tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post8582639496479680008..comments2024-03-28T16:31:23.093-07:00Comments on Books in Northport: The Only Constant: ChangeP. J. Grathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12693462910472164289noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-51505132057721130152014-02-28T16:55:05.467-08:002014-02-28T16:55:05.467-08:00On the contrary, I fully expect Dog Ears Books to ...On the contrary, I fully expect Dog Ears Books to hum along quite successfully. You will perhaps not accumulate an enormous bank balance, but you will be rich anyway. So there.<br /><br />I look forward to reading Esther Forbes whenever it's time. Gerryhttp://torchlakeviews.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-58915301149724411522014-02-28T12:05:27.030-08:002014-02-28T12:05:27.030-08:00Kaye, I am honored to have a visitor from Australi...Kaye, I am honored to have a visitor from Australia and very pleased that you are also a bookseller. Indeed, "the future's not ours to see," as the old song goes. Best wishes to your second career's success!P. J. Grathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12693462910472164289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-43983491112737628382014-02-27T15:39:06.150-08:002014-02-27T15:39:06.150-08:00I love your use of the Esther Forbes book to illus...I love your use of the Esther Forbes book to illustrate your attitude to change. Now I too, want to read that book!<br /> As an ex-librarian and now 2nd hand bookseller, I would like to think that there is a place for us all - what form/shape that place takes will always be a mystery.Kayehttps://www.facebook.com/villagebooks.waipapanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-55407707805731444472014-02-27T11:47:14.325-08:002014-02-27T11:47:14.325-08:00Hi, Marilyn! Your comment came in after I’d replie...Hi, Marilyn! Your comment came in after I’d replied to the others above.<br /><br />Booksellers and librarians have different advantages and challenges. Librarians are under more pressure to provide what the public wants, whether that be 20 copies of the latest TV personality’s biography (something I recall noticing many years ago in a larger town’s main library), current magazines and newspapers, Internet access, or whatever, and they have to hold their expenses to the limits of their budgets, certainly. In my bookstore, on the other hand, choices about what I stock are mine alone, but I also (like a library) have fixed monthly and annual expenses (in addition to inventory purchases) --without a guaranteed income. I am my own boss, and no one can fire me! (I can go belly-up, but I can’t be fired.) Gerry’s comment about curating is very much to the point of how I see my work. I don’t continue to house only books for which there is immediate demand but also books that strike me as worthy of attention. Demand for the books I love may be slim to nonexistent, but whenever a customer exclaims in delight at finding unexpected treasures I feel vindicated. And it is this aspect of bookselling that makes it very much a vocation, a calling – because a get-rich scheme, it ain’t and never will be.<br /><br />I miss you, too, Marilyn, and look forward to your spring return. <br />P. J. Grathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12693462910472164289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-53224622642139652322014-02-27T10:56:20.341-08:002014-02-27T10:56:20.341-08:00And so, Gerry, you don't think I have a prayer...And so, Gerry, you don't think I have a prayer of financial "success"? Me, either. But I'll be happy to put your name down for that book club edition of RAINBOW ON THE ROAD (pictured in post) and can send it to you (it will be cheap) as soon as David either reads it or decides he doesn't have time to read it. <br /><br />Jessica, I am very happy for the success of Greenlight in Brooklyn, and I know you have worked hard (and continue to work hard) for that success. Your words of appreciation mean a lot to me. Thanks for visiting Books in Northport.<br /><br />Malcolm, it sounds like you and I are of the same tribe. I love holding books in my hands and receiving real letters in the mail. I must admit, however, that I love the way the Internet has connected so many of us who would never have met otherwise.P. J. Grathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12693462910472164289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-33738118246530263432014-02-27T10:55:54.819-08:002014-02-27T10:55:54.819-08:00I remain optimistic that real books will always be...I remain optimistic that real books will always be needed and treasured and the experience of carrying around a beloved novel so it can be opened at leisure and rediscovered will be (as it should be) romanticized. Thanks for being one of the "true believers", Pamela, who makes this possible for the rest of us. A library has its limits (public funding, the choices of its librarians) but a good bookstore just goes on and on and on. Missing you!Marilynnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-2505250841940021272014-02-27T09:17:55.354-08:002014-02-27T09:17:55.354-08:00Nothing beats finding a wonderful book we've n...Nothing beats finding a wonderful book we've never heard of only to find a time machine that whisks us away. Can books on a screen do this as well as books with paper pages. I don't think so--they don't have texture, especially selected type fonts and papers, worn pages, scents from attics and garages and paneled libraries. We can't stop "progress," I guess, though in various ways we may all be its victims.<br /><br />MalcolmMalcolm R. Campbellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07840134761199335243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-32425286744860240602014-02-27T07:19:14.244-08:002014-02-27T07:19:14.244-08:00Pam, you are such a wonderful writer, and a philos...Pam, you are such a wonderful writer, and a philosopher as well. I am longing now to read Rainbow on the Road. And part of me wishes strongly I worked in a bookstore like yours. My own bookstore seems like a part of progress -- a moneyed, fashionable progress -- but I miss the bookselling life that seems like a magic pocket outside of time. Maybe everyone wants that. Maybe that's why it hasn't ever gone away. In any case, spring will come, and we'll be less fretful, whatever occurs. Thanks for your work and your writing.Book Nerdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02896226559142059293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-68705966979245238222014-02-26T16:40:15.779-08:002014-02-26T16:40:15.779-08:00This was a wonderful post. I had to follow links ...This was a wonderful post. I had to follow links and more links and think about things and . . . I digress. <br /><br />(1) Booksellers are curators. I think there will always be a real need for curators. I wonder how this important work can be made to pay a living wage? Such an odd world. Financial success seems to result mainly from finding ever more creative ways to spy on people, the better to sell them--us--an astonishing array of useless Stuff.<br /><br />(2) I would like to read Rainbow on the Road. Please advise if you have a copy for sale. I've already learned a lot from it - never heard of a limner before, and that turns out to be a very useful piece of information. Besides, I'm making a study of the ways that people write about the past. <br /><br />(3) And what the heck is it about Kansas???? It keeps coming up everywhere I turn. Clearly I need to go there, but not just now.<br />Gerry Sellhttp://torchlakeviews.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com