Another Year Done

We weren't planning on doing a year in review, but we couldn't think of anything else.   The highlight of the year was the Adrianna Trigiani book signing back in July.  We had a few hitches, but it turned out well enough.  We expanded our content on Facebook, with capsule reviews and more pictures.  We still haven't completely fixed our problems with Google + though.  We have yet to expand into online sales, on any platform.  We had to cut back somewhat on our products.  We have experimented on our website, changing its look at times.  We haven't added any new reviews to the site, yet.  All in all, it wasn't that great of a year, but we are still trying.  Hopefully, 2018 will bring better changes to Booknotes.   By doing this, we hope to improve the Pikeville area as well.  Thanks to all of our friends, customers, and followers.  See you next week, and next year.

It Still Looks Like Christmas

In case you missed it on social media, Booknotes is not online due to circumstance beyond our control, from Thursday, December 21 through Tuesday, December 26.  This means we cannot answer email or check on our social media messages. You can still call us during regular business hours.   Fortunately, we were able to write this week's blog early and schedule it to post at its regular time.  However, this also means we cannot change the website's motif back from Christmas.  That is alright though, because we don't change the store's decorations out that soon, either.  Traditionally, we start the year-end inventory the day after Christmas.  Although we still do it by hand, we have developed a system that gets it done fairly fast.  We forego taking all the decorations down until we finish.  This can leave the store looking a little messy and chaotic, but it still works for us.  Expect a few messages to pop up on Facebook, too, during this time we are offline.  Things will get back to normal next week, probably.  See you then.

It's the Thought That Counts

So, someone suddenly asks you for a book for Christmas, but our order deadline has passed.  What do you do?  First, you could try to order it anyway.  We can't guarantee that the book would be available at our distributor's warehouse, but we could try.  Even then, you would have to pay a $50 fee to make sure it would be delivered in time.  That would probably be more than what the book would cost.  Second, you could get something already in stock.  While we only have a small selection of books, they do cover a wide variety of subjects and genres.  While you might not find exactly what you are looking for, we can help you find something somewhat close.  Remember, many of our books are on discount.  Third, you could purchase a gift certificate.  Although somewhat generic, it would be an actual gift.  You could get one for the amount of the book, or something a little more or less, and we would order it with our next regular shipment just after the holidays (Christmas and New Year's) to make sure we get it in.  This way, you won't have to change the certificate in case the person changes their mind or gets the book some other way.  So, you do have options.  Come back next week for a special Christmas post.

Christmas Deadlines Are Coming

It is time to explain Booknotes policy on Christmas orders.  We use two main distributors to get our books.  Our regular distributor takes about two days for an order to arrive, once placed.  However, it sometimes doesn't have all the books we need.  For those books, we use a second distributor. It has a slightly different selection, especially with harder to find titles.  Usually, books from them arrive within two days, as well, but only if we use our primary warehouse.  If we have to use a secondary location, the delivery times can go up to four days.  Because of this, we set the last day for regular orders about five days before Christmas.  Since Christmas falls on a Monday this year, this means two less days for deliveries.  Hence, the December 18 deadline.  Orders placed before 11:00 am on Wednesday, December 20, can still be delivered on time from our regular distributor, but only if they are stock.  You would have to pay a small shipping and handling fee, though, if we didn't get a minimum order. In fact, we technically could place orders at late as 11:00 am on Thursday, December 21, but we would have to add a large fee to make sure it would be delivered on time.  This is why we strongly urge our customers to come in early to place their orders.  See you next week with more views of Christmas.

It Might Be Starting to Look Like Christmas

Last week's post was written before Thanksgiving and scheduled to update at our regular time because we thought we wouldn't have the time to post it.  Well, it turns out we did have the time and we used it to update the site color scheme for Christmas, as well as a few other things.  Unfortunately, when we changed the site's color scheme, some parts changed that we weren't expecting.  For instance, the background color for the blog went to all black, while the text color stayed the same.  This meant that the posts were rendered unreadable, until we did some fine tuning.  The posts are now readable again.  We hope you liked the new images and pictures we have posted both here and on social media.  For some reason, the upcoming release board picture is still blurry, but the Christmas cut-off announcement pic taken at the same time isn't.  We aren't sure why this is happening, but we are looking in on it.  As expected, there aren't many books listed.  That's why we always put the order message below it, so the board doesn't look so empty.  Next week, we will talk about the order cut-off some more.  See you then.

