There’s a special quality to retail over the Thanksgiving weekend. Some might call it desperation. I’m very glad I don’t work in a big store or at a mall; it would be hellish. Small local businesses like clothing stores or bookstores watch the receipts anxiously, because for many, this is the weekend that determines whether they will go into the black for the year; hence the name Black Friday for the day after the holiday.
The Sebastopol store had a good weekend and so did the new Guerneville shop. For me, volunteering at my local store was fun, and funny.
Cthulhu, an interesting looking anthology
Someone snapped up this book right away. I thought that it would be perfect for the Elder Gods fan on your gift list – apparently someone else thought that too.
After Jeff worked diligently to assemble the big fancy holiday decoration, it migrated to the Guerneville store. Not to worry, though; we still have our lighted village and a running train set in the window.
Its moment of glory
“Do you have Weird Parents?” a customer asked.
“Yes, I do.”
The owner of Many Rivers, the spiritual bookstore and tea shop, comes in frequently. He’s a friendly guy with broad interests in books (and he runs a great store). As he was leaving, Jeff said, “Do you guys carry Tarot cards?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “You might say Tarot R Us.”
*
Several friendly dogs came into the store on Saturday and Sunday, with their two-legged companions. No pictures. You’ll just have to take my word for it.
Just a few.
If you’re looking for first editions, signed hardcovers and even signed hardcover first editions, we have quite a few. Some are on the display table, some in the Rare Book alcove in front of the brown curtain. Many of our signed books are just shelved in their part of the alphabet, but we’re pretty good about getting a tag in there letting you know the author signed it.
*
With two stores, the guys are beginning to shift inventory, beefing up the Mystery, SF, and California sections of the new store, and bringing duplicates of specialty books and sideline items to Sebastopol. They brought three copies of a tiny book called The Kidnapped Santa. This is an odd little book. First of all the text was written by Frank Baum, who wrote the Oz books, but this adaptation is a black-and-white graphic novel. It’s small; octavo sized, and the cover has a grinning Santa bound with ropes. The customer who came in on Friday, who looked at our Mobius book and bought a couple of volumes of philosophy, found the cover strange. “Santa looks like he’s enjoying that too much,” he said. “It’s like, Fifty Shades of Claus.”