Memphis Bookshop

Our new location:

2007-01-09T21:28:00.000-06:00

If you came across this via Google (or any other search engine), we can now be found at

www.memphisbookshop.com

We hope to see you over there.

Reading against the clock.

2006-08-14T22:21:00.000-05:00

I still marvel over the joy of it all; these people trust me with the knowledge of what they read, what there interests are, what they believe in, what they aspire to. Your closest friend would probably not come up to you and say something like "I am thinking of leaving Catholicism and am looking at several of the animalistic religions." Yet, I have had similar conversations more than once with customers. Or the hot girl, who you think about asking out, until, that is, you see the stack of recovery books she buys and decide that anyone who buys 5 books with titles like living with your heroin addiction and DEALING with the aftermath of sexually transmitted disease does not need a complication like a bookseller (or at least this one) in her life.

My customers honor me by letting me have a glimpse of their personal lives, and I value that trust. Sometimes, however, it goes way beyond that.

Tom Walter came in the store last spring. For those of you in the nether parts of the world, Tom was (from 1984 to 2005) the Memphis Commercial Appeal's television reporter. As such, he had an eagle eye view on pop culture, for better or worse. It was always a joy when he came in, because he had a unique view on society that you may not (or may) agree with, but you loved him for the conversation and the thoughts.

Tom, as I said, came in to the store last spring. After the customary chit chat, he said he might need a job soon, and would I consider hiring him. It seems he was leaving the paper.

"What the hell for?" I ask.

It turned out Tom had cancer. Bad cancer. The sort from which you don't get better. He told me that if he only had so many days left, he was not going to spend them writing about Britney Spears. He had things to do, books to read, and he wanted to spend some time with his family. When I asked when he was leaving the paper, he said he hoped before August, because he never, ever wanted to write another word about Elvis. When he left, he was upbeat, cheerful, and had that smile that would make your whole day.

Over the next year or so, Tom would come in, bringing huge amounts of his discards, as he called them, and told me if I could use any of them, to make a credit on his account. I looked over Tom's account today, and he took many books out of the store, whittling away at his credit line, but then bringing more back so it never got even close to even. I would bet he took over 50 books out of the store in the last year, and has never paid a cent. Tom read good things, but not pretentious things. He felt no reason to read something like Flaubert just so he could look "intellectual". You see, Tom was reading against the clock.

Tom has the distinction of having the largest line of credit ever at Midtown Books, with it once approaching $400. I once joked with him that if he brought any more books in, he was going to have to start paying some of the rent.

I was thinking about it today, and I guess the last time I saw Tom was about 3 months ago. He had lost weight, but not horribly so. He still had that smile, and when asked (but not until), he said he was doing "OK". He was excited about our opening the store Downtown, and he said he could not wait to see it. I think he had been in since, but not when I was there.

Tom died Saturday morning.

Damn.

My Bookish Blog Roll

2006-06-15T07:17:00.000-05:00

I mentioned to someone the other day thay I read about 20 websites - forums, blogs, and online news - daily. Then they said m"I wish I could see your blog roll". (Not being a techno-type, but being too cool to admit I had not a clue as to what they were talking about, I said maybe we could work something out, and smiled knowingly.)

After looking the term up, I decided to show some of the blogs I read often. This being a book oriented site, I have restricted myself to the book related (for the most part) blogs.

In no particular order, here goes.

http://bibliophile.blogs.com/whitlock_bookstore/

http://sarahsbooksusedrare.blogspot.com/

http://www.bigbadbookblog.com/

http://www.themillionsblog.com/

http://jdszazdibooks.blogspot.com/

http://biblioarchy.blogspot.com/

http://foggygates.blogspot.com/

http://www.tjbible.blogspot.com/

http://www.writtenroad.com/

http://www.bibliophilebullpen.com/

Enjoy!

The Best Birthday Card this year

2006-06-09T08:43:00.000-05:00

Monday was my B-Day, and I have friends who always pick the funny, goofy cards, not friends who pick the lace and gilt, breathy cards. So, every year, one stands out, and here is this year's winner. I gave her points for creativity, as she photoshopped the image of the Bumble from my profile picture onto the card.