Thanks for Many Things

Booknotes is thankful for many things.  In particular, we are thankful for being able to schedule this post to come up at its usual time on Saturday morning, even though it is being written days in advance.  We are doing this to save time, thinking we might not have that much of it over the Thanksgiving holiday.  We are also thankful that we can schedule much of our social media content in advance as well, and have it pop up at the right time.  It really is magnificent.  However, one thing we cannot schedule in advance is the update of the website.  It will not reflect the current season or holiday until after the weekend, at least.  We will have pictures up of the store's holiday decorations at about the same time.  Be on the lookout for both.  In the meantime, have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Time To Get Cooking

Although we haven't had much publicity about it online, the discounted Books of the Month for November are cookbooks.  This seems appropriate for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.  As always, we try to get at least one new book in the category each time its month comes around.  This month, we are featuring the updated and expanded edition of Adriana Trigiani's Cooking with My Sisters.  We originally planned on having it at her book signing back in July, but it had gone out of print in preparation for this new edition.  In fact, we tried ordering it when it first came out earlier this month, but it hadn't arrived yet at our primary distribution warehouse.  We finally should be getting it in this Monday, just in time for the holiday.  As an Italian-American cookbook, its recipes might not fit in with everyone's plans, but you might fine something interesting.  It is a $19.99 paperback, but, like all recent arrivals, it is not covered in our Books of the Month discount.  Our post next week should be on time, even with hours being disrupted due to the holiday, so check us out then.

Countdown to Black Friday

In two weeks, the "biggest" shopping day of the year, Black Friday, will be upon us.  However, the weekend after Thanksgiving has never been that big of a deal to us.  It has actually been slow most years.  Much of this might have to do with the fact that our window display is almost never done in time for the day.  In fact, it it usually not even halfway finished by then.  This might be due to the fact that the person who usually does the display takes much longer than needed to do the work.  The inside of the store is usually done by Thanksgiving.  One year, when only one person was doing all the decorating, it was actually done in a few hours.  So, when Black Friday comes around, don't be too surprised if the window display isn't fully set up yet.  Just remember, we will be open, normal hours that day, even if it doesn't look like it yet.  See you next week, when we might talk about some special events coming that weekend.

The Perils of Dry-Erase Markers

In case you haven't yet noticed, we have gone back to using multiple colors on the Upcoming Releases board.  Check it out on the NEWS  AND EVENTS page (links don't work too well for this variety of Blogger, so you have to click it yourself).  We did this because of the new black markers we use last time don't mix well with our regular ones.  When we tried to erase the board this past week, everything just blurred together.  It was a mess, and it took an extra day just to get the right type of cleaner to get things fixed.  The new markers work find on their own, though, just don't expect to see much very dark black on the board for a little bit.  We can't figure out why the image is blurry though.  Other pictures are fine.  In case you can't read it, check our the BOOKS page for the upcoming week's releases, as well as the previous three weeks as well.  Note that this just represents the books available to order and not necessarily what we have in stock.  See you next week.

The Upcoming Dry Season

Recently, our blog posts have been a little shorter than usual.  Part of this is because we don't have as much to write about lately.  Another reason is that there have been many extra books to put down on our Upcoming Books page that there hasn't been enough time to write during our weekly site update schedule.  That is changing.  Starting in mid-November, there will be fewer big name titles coming out each week.  In fact, we are having a hard time in coming up with enough books for the end of next month, and it just gets worse in December.  When Booknotes first opened, we didn't realize how few books were actually released between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Over the years, it became quite obvious how few there were.  While some big titles are released, most authors wait until after the holidays to publish new work.  That being said, there will be less showing up on the BOOKS page for the next few weeks, but that means longer posts here.  So, it is kind of a win-win scenario.  See you all next week.

Drawing a Blank

To be honest, we have absolutely nothing to talk about right now.  The best we can offer is the upcoming new edition of Adriana Trigiani's cookbook Cooking with My Sisters.  It is completely revised with new recipes.  It had been out of print for a while now, but it will be back in early November.  We were planning to have it be a featured title at her book signing back in July, but we only found out it was out of print just before the event.  We are taking pre-orders for it right now, so come in if you don't want to miss out on it.  Anyway, that is all we can come up with this week.  We hope to have more interesting information next week.  See you then.

Boo! Who?

