Wanda's Book World

Let’s talk about how this trip came to be.  I’ve had a few stores ask me why not them…why weren’t they asked or considered or put on the tour.  When in New York City with the SIBA Board of Directors, I commented at dinner that I really needed to spend some time in a bookstore and it seemed that working during the holidays would be good both because stores are busy and SIBA is slow.  When I got home from the trip to New York a proposal from board member Karin Wilson was in my email.  Karin had a place where we could stay, would pay $300 towards our travel, and would give us $500 in books.  So Patrick and I decided to come to Fairhope to work at Page & Palette.  Okay, that was set and we were looking forward to it.

Then, a dear friend of mine and her sister were on the Oprah show where Oprah gave everyone $1,000 and challenged them to pay it forward.  And that appealed to me so much so when daydreaming about what I’d do if I gave away $1000, it was to buy books for folks who were not expecting them.  So it came to me that we could spend our $1000 on the way to Fairhope in independent bookstores, but what stores?  Ahhhh – that was the thousand dollar question?  So I created some criteria:

1.  The bookstore had to be on the route to Page & Palette.

2.  The bookstore had to be a current SIBA member.

3.  The bookstore had to accept the BookSense Gift Card.

When I applied the criteria, I came up with the nine stores that I visited before arriving at Page & Palette. 

I spent today getting familiar with Page & Palette and picking out my staff picks.  When I want to Alabama Booksmith in Birmingham, Alabama; after I had spent all my money buying books for unsuspecting customers in Alabama Booksmith, a customer came in with a list of kinds of books he wanted for Christmas presents.  The list had things on it like Christian inspiration for a woman, father-daughter story, book for a musician, and on and on.  Jake Reiss & Matt were running around the store choosing titles for consideration and I wanted to jump in and help in the worse way.  I did pitch Sue Monk Kidd and he did buy The Secret Life of Bees.  That is what I cannot wait to do at Page & Palette.  Alabama Booksmith also has a First Edition Collectors Club which is so cool.  I would encourage any store to look at a way to sign up customers for a Book of the Month club of some kind whether by kind of book such as mystery or books for children, or an employees’ best picks, or as Jake does, Signed First Editions.

Poor Richard’s Booksellers was our first stop after leaving Columbia.  Gerald Harris, owner and father to Laura Harris, the manager, have an inviting and warm hometown bookstore.  It was an interesting visit when a police officer came in looking for a missing person that had made a purchase in the store the morning before.  Again, I was struck by how engaged and involved the local business is in the local life of a neighborhood.  The officer chose a copy of Betty Crocker’s Diabetic Cookbook as his gift and said he knew he would find the missing person soon because my gift was a good omen. 

The Little Professor Book Center in Birmingham, Alabama is a bright two-story open floor planned bookstore.  The coffee shop is undergoing a renovation and Joanne Howard with the rest of the staff was weary from the jackhammering.  But when I was in the store, the jackhammer was quiet but the store was humming with customers and I quickly spent my last Booksense Gift Card. 

Here are the books I bought:

The Happy Bookseller:
Emily Post’s Book of Etiquette
Down by the Water: Junior League of Columbia Cookbook
One the 8^th Day Adam Slept Alone
Reflections of South Carolina

Poor Richard’s Booksellers:
Betty Crocker’s Diabetic Cookbook
The Night Before Christmas
S is for Silence

Humpus Bumpus:
The Complete Works of Winnie the Pooh
Cry of the Eagle
Truman
Spanish Made Easy

Yawn’s Books & More:
Realm of Possibilities
My Sister’s Keeper
Empowering your Life with Meditation
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Tiger Beat magazine
Paula Deen’s Cookbook
Wildflowers of the Blue Ridge & Great Smoky Mountains

Eagle Eye Bookshop:
Case Histories
13 Moons
The Delusion of God
Spaces
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

Outwrite Books & More:
Mae West
Momma’s Boy, Preacher’s Son
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
The New Big Book of Color

Horton’s Books & Gifts:
Dear John
Dear John
The Singing Stone
Facing Your Giants
The Shape Shifter

Alabama Booksmith:
Penumbra
Abundance
Miss American Pie
Teta, Mother, & Me

Little Professor Book Center:
The Iraq Study Group Guide
Kit Carson
True Evil