Yes, We Have AC

2006-06-09T08:36:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week our Air Conditioning was repaired at the Midtown Store, so we are now cool as a cucumber. Please come see us and pardon the boxes, as we prepare stock to go downtown.

Housekeeping

2006-05-30T08:42:00.000-05:00

Lots of things to update, so here goes:

1. I related a while back that our AC units were stolen at the Midtown location, causing us to baste in our own juices. Well, one of the units is now back and functional, with promises that the other will be fixed this week.

2. The Elves are hard at work, gearing up for the new store opening (More on this below) and continuously refining our Midtown Location.

3. Later this month we will unveil our new website (www.memphisbookshop.com).

4. We came to a critical point in the build out of the new store, and had to make a decision. We could open on June 1 with a decent, functional store, or we could delay one month and have a store we could be proud of. After much deliberation, we have chosen the later. It is possible we will open earlier, and if so, we will be sure to let you know right here, but no later than July 1.

I am sure there is more, and I will keep you up to date.

Back on track

2006-05-25T07:57:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the delay in updating, but I have been as busy as a [ insert favorite simile here]. Loyal Book Elf Amanda went out of town for a week, right on the heels of our losing our cataloguer, so I had to be pulled from my oh so comfortable supervisory role and pressed into actual work.

One day, I had about an hour of unscheduled time at the store, and had a brilliant blog post all ready. I sat at the computer, went to the correct page, and then realized I had forgotten my password. Undaunted, I hit the very cleaverly named GET PASSWORD button, which then told me it was emailing the password to my email address. Of course, when I opened this blinking account, I used an email address I could only check from home. No matter, I said to myself, I shall just do it upon arrival at home. Can you guess what happened? During the 2 hours between the above events and my arrival at home, I forgot what I was going to post. Totally left my brain.

We got a lot of books in over the weekend, both curent fiction and a lot of history and other non-fiction. I am also getting a box lot (around 100 books) of Civil War material in the first part of next week. Please come by and check it out at the Midtown location.

Romancing the book

2006-05-17T08:04:00.000-05:00

This is an easy business to romanticize. After all, we deal in books, and what are books but the revelation of men's souls? It is easy to get wrapped up in the romanticism, the joy of placing the right book to the right reader, the bright colors of the dust wrappers, the smell of the paper...

Yes, it is easy to do, and I fall victim to it all too often. Just the other day, I went to Davis-Kidd on my day off. I do this fairly often, primarily to see what other people are reading and to ~~steal~~ er... learn merchandising techniques. I look at how they display books, how they cross sell, cetera. After all, if they can make money on the pitiful margins new books bring, they must know something, right?

So I am there, and the store is packed. People are moving about, and the lighting is just right, and the colors on the jackets are everywhere, and it sinks in to me that I am surrounded by the collective wisdom and thoughts of thousands of men and women, that all that I like about the world was around me, that I liked the customers there more because they were readers, that joy that I got seeing children running around the kids books section carrying books, asking parents to buy them... it was a truly joyful thing. I felt truly at peace (something very rare for me, what with ADD raging and all) and realised, not for the first time, that the way I feel surrounded by books is the way someone better than me would feel in church.

I have always loved books, and no doubt, the books have loved me back. They have fed me and mine for several years now, and I want nothing more than to be a bookseller for the rest of my life. I feel true joy when someone comes in raving about the book I recomended them, or how much their mom liked the book I sold her. Perhaps my best memory is of the day I was in Brother Juniper's and I overheard the conversation at the table behind me. It was a young couple, and he was raving about the coolest book he had ever bought, and how it really changed his life, and who would have thought something written so long ago would still be valid, and so on. Then I turned and saw the book he had was a Hardback of Emerson's Essays that I had hand sold it to him about a week before.

I resisted the urge to go over and say hello, or even to wave after getting their attention. I just smiled, finished my omelet, and left, thinking what a truly lucky man I am, and what a good thing it was I don't romanticize the book business.

For our new Visitors

2006-05-13T09:36:00.000-05:00

A recent (OK, it was this morning, actually) study of our statistics shows that now over 100 sites link to us here (primarily other bookseller's blogs...how cool is that?) and we get way more hits per day than I ever believed possible. (Tell the truth...some of you are telling your friends about us, aren't you?)