In case you didn't notice, we have changed the self-made logo over the main title on our pages to one for Halloween.  In fact, it was this very style of logo that started our trend for both our entry sign as well as our upcoming release board.  In our second year, we (and by we and mean I) wanted to change up our entry sign dry erase board.  We noticed that the first three letter of our name spelled B-O-O.  We decided to emphasize that fact.  We wrote out the name in black.  We added pupils to the first two O's.  We changed the K to an exclamation point and a carat like this <.  Some years, we even added eyes to the second O, making it a ghost thing.  The final addition was a crooked smile under the first two O's, to make it look like a ghost, or something, was trying to scare you.  At least it was doing it in a playful manner.  That is all this week.  See you next time.

They Say It's Your Anniversary

On Saturday, October 7, 2000, Booknotes opened for business, making today its seventeenth anniversary.  On that first day, we had three or four customers.  The first person payed with a check, so we never got to get to show the first dollar we ever earned, which may have proved to be a bad omen.  Over the years, we lost one main distributor, Koen, and another has recently merged with another company to become Follett/Baker & Taylor.  We have well over two dozen book signings and events with over a dozen different authors.  Although we are a small business, we have done our best to do treat our customers the best we can.  Admittedly, we never expected to stay in business as long as we have.  We thought we would have changed locations or moved on well before now, and we are proud that we have done as much as we have.  We would like to thank all of our loyal customers over the years for all the appreciation they have shown us, and we hope to have all of you in again for all long as we can.  Thank you.  Goodbye until next week.

One Week Away

Next Saturday, October 7, marks the seventeenth anniversary of the opening of Booknotes.  As of right now, we are not planning any big celebration beyond having a major sale, that has already started.  We will posting more information on it on our social media accounts soon.  Hopefully, next week's post will feature a major announcement about the store.  Until then, there is again little to mention here.  We should be posting pictures of the store as it is decorated for Halloween.  Good-bye for this week.

Scripting Posts: a Postscript

Another week goes by with little to talk about.  It can be hard coming up with new material for this blog every week.  We are still trying to get a handle on social media, especially when said media informs you that you haven't posted anything new in a few days.  Sometimes, there just really anything worthwhile to mention.  We barely even use some social media platforms anymore; others we ignore, possibly to our detriment.  Hopefully, we will at least have a lot of new pictures to put up, when we decorate the store for Halloween.  This will happen in the next week or so.  We also have our seventeeth year anniversary coming up, as well.  Both should provide for ample opportunities for posting.  We are writing and posting this week's blog a day early again, but we are not providing secondary links until our regular times.  We just wanted to get a head start on our work.  That is all for today; see you next week.

Apologies and Inconveniences

Booknotes is a small store; we only have the two owners working here.  This means that we frequently have similar schedules. It also means that we sometimes have to open up two or three hours late, or close an hour or so early to get to some appointments or to avoid bad weather.  This also means that we sometimes have to close the store entirely some days, if there is no other way to do something.  We try not to have the store closed more than one day a week, so that our customers can see us as often as possible.  We always try to leave a  message at the door, telling everyone about our schedule.  Since we joined social media, we have been posting our times there, too.  We always leave a message apologizing for not being open at our regular times and the inconvenience that it makes for our customers.  It  has become somewhat of a tradition to leave that message.  Rest assured, we try to never be closed more that one extra day a week, and to never open late and close early on the same day, or on back to back days, if it can be helped.  If we are closed on a Saturday, we try to update the website early; like we are doing this week.  Hope to be open the next regular Saturday.  Goodbye for now.

Falling into Autumn

The store has been decorated for fall, even if the picture we posted is sort of blurry.  We don't know what is happening with the digital camera, but we hope to fix it soon.  Anyway, we always do fall up at the store, possibly more than would be expected.  You see, we started business in October of 2000, and that has become one of our favorite designing times.  It also allows us to do up Halloween in a big way as well.  We will be posting more photos of the interior when we upgrade the decorations for that.  Unfortunately, many of the leaves in the window have already fallen from the invisible threads they were hanging from.  Because of all the material on the floor, it is almost impossible to go out there to place them back.  We will try to do so, however.  It is really a great time for the store, leading up to our anniversary next month.  We hope to have something planned, but you will just have to wait and see.  Until next time, goodbye.

Too Many Books, Not Enough Words

Usually, the Upcoming Releases board had between sixteen and twenty books per month.  This month, it had twenty-four,which is about as many as it can handle.  Currently, we plan on highlighting at least a dozen books per week on the site's Books page.  What all this means is, we will have a lot less time managing the blog because of all the extra typing we will have to do for other things.  Therefore, we will be cutting back a little on posts.  So, see you next week.

