Some Brief Notes about BookNotes

     This Friday, October 7, will mark the twenty-second anniversary of the opening of my book store, BookNotes.  It has been a very long ride, but I feel that it will soon be ending.  To be honest, my store should have closed a long time ago.  It just the past few years, I've had to rearrange bookcases to hide the fact that many of shelves would be empty because we can't afford to keep a wide selection of stock anymore.  Admittedly, I never could get as wide or deep a selection as I would've liked.  Sure, there have been a few great highlights, but the store just never could get a big enough break.  I've been trying to keep the place open mostly as a means so that I could be doing something, almost anything, while trying to get some plan together.  After the 2003 flood took out my old home, my store was just about the only thing that was giving me a sense of consistency.  I've brought up many of the problems that I have faced over the years on this very blog, so I feel that I don't need to bring the details back up.  However, I would like to talk about some of the things I still like about my store.  I love making out the various displays and decorations.  Every season and holiday, I change the decor with subtle differences from year to year, even when using just about the same things.  Every two weeks, I switch out the books in the displays.  I choose a different theme each time, with a different theme for the books on the tops of the bookcases. I love creating the 'Upcoming Releases' board that highlights some of the notable books coming out each month. Like the displays, I choose an appropriate theme, or one I just feel like using if I can't come up with an original one.  I used to use a regularly updated list that I would print out from an old distributor of ours.  They no longer allow non-customers access to the list, so I now have to go over the current major distributor's catalog, which we have only been getting online the last few months due to our lower ordering lately.  I then have to check out each book's on sale date online to make sure that the book is still coming out that month.  I connect each listing with the book's cover, in color and design, somehow.  Another thing I do is create a logo for the store's sign that customers see when they come in.  Every few weeks, I create something new, similar to what Google sometimes does with their logo.  Of course, I was doing my thing without knowing about what Google did.  For the last four years, I've even recorded myself making these logos and posting them on YouTube and Facebook.  The thing I've liked the most, though, was choosing books for the store.  I have poured over each and every catalog our three major distributors have used over the years, as well as online only listings, to choose merchandise for the store.  Sometimes, I would make a mistake, choosing a book that I would later have to return.  Other times, I would wind up taking the book for myself, because it was just too good not to keep. Now, I still look for new books, but I now longer get to order anywhere near what I used to.  This last order I made was mostly made up of books chosen at the last moment to reach a minimum order.  I miss those days where I could do what I liked.  With luck, I should last out the year.  Maybe a bit more, but I do feel that the last note will soon be played for the store.