So, I thought periodically, it would make sense to remind you (and to inform the newbies) that while you are all waiting patiently for the opening of Downtown Books, I encourage you to come to our Midtown location, called, appropriately enough, Midtown Books. We have a wide range of books in stock, from out-of-print Histories to recent bestsellers. We have Shelby Foote's personal copies of some of his greatest work, all signed by him (with his penned-in notes) for sale and on display. The Book Elves (AKA the staff) has been voted (admittedly, by themselves) to be the nicest bookstore staff in Memphis.

We are located at 2027 Madison Avenue, just up from Overton Square, across the street from the Blue Monkey. We open at 11 during the week and on Saturday and at 1 on Sunday (we are closed on Monday).

If you need directions to the store, please give us a call at 901-726-0039.

My apologies to the crowd

2006-05-12T07:02:00.000-05:00

I know I am running a bit behind with the updates on the downtown store progress... We lost our internet clerk last week so guess who has been shipping out those books people all over the globe have been ordering? That's right, Amanda has. But someone has to supervise, don't they?

Seriously, we have had some turnover in personnel and it has hurt us a bit in the timeline department. But, we have high hopes to be open in the next few weeks. Of course, you will hear about it here first.

Talking to the man

2006-05-11T07:22:00.000-05:00

We have went prime time!

OK, so I exaggerate a bit. Not prime time, but we made the news. Fittingly enough, the print news [We could have made the TV news as well, but I would not know, as I do not watch TV].

Yesterday morning, less than 6 hours after posting the previous post [after weeks of silence on my part], I received a call from the daily paper about...the subject of my previous blog entry. The only conclusion I can draw is that my humble blog is read in the upper echelons of the Commercial Appeal management.

Well, I answered his questions truthfully and, while I am always a bit nervous about talking to the press [comes from my experience years ago when I worked for the Memphis Fire Department. If you were at a given place, and a reporter was at a given place, you could bet $100 they would take a picture of you at the exact time you were breaking some inane regulation, and you could further bet that the day the story ran would be the one day of the year your supervisor would buy a paper and read it], I felt he was being straight with me.

I told him nothing I have not told you, gentle readers, here in the pages of this, my humble blog. I did not bash anyone, I resisted the impulse to go into Saturday Morning Wrestling mode and tell how I am the greatest. Actually, I talked more than anything about bookselling [my favorite subject].

So, if you see my name in print this weekend, have no fear. I will still be humble and will not let it go to my head, and I promise to never wear tights and challenge anyone to a cage match.

Bookselling in Memphis

2006-05-10T06:46:00.000-05:00

I have delayed writing on this, as it just seemed bad taste to do so, but since it has been in the paper and is thus no longer a "secret", I guess it is time.

Burke's Bookstore, that fine old establishment, is in trouble, financially. They recently sent a letter out to their client list asking for help and "cash donations". In the letter, they blame superstores, 9-11 and the internet for decreased sales.

Several things:

First, Corey and Cheryl are my friends and they have helped me immensely as I made the transition from financial planner to bookseller. I like them both personally and professionally, and think they have a great shop. I will not "bash" them or try to find fault with their business. I have all I can do trying to figure my own business out.

Bookselling is hard work. The image of the doddering old bookman who smokes a pipe and reads all day is as far from reality as one can get. Books are heavy, and dusty. They cost money, as does the rent, the utilities and the people to put them on the shelves. Many booksellers find themselves reading less than their customers.

Things have changed, no doubt about it. In the old days (defined as about 6-8 years ago), you bought a book, you priced it and put it on a shelf. If the customer wanted it, they bought it from you, or they did without. What has been great for the consumer has hurt the bookseller; the internet. If you want a copy of The Sun Also Rises, you can zoom over to Amazon.com and get you one, without ever leaving your chair.

Of course, by doing that, you do not see the "fictionalized biography" of the same period by Hemingway called A Movable Feast sitting next to it. You won't run across the book on tempera cooking sitting on display that would make the perfect gift for your mother-in law for her birthday next week, and you miss seeing the display of Hardy Boy's books that look just like the ones you read as a child, and wish your children would read. You miss all that, but, on the plus side, you don't have to get out of your chair.

