Wednesday, January 19, 2011
COMING SOON!
Exciting news for the Acorn Bookshop community: We're launching our website this weekend. So check it out & let me know what you think about it. My blog will be accessible through the webstie.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
BIBLIOMANIA
"Like an alcoholic who can't take a drink unless he has the bottle in front of him, the bibliomaniac can't read a book without a comfortable reserve pile of six more on the arm of his chair." -- Elinor Goulding Smith, "Confessions of Mrs. Smith" (1958)
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
THOUGHTS FOR THE NEW YEAR
A Happy and Healthy New Year to all you bookies.
With an emphasis on healthy.
Randy Cowmeadow is my first cousin, and we were best friends growing up. We did and learned everything together, including a solemn drive in November, 1963, to D. C. in order to see JFK lying in state after being assassinated in Dallas on the 22nd. Randy hitch-hiked from Slippery Rock State College in PA to Bethany, WV, where I was a freshman. We joined four car-loads of my new fraternity brothers – Alpha Sigma Phi – for the subdued drive. After waiting in line from 5 in the morning until just before 9, we were the last ones allowed to see the dead president.
A year earlier, during our senior year in high school – at two different schools, I began dating a cheerleader from our arch-rival school. She had a best friend named Julie. I introduced Randy to Julie in the fall of 1962, and until she died on Monday 47 years later, they’ve been together and raised three kids
.
Julie is the first of my generation in the family to die. No longer is it the aunts and uncles of our parents’ generation. Now our generation is beginning the inevitable disappearance. I hope Randy and I are among the last to go, still able at 80 to attend spring training baseball games near his home in Florida, and to talk about his life with Julie and mine with Linda.
I’m taking a week’s vacation in order to be at home to read, write, and attempt further reorganization of my study, an endless process when so many books surround me. It’s one of my favorite things to do – play with my books, move them around, make them logically accessible.
As I do this, I uncover books with Post-it notes fluttering from the fore-edge of a few books, reminders of passages marked to think about again, some to be shared.
● “When I escaped into a second-hand bookshop that felt like coming
home, I went into a trance.” -- Richard Rayner, in “The Blue Suit:
A Memoir of Crime”
● “Answer me, is there anything more appealing than the sight of a cat
curled up next to an open book?” –A. R. Moran, in a story “The
Hemingway Kittens” in “Shelf Life: Fantastic Stories Celebrating
Bookstores”
● From John Ballinger, in his novel, “The Jefferson Letters”:
● “The wonderful thing about having your own bookshop is
choosing the eighty hours a week you want to work…
bookstores can take as much of your time and energy as you
are willing to give, and still ask for more.”
● “As a bookseller, you have to be focused, or crazy – one of the
other – in order to survive.”
● “You can tell a lot about a person from the way he handles
books.”
● “Sitting alone in my bookshop at night, with a cat asleep on my
lap, is the closest I have ever come to peace.”
And peace to you, my readers. May you honor the memories of your past, as well as make a few more to be remembered down the road.
Bookstore George
With an emphasis on healthy.
Randy Cowmeadow is my first cousin, and we were best friends growing up. We did and learned everything together, including a solemn drive in November, 1963, to D. C. in order to see JFK lying in state after being assassinated in Dallas on the 22nd. Randy hitch-hiked from Slippery Rock State College in PA to Bethany, WV, where I was a freshman. We joined four car-loads of my new fraternity brothers – Alpha Sigma Phi – for the subdued drive. After waiting in line from 5 in the morning until just before 9, we were the last ones allowed to see the dead president.
A year earlier, during our senior year in high school – at two different schools, I began dating a cheerleader from our arch-rival school. She had a best friend named Julie. I introduced Randy to Julie in the fall of 1962, and until she died on Monday 47 years later, they’ve been together and raised three kids
.
Julie is the first of my generation in the family to die. No longer is it the aunts and uncles of our parents’ generation. Now our generation is beginning the inevitable disappearance. I hope Randy and I are among the last to go, still able at 80 to attend spring training baseball games near his home in Florida, and to talk about his life with Julie and mine with Linda.
I’m taking a week’s vacation in order to be at home to read, write, and attempt further reorganization of my study, an endless process when so many books surround me. It’s one of my favorite things to do – play with my books, move them around, make them logically accessible.
As I do this, I uncover books with Post-it notes fluttering from the fore-edge of a few books, reminders of passages marked to think about again, some to be shared.
● “When I escaped into a second-hand bookshop that felt like coming
home, I went into a trance.” -- Richard Rayner, in “The Blue Suit:
A Memoir of Crime”
● “Answer me, is there anything more appealing than the sight of a cat
curled up next to an open book?” –A. R. Moran, in a story “The
Hemingway Kittens” in “Shelf Life: Fantastic Stories Celebrating
Bookstores”
● From John Ballinger, in his novel, “The Jefferson Letters”:
● “The wonderful thing about having your own bookshop is
choosing the eighty hours a week you want to work…
bookstores can take as much of your time and energy as you
are willing to give, and still ask for more.”
● “As a bookseller, you have to be focused, or crazy – one of the
other – in order to survive.”
● “You can tell a lot about a person from the way he handles
books.”
● “Sitting alone in my bookshop at night, with a cat asleep on my
lap, is the closest I have ever come to peace.”
And peace to you, my readers. May you honor the memories of your past, as well as make a few more to be remembered down the road.
