is a second, most hated, question that unnerves me it is ones similar to the above and first would be, the old stand-by: Have you read all these books? Perhaps I should carry in my wallet pictures of my home collection, the same way grandparents cart around grandchildren photographs? *face palm*

My Shop day for sure :).

Elderly Lady: Where are your Large Print books? Me: Oh they are mixed in, but I can help you find them. *Start pulling out various titles* Elderly Lady: Where are the prices? Me: The white sticker on the back. Elderly Lady: *huff of annoyance* Is this the price *points to white sticker*? Me: *big smile* Yes Elderly Lady: Well I only want to pay 5 for a dollar for Large Print. Mental Me: GOODWILL DOESN'T EVEN SELL THEIR BOOKS THAT CHEAP! *PUNCH PUNCH*

John Irving

Talkative second grader (her first time in the shop): There are SO MANY BOOKS HERE! This is like a Book Paradise (content sigh).

Women Who Read Are Dangerous by Stefan Bollman en Français ;)