We sell on the 'net, and it has been good for us, no way around it. And, if you need a specific book, it is hard to beat. But for browsing, for looking for "something to read", it is hard to beat your local bookshop.

Sad fact of the day: Memphis has 3 bookstores that stock used hardback books. 3. Nearly a million people in the area, and 3 stores to buy good used books.

Hey, do yourself a favor. Support your favorite bookstore, would ya? If you don't, one day there won't be any.

Thank God! We are Saved!

2006-05-01T22:10:00.000-05:00

Why I think we are gonna win...

2006-04-25T22:48:00.000-05:00

and why I harp on customer service to my staff.

I bought a book today.

I have ADD. I had ADD when it was not cool to have ADD. My mind is a whirlwind of activity, always going, and sometimes things get lost in the shuffle. About 10 people, both friends here and ones I know only online, have recommended the book Getting Things Done. Of course, I have resisted this. Until last night, after dinner, when suddenly, it was time, and I was ready (ADD, what can I say). So, being a bookseller, I looked at all my online sources for used books, and found the best possible combination of price and shipping, got ready to type the credit card number, when I saw it would be Next week before I would get it. But I was ready NOW. (ADD)

I remember having seen the book at Wal-Mart in Millington. So, you guessed it, off I go to the land of the Mouth Breathers and Muscle Shirts in search of this book. It has now become a mission, nay, a quest. They, however, do not have the book. So I come home, dejected and bookless, and decide that tomorrow, I will get the book.

Fast Forward to about 10AM today.

I go the local Big Box store which shall remain nameless so they do not sue me. I notice they have 4 cash registers, 3 customers in line, and 1 cashier, with another employee lurking about behind the counter. So I dutifully get in line and wait my turn, to ask where I could find this book. I am in my own little world, until the guy in front of me is being "helped".

He wants a book a friend recommended, with a Panda on the front, called Shoots and Leaves, or something like that. The "bookseller" was clueless. As the correct title is Eats, Shoots and Leaves the "bookseller" was entering the wrong title in the database, and she was all confused (as my Maternal Grandmother would have said, "Bless her heart"). Now, this book was only on the bestseller list for about a damn year. It was talked about on NPR. Lynn Truss was on the Today Show. I could understand the customer being confused about the title, but no way in hell should any bookseller NOT know that book. So, being me, I walk up and say something like, "Excuse me. I believe the book you are looking for is titled Eats, Shoots & Leaves and is by Lynn Truss. It is probably located in the reference section, or, if not there, perhaps in the Language section". Bookseller gives me the evil eye, looks up the correct title, says that, surprise, surprise, they "should" have a copy in reference. Then, and I am not making this up, she goes into elaborate directions as to where the reference section is (go down this aisle, turn at the third aisle, look on the right in the third cabinet, alpha by author...) Even has a conference with the "lurker" behind the counter as to whether third case, or fourth. Never entered either of their minds to actually walk back with the customer, help him find the damn book, maybe interest him in the current book she has out, which is no doubt on the shelf next to it...nothing. Spent 3 or 4 minutes giving directions, at one point I thought she was going to draw him a map.

So now it is my turn to be "helped". Oh, goodie. After giving her the title and author, she says "We should have a copy". What? You should have a copy? Hell, lady, I should have six pack abs and perfect teeth, but that just ain't the way it is.

So I say, "do you in fact have a copy"?

"I think so", she says.

"Where", I say.

"If we have one, it would be in Business- Motivation", she says, hopefully. [I always liked Swifties]

"Where would that be", I ask.

I kid you not, she looked me dead in the eye and said, "In the business section".

Oh.

So I plod off, looking inquisitive in the business section, looking for the sign that says Business-Motivation. There is no such sign. There are signs for SALES, signs for ENTREPRENEURSHIP, signs for PERSONAL FINANCE. No MOTIVATION. So, dumb me, I ask a "bookseller" walking by for help. She is at the end of the aisle. I ask her, and, without moving, she leans over, points halfway down the aisle, and says "It should be over there".

Oh.

