Solution to a Rainy Day

I don’t have to look far. My bookstore calls me to work, rain or shine, and when the outdoors is grey, rainy, soggy, cold and bleak, I’m more than content to take a peek at it from time to time through the front windows, to see circular raindrops in the wide gutter river just offshore from the sidewalk, with an occasional fall leaf swept along helplessly in the current—and then to turn back to my books, which ask to be read, to be moved, to be photographed.

We came home from our recent trip with boxes of books in the car, among them three boxes containing nothing but Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys, which necessitated a lot of shifting around in the young people’s section to make room on the shelves. Then there is the beautiful Roycroft volume, An American Bible, edited by Alice Hubbard, published by Elbert Hubbard. This is not the first printing (its date is 1912, not 1911), but it is in beautiful condition, only somewhat worn leather corners and spine, the gilt title still bright on the spine, internally very clean and bright. Leather aside, the marbled boards and endpapers are truly striking.



I’ll have new book orders coming in today and Monday, but already there are some here that deserve attention—besides what I already had in stock last month, that is. The two newest are Destination Leelanau: Boats Sailing Leelanau Waters, 1835-1900, by Claudia D. Goudschall (whose appearance at Dog Ears Books is tentatively scheduled for October 24), and Good Harbor Bay, a young adult novel by Barry Marsh, set right here in Leelanau. (We'll have Barry come to sign books in December.) I’ve also restocked the complete “Heroes A2Z” series of adventures set in Traverse City, and, for the grownups, Isadore’s Secret, by Mardi Link, is here, as are David Small’s graphic memoir, Stitches, and Woodsburner, by John Pipkin, a novel starring a fictional version of Henry Thoreau.


My list could go on and on, but that would reduce my reading time, and as today is a perfect day to get cozy with a good book, and as I have so many from which to choose, good-by for now....