March is such a fickle month. It is the seam between winter and spring—though seam suggests an even hem, and March is more like a rough line of stitches sewn by an unsteady hand, swinging wildly between January gusts and June greens. You don’t know what you’ll find, until you step outside. – V.E. Schwab,
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

Then sometime there in late March, after the Indian violets had come, we would be gathering on the mountain and the wind, raw and mean, would change for just a second. It would touch your face as soft as a feather. It had an earth smell. You knew springtime was on the way. – Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree

OCUB will be closed for a few days next week – March 26 and 27. Just a little time away. Time to maybe get in some spring house cleaning, prepare flower and veggie gardens. Or to just sleep late, read a couple of books while enjoying tea and chocolates from a friend.

See you Thursday, March 28!

“Where are you going on vacation?”
“Nowhere. I’m going to read. I love reading.”
-Marjane Satrapi, The Complete Persepolis

After a certain age, time just drizzles down upon your head like rain in the month of March: you’re always surprised at how much of it can accumulate, and how fast. – Elizabeth Gilbert, City of Girls

Now is the month of Germinal in the Republican calendar: the month of hyacinth, and bees, and violet, and primrose. It is also the windy month; the month of new beginnings, and I have never felt it so strongly as I feel it now: that sense of possibility; that irresistible lightness. – Joanne Harris, The Strawberry Thief.

Ok, even I have to admit that this past February was actually a nice month. This time. This year. But know I really do hate February. For personal reasons. And now, here we are in March. A big sigh and a happy face.

The I Hate February sale was awesome. A lot of books were carried out. Armloads, bags and boxes. Everyone seemed happy with their purchases as well as me. Now it’s time to ready the store by reorganizing shelves, corners, stacks and all. I am taking a break accepting books. I think used bookstores need to do that once in a while and now is a good time especially after the sale. You know, restock shelves, go through inventory, pull out books from the storage area. Re-alphabetize sections as needed. Dust. Make things look good.

I’m currently toying with the idea of taking a week off at the end of March. The last week. I’ve taking a few days off here and there but not a full week and I think I need to. To get my head together. Take a pause. Breathe. I’ll make a firm decision in a few days and post it.

Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. Books, the oldest and the best, stand naturally and rightfully on the shelves of every cottage. – Henry David Thoreau, Walden

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice. –
T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

Another year! From what I’ve been hearing, others are excited as me to turn the page on 2023 and head on into 2024. Not sure what the new year will bring, and I don’t want to speculate. I’m just going to leave it alone but looking forward to the possibilities and a positive direction.

I’m participating in another online book club this year. The Literary Landmark Virtual Book Club, led by the Grant Cottage in Wilton, NY. Two newly published books on U.S. Grant are featured. Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction by Fergus M. Bordewich, and Soldier of Destiny: Slavery, Secession, and the Redemption of Ulysses S. Grant by John Reeves.

At the top of my book stack are Michael Katz’s The Brothers Karamazov, Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell, Erskine Caldwell’s God’s Little Acre. I have to wrap-up Stephen Kieran’s, The Curiosity. I’m also lining up embroidery projects to work on in between reading.

New bookcases will soon be arriving at the store. One for the children’s room and one for the green room. One is to help me realize a vision of what I feel used bookstores should have. Then I think I’ll be all set. Well, maybe some wall shelving….

The Saturday after Thanksgiving is a day for celebrating. That’s the day I became a used bookstore owner. Otter Creek Used & Rare Books became Otter Creek Used Books and it was mine. Never once have I regretted the purchase. Never once have I had a day of regret. How lucky am I? Very.

I went from this on Main Street in a basement….

…to the Historic MarbleWorks.

I miss the large space of the Main Street location with the large window overlooking the street and the storage. But I love the MarbleWorks with the nooks and crannies and the many windows. No worries for parking. I’m on one floor. And the community within the MarbleWorks is unsurpassable.

I’ve been working on ‘increasing’ the space by adding bookshelves and bookcases. I have a customer who’s become the store’s official carpenter. Those who stated there was no way I could fit another bookcase have been in the store and didn’t notice the additions until I pointed them out. I’m excited to say two more will be added very soon. Let’s see if you notice them next time you are in.

I think I’ve kept my philosophy of running the store the same as I did in the early days. It’s all about the books. All about coziness. To feel comfortable and not be totally overwhelmed. I work very hard to keep the store fresh by adding (and maybe subtracting) books, adding displays, shuffling around collections so all can fit in nicely. The store is designed to poke around. See what book finds you.

Following the advice of a bookseller whom I greatly admire and one of the founders of the Vermont Antiquarian Booksellers Association, Ben Koenig, of The Country Bookshop, years ago stated that if you are going to have a sale make it fun. Everyone has fun when the books are half off. Great advice. So, Friday 11/24 and Saturday 11/25 all books will be half price! Come and have fun!

Spiritual truth, like good nuggets of psychedelic music, was at the margins, hidden in used bookstores and record shops. – Peter Bebergal, Too Much to Dream: A Psychedelic American Boyhood

Winding down from a rather busy summer. I was not pleased with the cool temps and all of the rain. I feel cheated. Cheated out of hot, sunny days and muggy evenings. Those nights where the only comfort I can find is sitting on my front porch with a tall glass of ice water and reading a good novel. With all the rain the mosquitos discovered the porch. “HA! There you are!” I could just hear them.