It was, and I bought it and a tall Mocha. At first glance, the book seems as if it will be helpful, and I am glad I got it (and the Mocha). But damn, if customer service that bad, how do they stay in business? I bet if you had surveyed the employees after those interactions, they would have thought they were being helpful.

I know a big box can not provide the same level of service we can at our store. I know they can not hire 25 employees and expect them to all be on top of what is out right now. I know they can not be expected to go beyond for every single customer. I know that is not the way it is. But, it is the way it should be.

Not much changes...

2006-04-21T13:43:00.000-05:00

I recently found the following in an online collection from the works of George Orwell (he of 1984 fame). Apparently, he worked in a used bookshop as a younger man. The amazing thing is, some decades later, I can identify with everything he says. Spooky. The whole article can be found here.

********
When I worked in a second-hand bookshop--so easily pictured, if you
don't work in one, as a kind of paradise where charming old gentlemen
browse eternally among calf-bound folios--the thing that chiefly struck
me was the rarity of really bookish people. Our shop had an exceptionally
interesting stock, yet I doubt whether ten per cent of our customers knew
a good book from a bad one. First edition snobs were much commoner than
lovers of literature, but oriental students haggling over cheap textbooks
were commoner still, and vague-minded women looking for birthday presents
for their nephews were commonest of all.

Many of the people who came to us were of the kind who would be a
nuisance anywhere but have special opportunities in a bookshop. For
example, the dear old lady who 'wants a book for an invalid' (a very
common demand, that), and the other dear old lady who read such a nice
book in 1897 and wonders whether you can find her a copy. Unfortunately
she doesn't remember the title or the author's name or what the book was
about, but she does remember that it had a red cover. But apart from
these there are two well-known types of pest by whom every second-hand
bookshop is haunted. One is the decayed person smelling of old
breadcrusts who comes every day, sometimes several times a day, and tries
to sell you worthless books. The other is the person who orders large
quantities of books for which he has not the smallest intention of
paying. In our shop we sold nothing on credit, but we would put books
aside, or order them if necessary, for people who arranged to fetch them
away later. Scarcely half the people who ordered books from us ever came
back. It used to puzzle me at first. What made them do it? They would
come in and demand some rare and expensive book, would make us promise
over and over again to keep it for them, and then would vanish never to
return. But many of them, of course, were unmistakable paranoiacs. They
used to talk in a grandiose manner about themselves and tell the most
ingenious stories to explain how they had happened to come out of doors
without any money--stories which, in many cases, I am sure they
themselves believed. In a town like London there are always plenty of not
quite certifiable lunatics walking the streets, and they tend to
gravitate towards bookshops, because a bookshop is one of the few places
where you can hang about for a long time without spending any money. In
the end one gets to know these people almost at a glance. For all their
big talk there is something moth-eaten and aimless about them. Very
often, when we were dealing with an obvious paranoiac, we would put aside
the books he asked for and then put them back on the shelves the moment
he had gone. None of them, I noticed, ever attempted to take books away
without paying for them; merely to order them was enough--it gave them,
I suppose, the illusion that they were spending real money.

*********

Spooky.

Progress

2006-04-20T07:25:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the delay in posting, but life has been nuts the past week or so. In the last 8 days or so...

Our air conditioner for the Midtown Store was stolen.
We took possession of about 7,000 books for Downtown.
The family went camping and fishing over the weekend and caught no fish, but Max the Wonderdog (seen in the photo to the right) decided to eat a hook, so we had to perform a hookendectomy in the field.. (He has recovered and is back to his hyper, lovable self)
We have sold and shipped something like 70 books online
I had a plaster wall fall on my head, causing more dust than previously believed possible (from the wall, not my head).

So, it has been a bit nuts, but we progress toward the goal, our eye on the prize, cetera.

One of my favorite quotes about bookstores:

A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking. (Jerry Seinfeld)

Hidden Treasure Found in Basement

2006-04-12T22:16:00.000-05:00

We were downstairs working this week and were demolishing a partition that had to come down. It was made of this horrible fiberboard over 2x4 studs, so it fairly well came apart in our hands. Imagine our surprise when we found another wall beneath it!