Bookstore George
Friday, December 18, 2009
TOP TEN CHRISTMAS TIPS FROM GENERAL ELECTRIC
( No accreditation known)
10. If one light bulb goes out, replace them all
9. Fluorescent tubes make great Star Wars light sabers for
the kids.
8. Blow-dryers can be used to keep food warm.
7. Big corporations shouldn’t commercialize this blessed
season by handing out bonuses.
6. Keeping several TVs and radios on all the time creates a
feeling of warmth and intimacy.
5. We heard that Sylvania bulbs give off some kind of poison gas.
4. Same deal with Westinghouse
3. Electric toothbrushes should be left on all day to keep them loose.
2. A GE industrial turbine makes a one-of-a-kind stocking stuffer.
1. Warranties, like greeting cards, should be thrown out.
( No accreditation known)
10. If one light bulb goes out, replace them all
9. Fluorescent tubes make great Star Wars light sabers for
the kids.
8. Blow-dryers can be used to keep food warm.
7. Big corporations shouldn’t commercialize this blessed
season by handing out bonuses.
6. Keeping several TVs and radios on all the time creates a
feeling of warmth and intimacy.
5. We heard that Sylvania bulbs give off some kind of poison gas.
4. Same deal with Westinghouse
3. Electric toothbrushes should be left on all day to keep them loose.
2. A GE industrial turbine makes a one-of-a-kind stocking stuffer.
1. Warranties, like greeting cards, should be thrown out.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
BOOKS AS GIFTS
Merry Christmas, bookies!
It's a busy season at the Acorn Bookshop, with moments of everyone being busy with customers and a half hour later the place is empty and we could frisbee without human consequence.
We're up over last year a bit, but then again, because of the Walgreen's construction, we had little parking, so that bar isn't really very high.
For the 6th consecutive year in December, I'm reading one of my favorite books, "Winter Solstice" by Rosamunde Pilcher. The book takes place in a small Scottish village where characters and events come to a wonderful convergence during the Christmas season, with a stunning resolution on Christmas Eve. It’s about how life is full of losses but also rewards and the treasures of friendships, love, and family—in all, a warm way to wrap up and think about the end of the year and Christmas.
And thinking of the year-end and Christmas, I thought you might enjoy these thoughts on books as gifts. Merry Christmas and have a great reading new year.
Bookstore George
BOOKS AS GIFTS
"People seldom read a book which is given to them." -- Samuel Johnson
"Who gives a good book gives more than cloth, paper and ink...more than leather, parchment and words. He reveals a foreword of his thoughts, a dedication of his friendship, a page of his presence, a chapter of himself, and an index of his love." -- William A. Ward
"The books we think we ought to read are poky, dull and dry;
The books that we should like to read we are ashamed to buy;
The books that people talk about we never can recall;
And the books that people give us, oh, they're the worst of all." --Carolyn Wells
"For every toy you buy a child, and a book." -- Susan Cooper
It's a busy season at the Acorn Bookshop, with moments of everyone being busy with customers and a half hour later the place is empty and we could frisbee without human consequence.
We're up over last year a bit, but then again, because of the Walgreen's construction, we had little parking, so that bar isn't really very high.
For the 6th consecutive year in December, I'm reading one of my favorite books, "Winter Solstice" by Rosamunde Pilcher. The book takes place in a small Scottish village where characters and events come to a wonderful convergence during the Christmas season, with a stunning resolution on Christmas Eve. It’s about how life is full of losses but also rewards and the treasures of friendships, love, and family—in all, a warm way to wrap up and think about the end of the year and Christmas.
And thinking of the year-end and Christmas, I thought you might enjoy these thoughts on books as gifts. Merry Christmas and have a great reading new year.
Bookstore George
BOOKS AS GIFTS
"People seldom read a book which is given to them." -- Samuel Johnson
"Who gives a good book gives more than cloth, paper and ink...more than leather, parchment and words. He reveals a foreword of his thoughts, a dedication of his friendship, a page of his presence, a chapter of himself, and an index of his love." -- William A. Ward
"The books we think we ought to read are poky, dull and dry;
The books that we should like to read we are ashamed to buy;
The books that people talk about we never can recall;
And the books that people give us, oh, they're the worst of all." --Carolyn Wells
"For every toy you buy a child, and a book." -- Susan Cooper
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
THE ATTACK OF THE STUCCO-MEN
As I was walking from my parked van in the back of our building after a PO/bank/Staples/Target run, Howard the Barber walked across Broadview Avenue to me from the Chase Bank parking lot. After initial greetings, I asked him if the scaffolding of the Stucco-Men encasing our store and taking three parking spaces to do it were bothering his business.
"Who knows?" the pessimistic barber shrugged. "It can't be helping either of us, but we got through much worse last year during the Walgreen's construction." He added, "Looks like they have your side door blocked today.
I nodded and said, "It most interferes with people trying to bring boxes of books in to sell. The books have to be lugged around to the front, and there's scaffolding there, too."
Howard gestured toward the back of the bookstore -- which is next to his shop as can be seen in the photo -- and said, "Too bad you can't just knock a whole in the wall so you have a back door like the rest of us in the building."
"The landlord told me they'd do it for $4-500."
"Whoa," he said, pulling back his head at the price.
"Tell you what; I'll let them go through the barbershop for just 50 cents!"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)