Wanda's Book World

It has certainly felt like Christmas and I feel like Santa on Dec. 26th.  Patrick and I have spent today in a beautiful house on the river.  I slept most of the day.  And I do not have internet access so I am typing up my blog to post once I get to Page & Palette’s wireless environment tomorrow. 

Patrick and I did not stop to eat once in our two days on the road.  I packed all natural peanut butter, raw pecan and peanuts, string cheese, baby carrots, oranges, whole wheat crackers, Frosted mini-wheats, mini York Peppermint Patties, bite-size Snickers, Genisoy bars, bottled water and Diet sodas.  That is what we ate over the two days.  We always paired a protein with a carb and ate every two hours and we did just fine.

I still have not reviewed the videotape and hope to do that soon.  But I do want to compile my notes so I thought I would just do that as my blog to kill a few birds.  I meet Ginny Chandler from the Carrollton Main Street Program.  She was at Horton’s Books & Gifts to greet me.  There was also a sign on the front door of Horton’s that read Welcome Wanda from SIBA so that was pretty cool.  Horton’s is a great old store.  Dorothy Pittman took me on a tour and showed me some awesome pictures.  I hope she will share some of them to put up on the blog.  Horton’s has been a bookstore for over 100 years.  The left wall is filled with bookcases from an old pharmacy and the wood floor has three holes in it – one repaired with a tin can, one with a balls quart jar top and the third with a wine cork.  The cash register is from 1918 and has a 1919 penny in it. 

Paul Cumming at Humpus Bumpus Books met us at the door of this beautiful old house that he has transformed into a gorgeous bookstore.  We have a great story on video about a customer asking if Humpus Bumpus was an adult bookstore and the hilarity that followed: a real Who’s on First kinda moment.  What used to be the garage houses student reading and Cliff notes.  Formerly a bedroom is all Romance, and the former kitchen houses all of the cookbooks.  The front counter is right as you walk in the front door and I met most of the customers right as they came in the door.  This is where the only customer passed on my offer to buy her a book.  But it is also where Chad Chandler chose The Complete Works of Winnie the Pooh and Pat Burda chose Cry of the Eagle and Ray Burda chose Truman.

We turned left and ended up going over some railroad tracks and having to turn around at a dead end when we called Farris and he told us to come the other direction and when I came over the hill in the road, I saw the word BOOKS lit up straight in front of me.  It was like Batman’s light in the sky.  We parked and crossed the street.  Yawn’s is a wide, well-lit bookstore and quite inviting.  There were no customers when we walked in but that soon changed.  Penny Bennett was one of the customers that came into Yawn’s Books & More in Canton, GA, a one-man operation run by Farris Yawn.  She chose Wildflowers of the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains as her gift.  Many of the women that I bought books for did not want to appear on video.  Next time I will need to bring a stylist with me. 

Doug at Eagle Eye Bookshop was the only member that really wanted to talk business with me and we did.  I think we generated some ideas that will help members.  One being that any enewsletter you are doing should be going to folks in New York and I am going to provide a good list of publisher emails that would like to get your enewsletter so that they know about your stores and your good work.  Doug also let an Emory student post-date a check.  Who does that anymore?  I was quite impressed.  Emily Bracewell chose National Parks of the United States and Melanie Benedict chose NEXT by Michael Chrichton. 

It was quite late when we finally got to Outwrite Bookstore and Coffeehouse and what a fun place it was. Jeff could not have been a better host.  I don’t have notes about who bought what because every person that chose a book also agreed to be on tape so until I review the tape I won’t be able to tell you names and titles but as soon as I do, I will let you know.  Outwrite is where maybe the most amazing gesture was made.  I offered to buy a book for a woman and she wanted to give it back to the organization. I shared with the next customer that their free book was coming from her.  I do recall that two of the customers I bought books for at Outwrite were regulars and the other two were not.  Outwrite has some great gift items.  Cool ornaments, jewelry, as well as a great selection books.

Every store has a great book collection.  I was so amazed at how different the collections were but how long I could have spent in any one of them.  There were a few books I saw everywhere – Booksense Pics and Holiday Catalog Titles but then the selections began to diverge.  And it was not just the selection of titles but everything.  Each store has its own aura – an impact when you walk in that tells you something about itself.  Whether it be its commitment or politics, its splace (I just invented this word – sense of place or splace) or pride, fun or faith, sophistication or family flavor.  Every store has something to say.

I will compile more notes tomorrow and hopefully watch some video to give some more details.  Keep selling those books!