Early in the building's history, it was a bank (a Leader Federal, actually). Apparently, we found the wall to an office that dated back to the bank era. It is a deep, rich cherry finish with paneling to the waist and glass above that, to about 8 feet or so. We had planned to tear the old wall down completely, but this is just too beautiful to destroy. So, now we have to configure the floorspace in such a way to integrate it.

I will post pictures later.

Mailing list info

2006-04-08T14:40:00.000-05:00

We recently sent out an email to all those on our list about the presence of our little blog, and we had a huge spike in lookers that day, and it has been significant since then. If you want to get on our (very) occasional email list, to find out about events at the shop (either Midtown or Downtown), book signings, parties, sales, cetera, just go here to sign up. Of course, we would never share your information with anyone.

Bloggin' pressure

2006-04-07T08:30:00.000-05:00

The other day, someone told me they look at the blog everyday.

Arrrgh!

Pressure!

Actually, there are some days there just is nothing to report. I knocked down a wall the other day, and it only fell on my leg, and not my head, so I guess that is something to be proud of. Yesterday, I negotiated for the printing of the lighted sign to go up outside and was told the business cards will be ready in a few days.

Our humble little blog got mentioned in the Destination Downtown Newsletter. Scroll down to the bottom of the page. Not much, but any buzz is better than none, right?

Actually, though, a lot is on hold till after Easter, sort of a bottleneck, if you will. Meanwhile, we are still selling books in Midtown and on the Net, and still buying them faster than we can deal with them...

And still bloggin...

Hugh

The Peanut Story

2006-04-04T22:42:00.000-05:00

I was talking to a bookseller earlier tonight about the blog, and she approves. Then she mentioned a piece I wrote a few months back and had posted to a forum I frequent. It is about childhood, and memories, and holding on to both. I beg your indulgence, as I am going to post it here. It concerns Downtown, so I think it to be appropriate.

*********
I grew up on a small farm, about seventy five miles from Memphis, with my parents, brothers, and my maternal grandmother. She was an elegant, genteel lady, who lost her husband while still in her 40's. Due primarily to her upbringing, she had never learned to drive a car, and had not needed to until after his death. So, when she did learn (in her 40's) she was a very cautious driver.

She was of a generation who did their serious shopping "downtown". This was before the rise of the suburbs and the shopping mall. However, not liking to drive, this posed a problem for her. In her typical, elegant fashion, she solved it.

It was late in my fourth year that she decided she needed to go downtown. She waited until my parents went to work, and then she loaded me into the car. We set off for the big city, driving at a stately 40 miles an hour (her top speed) up the highway, until we arrived at the Treasury department store at the city limits, where we parked the car and got on the bus going downtown. For a four year old, this was a blur of excitement, and while I have expressed it as narrative, it was, from my perspective, a series of images. My parents leaving, the covert piling in the car, the long drive on HWY 78.

I remember virtually nothing about the bus ride, except the colors everywhere. My existence till then had been primarily one of green in the summer and brown in the winter, but my, the cars and people everywhere. And the noise.

Downtown, I remember her death grip on my hand and walking through the department stores, the smell of the perfume counter. But, and thus the title of this long missive, the thing I remember the most clearly about the day was the Planters Peanut vendor on Main Street. It was actually a store, wedged into a space not much bigger than a shoebox, with a peanut roaster in the window and a real, live, Mr. Peanut on the street outside, trying to draw people into the store. I remember him shaking my hand, and my grandmother buying a bag of hot roasted peanuts. It is not difficult at all for me to smell the peanuts, to see the steam coming off them in the cool air, to feel the comforting warmth in my hands.

The only other thing I remember about the day was her telling me that the day was a secret, and we were NOT to tell my parents about it. I never did. That was in the winter, and she died in the spring. Her sister, my maternal Aunt, told my parents after the funeral. But I never said a thing. It was our own adventure, and my last memory of her that does not involve a hospital. For years, I kept the peanut bag, with the dark stains coming through from the peanut oil, in my box of memories, until in one of the many moves while in the Marine Corps, I lost the box. But if I close my eyes and let myself, I still have the peanuts.

*******

Thanks for reminding me, Michele.

Bloggin'

2006-04-01T08:30:00.000-06:00

I am a technophobe. I don't want to be, but I am. Donna ( aka she who must be obeyed) is decidedly not. We recently wanted a load of sand for the yard. I was looking for the yellow pages, she had already googled and had a list of 5 suspects. For Sand.

So, imagine my surprise when I started googlin' myself and searched for bookshops in Memphis and saw my poor little blog, just sitting there in the search results. And via various wizardry with different sites, searches, cetera ( there may have been chicken bones waved about, for all I know) I was told that 17 different sites link to this blog. For something that has had no promotion (until this week, more info on that in a bit) I think that is not bad at all. So, if you linked to us, Thank You.

We have had little flyers made up that give the web address for the blog and say DOWNTOWN BOOKS IS COMING. Richard has a bunch at the Tobacco Bowl if you want to get some and stick them on you bulletin board at work, church, to slip in your lover's purse when they are not looking (that is what I do with the phone bill), be creative. We really do need your help to spread the word about the new bookstore and what we are trying to accomplish.

Also...

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!

Downtown Books will carry magazines! This is something I have resisted, quite honestly. I prefer long, lengthy tomes to quick soundbites, but in my walks about the community, over and over I have been asked. It seems that with the passing of World News a while back, downtowners are missing their magazines. Yes, I know Tower Records has a large selection, but what if you want a magazine without directions for getting your tongue pierced? I rest my case.

Books, Books, Books

2006-03-25T09:36:00.000-06:00

The shipment of 7,000 books has been postponed (thank God), so we do not have to take possession until after the 1st of April. To put it into perspective, that is in the neighborhood of 250 Banker Size boxes.

We also arranged for another 40 boxes from another dealer. They are more non-fiction, rather than collectible fiction. Also, this week we opened an account with a large wholesaler to supply us with Publisher overstocks. These are new books that we can sell at half price. (which, as Martha would say, is a good thing!)

Midtown Books is almost back together, we are putting the finishing touches on it this upcoming week. Thanks to all our regular customers who have put up with the mess the last 2 weeks.

Downtown Books is coming along, with us primarily cleaning out the space right now. We are putting the claims of the HEPA system on the vacuums to the test this week, as we extract 30 years of dust from the walls and floors. We are still shooting for an open date sometime in May...keep you fingers crossed.

The muscles ache..

2006-03-20T18:23:00.000-06:00

and the back hurts, but we have the Midtown store back in some sort of order. We are still fine tuning, and honestly, probably will for a few weeks, but we are back to functional, anyway.

I do have to tell you, the customer response to the new layout has been the greatest, confirming my long held belief that I have the greatest customers in the Mid-South.

Also, we are making some hand out flyers about the new store, and intend to blanket downtown with them. Come by later this week and pass them out to your friends, your relatives, heck, give them to your enemies, as far as that goes. The buzz about the downtown store is picking up, and I am damn near giddy about it.

Of the making of books, there is no end...

2006-03-16T18:00:00.000-06:00

At least, that is what the author of Ecclesiastes said, and after this week, I believe him.

In preparation for opening the Downtown store, we remodeled our Midtown Location, hoping to make it more browser friendly. When we opened this store, it had been a bookshop before (Bonnie's Books, you may recall...Or you may not. They were only open for about 9 months or so) and with us having limited funds but limitless capacity for fun, made do with the existing shelves.

Well no more! This time I am having the store I want, not one that is imposed upon me. So, we closed for 3 days, gutted the shelves, painted the walls, built shelves, popped blisters (from building the shelves, you understand) and built ...err, rebuilt us a bookshop.

So, we are open...Sort of. Things are still a wreck, as you can well imagine. But, books are mainly on the shelves and some sections are even in alphabetical order, no less. The Book Elves are tired and dragging (as am I), but we are still here, selling the odd book or two.

I have been promising pics, so here are a few of the chaos that was this week. When we get it respectable again, I will show you some after pictures.

In the photo below, the incredibly attractive female in the grey shirt is Donna, AKA She For Whom The Sun Rises. The Chunky Balding guy hanging out with her is the lucky sod that gets to wake up next to her each morning.

Just a reminder...

2006-03-12T09:02:00.000-06:00

that Midtown Books will be closed Sunday Through Tuesday this week for remodeling. I will no doubt have pictures of the insanity, which I will post later on.

My minions and I will be working away to improve this store, so we can get ready to open the new store. Please come see us later this week, and let us know what you think.

Yes, I actually have a picture to show you

2006-03-11T08:46:00.000-06:00

To the left is the building downtown which we will be in. Or, actually, be under. The red arrow on the right hand of the picture shows the entrance to the walk-down stairs that will take you to the store. We are building an iron railing around it, so it looks a little less like a rabbit hole.

Also, note the trolley tracks in the foreground. We are on the Madison line, with easy access from all the downtown hotels.

Below is a clickable link to a Yahoo map of the area, so you can find out exactly where we are.

Map of 152 Madison Ave

If you go by to check out the building, go inside and say hi to Richard in the Tobacco Bowl and Tracy behind the coffee counter. They are super nice folks.

Acquiring books, and phase 1 begins...

2006-03-08T21:25:00.000-06:00

Well, it has begun. We arranged yesterday to purchase a large collection (our largest ever, actually) of over 7,000 hardcover first editions in all genres, from history to Literature to mysteries and thrillers. A great client of mine from Chicago is forced to sell his house since his wife is entering a nursing home, and in his new apartment he will have no room for his books. I had mentioned the new store to him, and he made us an incredible offer on them, so we finalized the deal yesterday. Unfortunately, I need to take possession before the end of March, so they may end up in a storage building for a few weeks until we get the new store finished enough to house them.

At our Midtown location, meanwhile, this weekend is when we do our huge remodel in preparation for the upcoming second location. Because of this, we will be closed Sunday the 12th through Tuesday the 14th, opening regular hours on Wednesday (we hope!).

I will post pictures later today.

Who we are, and what we are doing here

2006-03-08T20:56:00.001-06:00

The pressure of an inaugural post. Am I writing well, do I have enough skill to hold the audience, or have you already abandoned our feeble blogging efforts and resumed your search for porn, answers to life's questions, or the perfect blackberry cobbler recipe?

My name is Hugh, and I am a bookseller. I own Midtown Books, located in Midtown Memphis, Tennessee, home of Elvis, the delta blues, and Bar-B-Que.

We were recently approached about opening a second location in Downtown Memphis. The Downtown area is vibrant and alive now, and is an area we have considered opening a store in before, but the time just never seemed right. There are always things to do, and you always have in the back of your head that the last few efforts at opening a bookstore downtown did not fare well.

So the first thing to ask ourselves was "Does Downtown need a Bookstore"? We think so. The population of Downtown Memphis is growing significantly (currently at 27,000), not to mention the huge number of people who work downtown but live elsewhere (estimated at 68,000). That is the equivalent of Jackson, Tennessee. Can you imagine a town of 68,000 people who do not have a bookstore? Then there are the tourists. In our interviews with the hotel staff, they all said, without fail, that they get asked many times a day where the local bookstore is.

No doubt a bookstore is needed. So we were off in search of the perfect location, with perfect being described as inexpensive, roomy, and on a well traveled street. We ultimately found one, located at 152 Madison Ave, in the same building the Tobacco Bowl is located in. We have known Richard Alley, the owner of the Tobacco Bowl, for several years, and we already had a small representation of books placed for sale on his mezzanine. So, when we saw the basement of that building, with it's Cheers-type walk down stairs, it's high ceilings and the intricate mosaic tiled floor, we said "why not"?

Currently opening date is planned for the middle of May, 2006 (There is a lot of build out to do). As it currently looks, we will have a full selection of quality, clean used and out of print books, as well as a full fledged rare book room (it used to be a bank vault). We will both buy and sell books there, as well as run our thriving catalogue and internet business from the new location.

Oh yes, what to name it. Well, creativity not being our strong point ( I sell books, not write them) we came up with the highly original name Downtown Books. I can be quite clever when I want to be.

On this blog, I intend to keep you updated with pictures of the new location, our plans and successes, our progress in the build out, etc. In fact, what we hope is that by reading about us on a regular basis, you will begin to feel like it is, in some small way, your bookstore, a place where you belong, where ideas are shared and conversations carried out, where you can have your own little safe place in the world to browse the collected wisdom of writers both past and present.

Thank you for reading this far, and check back later for pictures.