I know I’ve been very neglectful of my blog. So I’m going to try to update it every Thursday. Note the key word, “try”. This blog started out as my attempt to put into words what it was like to jump into the used bookstore world and get a business up and running that had fallen into neglect. I hope that the only neglect my customers find today regarding my store will be this blog. Why Thursdays? Because today is Thursday and I have to start someplace. Please don’t hold this over me though if I’m not as faithful as I should be. Thanks.

I’m currently faced with a number of boxes (ten) that I have to go through, clean, sort, price and shelf. Three boxes came in today. I know there’s a number of mysteries, westerns and light reading. Most are paperbacks. I pulled out a few such as Craig Johnson titles and also Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. Dick Francis, Poe, and Le Carre plus numerous other authors are in the boxes. Green Penguin paperbacks, too. Mysteries. They are just getting a little airing out and then they’ll be shelved. One of the best times in the store is going through a fresh box of used books. Fun!

I started this week sorting out the storage area here in the store. Pretty soon we’ll be moving some shelving around to make room for larger collections and downsize those books that frankly, don’t move. Times like this I miss the roominess of the Main Street location but that’s all. Oh yes, the big picture window and dressing that every chance I had. Other than that, I’m loving it here in the MarbleWorks.

I have also started researching database programs to get at least partial inventory on the site. I should have taken care of that a long time ago but when it’s just one – sometimes two – people in the store, you know, it’s hard to do everything. And to remind you, dear reader, my emphasis has always been from the beginning to cater to the in-store shopper. Experience shopping a used bookstore in the store. Get off the internet and put your shoes on and walk in. It’s a great experience and very relaxing.

“Books are everywhere; and always the same sense of adventure fills us. Second-hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack. Besides, in this random miscellaneous company we may rub against some complete stranger who will, with luck, turn into the best friend we have in the world.” -Virginia Woolf, Street Haunting