Lost in the Ramblings

There almost was no post this week,  It wasn't due to writer's block, there just really isn't much happening at Booknotes at the moment.  Nothing.  We might have a local author coming in for a book signing in the next month or two, but that is about it.  We can't even come up with anything interesting about the store that we feel people would like to read about.  At least we are writing something today to make our customers know that the blog is still going.  Hopefully, there will be something to really talk about next week.  Sorry about the rambling, but it cannot be helped.  Until next week, goodbye.

Encapsulating

I need to go personal with this one.  When I switched the store's blog over to the Blogger format, I left the original one to the other owner to use for reviews.  She reads way more than me (mostly mystery and romance), and could use the format better.  However, she hates to write, can't seem to have any extra time, and has a hard time understanding some of the nuances of the program.  This led me to use the store's Facebook page to start my own capsule reviews as a means to get more content online.  I trend to favor fiction in the fantasy/science-fiction/horror spectrum, with the oddball mystery or weird fiction thrown in.  Before I started, I set up some guidelines to keep my act straight.  First, all titles had to be recent, no more than six months old or so, with the occasional exception.  That way, they would still be fairly recent for customers to order if they wanted to get the book.  Second, the book had to be original, at least in format.  If a book came out in hardcover, but I didn't get a chance to read until it came out in paperback, I wouldn't review it.  This include compilations and reprints of older material as well.  If it had been available for a long time, I wouldn't review it.  Third, I must have read the entire book.  The other owner has a tendency to read the start of a mystery, check out the end to see if she guessed right, and then not read any of the middle.  I don't think that is fair.  I read almost all of a book that I review, skipping only a sentence here or there if it gets a little boring, but I still scan them so I can give a fair review.  The only problem is that I frequently get many books at a time, and at others, almost none.  This causes a delay of a week or more between reading a book, and posting its review.  This has meant that I get a few details wrong.  I am sorry about that.  Still, at least it provides content, will the promise of more on the way.  Until next week, bye.

Returning to Normal

After months of build-up to the Adriana Trigiani book signing, we have mostly run out of things to talk about.  Still, here are a few tidbits to tide everyone over until we have are next big news item.  We have redesigned the website again; we hope you like it.  We returned the extra copies of Kiss Carlo last week, but we still have a few in reserve waiting to be picked up, so if they aren't, we might be able to sell them.  These books are still eligible for the personalized bookplate label as well.  The air conditioning might be repaired.  It hasn't been warn enough lately to have it on  though, so we haven't fully tested it out yet.  Let's hope it works this time.  That's all for this week.  Bye.

What Happened Last Week

Last Sunday was the big Adriana Trigiani book signing.  First, let us address a few things that happened.  We are sorry we opened up a little late.  We had to make a huge detour because of a tree down, blocking the road.  We are sorry that the promised freebies weren't there; someone forgot to bring them.  We apologize for the air conditioning for not working.  We have had people in, but they still don't know what is going wrong.  Fortunately, someone helped us by purchasing ice and water.  Overall though, it was a good day.  While it might not have been as big as Adriana's last visit, it was still big.  We would like to thank Adriana for coming in.  She stayed until after 7:30 to finish signing for all the customers in line, as well as the books for those unable to attend or stay.  Although we sold out of all the books she signed, we still have some left that we can get a book plate label for and it can be personalized and signed to your liking.  We will send the remainder back soon, so hurry in.  We would also like to thank all the businesses and organizations that allowed us to put up or hand out flyers, especially all the public libraries east of Lexington (we forgot to include Lexington, sorry).  We would like to thank the Appalachian Express family of newspapers for the great coverage they delivered for us, in ads and articles.  We would like to thank WIFX  radio for the wonderful interview they provided for us.  We had asked local television stations as well to come in, but they weren't able to.  Finally, we would like to thank all of Adriana's fans who showed up, as well as all of our loyal customers.  You proved that smaller markets can support big name authors to come in.  We hope you continue to support us, as long as we can continue to you.  Until next week.

One More Day

Tomorrow is the big day!  We hope everything will go well, unlike the new problems we are having with the web design software today.  There are only a few things left to do.  We have gone back and forth a few times on refreshments, but it looks like we won't be having any this time.  Adriana has promised a few surprises that she will be bringing.  We don't know yet what all of them will be, but we are also planning a few surprises for her as well.  One surprise we hope won't be there will be a deer.  Yesterday, we saw a  deer running down the road across from the shopping center.  It ultimately ran into the creek/drainage ditch beside the road.  While we had seen deer on the hillside across from the shopping center, this is the first time in the seventeen years we have been here that a deer was on the road.  As long as they don't get hit by a car or enter the parking lot, we are perfectly fine by deer.  We had turkeys in the lot earlier this year, but they stopped coming.  Remember, we open around 2:00 pm tomorrow, Sunday, July 30, for the signing.  Hope to see everyone there.

