The Bookery Nook Blog: sustainability series

Shannon & Gary Piserchio

What it's like to run a bookshop...

It's remembering the names of our customers (four-legged and two-legged) and greeting them by name, researching books for folks who aren't sure of titles or authors (or either), paying the bills, researching and buying new books and other inventory, creating newsletters, Tweeting, Facebooking, blogging, checking emails, keeping the website semi-current, keeping the spines perfectly straight on the shelves, dusting, dusting, dusting, petting lots of dogs, cleaning up half-eaten dog biscuits and puddles of drool (we love dogs, so it doesn't bother us a bit), cleaning up cheerios and raisins and gum that have been ground into the carpets, scrubbing the toilet, unplugging the toilet (not our favorite thing to to) and making sure there's plenty of toilet paper available, dealing with an old and leaky roof, putting displays together and re-setting them over and over again, networking with the other business owners on the street, answering phone calls, answering questions ("No, we're not a library."), debating the Kindle, debating the economy, debating "Edgar Sawtelle", promoting the importance of supporting local indies, processing new inventory, shelving new inventory, arranging, re-arranging, and re-arranging some more, scheduling events, planning for upcoming holidays, making time for impromptu meetings with book and sideline reps, authors and artists.

Mostly, it's being a part of a community - and a darn cool one at that.

It's who we are.
It's what we do.
It's what we love!