I didn’t even start the ‘great summer read’. You know, those thick hard cover novels. In fact, I started books only to cast them aside to pick up another. I made myself finish a few. My reading count for the year is low. Thirteen books! So sad. Twelve books I’ve started. Ugh!

I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

I’m supposed to remember books I’ve read. As well as who wrote what book. What’s the great American novel? What is/are my favorite novels(s)? What do I recommend to help get someone back into reading. What are the books I have here in the store. Some days I can spit out titles and authors. And then there are days when I can’t even visualize the dust jacket of the asked for book. Ugh!

In spite of all or anything at all, owning a used bookstore is everything you can imagine and then some. I love it. All positive. Customers to all the books. Cleaning to sweeping. Covering torn dust jackets. Shelving. Walking the aisles to straighten them. Going through boxes as they enter the store. Talking with my book scouts and seeing what they brought in. Visiting homes to pick out titles. After sixteen years it is still exciting. Adventurous.

I’ve been taking a break from going through a box of vintage youth books. Sorting to those that are good to stay. Others to put outside for the sale. Setting aside those that need their dust jackets covered. Pricing and stacking for a working pile. Fill my arms and head into the Big Yellow Room for shelving.

The glow of appreciation a book lover showed as he left a Book Row shop clutching a volume he had found at last after a seemingly endless and quixotic quest was seen somewhere practically every day on Book Row. It’s a glow unlike any other, and the radiance could at times make even grouchy booksellers worried about the rent feel better for delivering a bit of happiness in a cloudy world. – Marvin Mondlin & Roy Meador, BOOK ROW: An Anecdotal and Pictorial History of the Antiquarian Book Trade.

My behavior is nonetheless, deplorable. Unfortunately, I’m quite prone to such bouts of deplorability–take for instance, my fondness for reading books at the dinner table. – Brandon Sanderson, The Final Empire

For some time, I’ve been heading out just about once a week after I close the store to enjoy a nice dinner with a book – Dinner and a Book. It serves as some quiet time to enjoy the meal and whatever book I am currently reading. From a sit-down dinner to a picnic, or eating in my car, to take-out.

It all started as a form of self-care. My life has turned upside down and I needed to find a space in it for me. It gives me something to look forward to. I choose the restaurant based on my mood. Or sometimes on the book I’m reading at the time. England-based I go for either a good curry or fish & chip, right?

I love reading. I love good food. I love going out to dinner. And I don’t mind going by myself. It’s not a lonely venture. Can one actually be alone while reading a book?

Some have asked to join me to which I answer with of course but you will have to bring a book.

I must say, interesting the reactions I receive from a host or hostess. There was one local restaurant as soon as she saw I was carrying a book she exclaimed that she knew just where to seat me where I wouldn’t be distracted and have great lighting. Wow! She got it. One establishment when I asked for a bottled condiment, he slid it across the table where it hit my book. I gave him the ‘mother stare’. All in all, Middlebury offers great spaces to read and I’m figuring out the best tables with adequate lighting.

Life as a used bookstore owner is going fine. OCUB has been busy. Boxes of books are constantly coming in. Arranging and rearranging is ongoing to fit the books on the shelves. Shuffling shelves is continuous. Stacks of books are patiently waiting to have their jackets covered is ever-growing. I get the stack down only to add to it.

Beckett has gone off to his summer job but has promised to return in the fall. Gavin will be here for the summer. Also a Midd College student. Henry will be here again in a few weeks to pitch in as well as a pair of high school students. Yes, I’m looking forward to all the much needed help. It’ll be nice not having to do everything.

Reading at meals is considered rude in polite society, but if you expect to succeed as a writer, rudeness should be the second-to-least of your concerns. The least of all should be polite society and what it expects. – Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.

My father was often impatient during March, waiting for winter to end, the cold to ease, the sun to reappear. March was an unpredictable month, when it was never clear what might happen. Warm days raised hopes until ice and grey skies shut over the town again. – Tracy Chevalier, GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING

Another February is behind us and that’s fine with me. March brings more sun, less snow (finger’s crossed), warmer temps, and thoughts of spring right around the corner. All good things.

The I Hate February Sale was a lot of fun this year. Many customers came in inquiring if I still hated February. Of course, I do! Many a bag or box went out of the store and now I find myself filling holes on many shelves. Which is a bookseller’s dream, of course. You know, emptying out boxes and getting those books up on the shelves.

A number of U.S. history, including bios of U.S. presidents, have come into the store and are slowly making their way onto the shelves. Music, art, children’s books and well, everything in between. No rest for the wicked. Or for a used bookstore lady.

Earthquakes mean March.
The dragon will move,
and the earth will open like a wound.
There will be great rain or snow
so save some coal for your uncle.
The sun of this month cures all.
Therefore, old women say:
Let the sun of March shine on my daughter,
but let the sun of February shine on my daughter-in-law.
However, if you go to a party
dressed as the anti-Christ
you will be frozen to death by morning.
– Anne Sexton THE SERMON OF THE TWELVE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS