Those Indie Bookstores

My friend (Wendy Welch) who owns the Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap, (well, that's the name of her book, the store's name more accurately is...Tales of the Lonesome Pine, LLC)...
wrote recently on her blog...

"Everybody sells books at Christmas, but who can greet you by name, ask how your niece liked Divergent, suggest a new detective series because they know you like mysteries themed around food? Or, who can meet you for the first time, listen to a list of the last five books your dad read and what he thought of them, and then suggest the perfect present based on that information? How much time will you save with that kind of service?

"That’s what we do, and what our friends in the bookselling business do. Because we are our businesses; we don’t just work for them. We believe in selling you what you want, not what you’ve been told you need. And we believe you are your own person.

Visit your local bookseller this holiday season–be it Paperback Book Exchange in Neenah, Wisconsin; Al’s Books out in Kansas; maybe that sweet little Country Bookshop in North Carolina; or one of the other 2,500-or-so used book shops across America. The coffee will be hot, the chairs comfy, the kittens purring, and the proprietors ready to listen, serve, and smile."

Dang, I want to go up to Virginia just to visit her and have this magic happen, wouldn't you?

 

 These photos are of a used book store in Little Switzerland, NC.  I think the name is something like Beans and Books, for they sell coffee as well.  Quite honestly it was the worst Americano I ever had.  So maybe plain coffee would have been the better idea.  I did buy a book however and love it!

Quote for the day:

Eyes see only light, ears hear only sound, but a listening heart perceives meaning.

David Steindl-Rast
A Listening Heart