Everything on Display

As you can see from the picture, we are almost ready for next week's book signing with Adriana Trigiani.  It took about an hour to unpack, inventory, and arrange the books, but it was worth it.  Many of the books have already been sold, so we are glad we got to take a picture to see it in its original form.  It took someone else on-and-on four days to do the window, but it ended up looking about the same as it normally does.  We have also finally put the Kiss Carlo book review on the other blog.  It is a re-edited version of what was in the newspapers. [Author's note:  I did not write the original review.  I only did the preliminary editing, and not all of my suggestions were taken.  I corrected some of them for the condensed version seen elsewhere.]  We hope it carries the same flair as the original.  Also, Adriana will be doing some radio interviews that will air this week.  Listen in to WFIX in the morning of Tuesday, July25 to try and catch her.  We think it will be streaming online as well.  We have also been told that there will be some extra special freebies to be given out as well, but we don't know what all of them will  be. That will be all for today, but check the post next week for last minute details.

Tickled Very, Very Pink

Today's post is in pink lettering on a cream background in homage to Kiss Carlo by Adriana Trigiani, who will be signing her book at Booknotes on Sunday, July 30, from 3 to 6 pm.  At least, it should look that way, as this version of blogger sometimes does not interact well with the website programming.  In fact, there have been a few problems.  Most notably, the link function doesn't seem to be working.  Well, we never seem to get it to work.  The text just disappears when we try to form the link.  If the function was working, then we would have included a link to one of the various newspapers that ran the review of Kiss Carlo last week.  That review was supposed to have been posted to the site by now, but the person who wrote it has been too busy and has yet to finish the task. [Author Note:  I was not the one who read the book or wrote the review.  I only did some of the preliminary editing.  Not all of my suggestions were taken, so if there are mistakes, they were not my fault.] The review should be online soon, at least in a condensed form.  By the way, you may have noticed that the site has turned pink.  This is also an homage to the cover of Kiss Carlo.  To be honest, the scene from the cover might not actually be representative of the story, but nothing can be quite sure.  More next week.  See you then.

A Tale of Two Conflicting Blogs

When we first started the website, we added the app to include a blog service.  We also unintentionally added a connection to Blogger as well.  Because there were no instructions, we did not know how to work out how to use Blogger at the time, so it just hung out on the site, usually hidden, waiting to be used.  We ultimately found out how to install the Blogger app correctly and moved the regular blog to here.  The original store blog was going to be used by another person at the store for reviews, mostly.  Unfortunately, that app had a few problems at times and the blog disappeared for awhile.  We gave recaps of what was said on those blogs here as bonus posts.  Well, the original blog app got fixed and we were supposed to start using it again.  As of yet, there has only been one review posted.  A review of Adriana Trigiani's new novel Kiss Carlo should be posted in the next week or so.  If it isn't, you may be able to find it in one of a number of local newspapers, which ones are still being determined based on how the new acquisitions work out.  In the meantime, you will be able to find short capsule reviews on our Facebook page.  While there have been a few errors that have crept in, we hope you have been enjoying them even if the books themselves are not quite your style.   Keep looking for more reviews both here and there in the near future.  See you next week for more on the book signing.

Doing the Best, Being the Best

Recently, the Appalachian News Express published the results of its annual "Best of the Best in the Valley" poll.  Although we had won as 'Best Place to Buy Books' many years running, we did not win it this year.  However, we would still like to thank all of our friends and customers who did vote for us.  You support has always been appreciated.  We have tried to help all of our potential customers out as much as possible.  We provide information on this website and our social media pages.  We give suggestions to all browsers when they come in.  We try our hardest to find the books people are looking for, and tell them where to get them if we cannot get them ourselves.  While we do have the occasional missteps, we try to rectify them as quickly as we can.  To honor all of our supporters, we are running  a customer appreciation sale right now.  Almost everything in the store is at least 10% off, with many items 40 or even 50% off.  We hope that everyone takes advantage of this event.  We recently reached a milestone on Facebook and thanked everyone who helped us reach it.  Now, we want to thank everyone with this sale as well.  For the next few weeks, we will be discussing our Adriana Trigiani book signing.  We hope you won't get to bored.  See you next week.

There Will Be A Book Signing

Maybe you might not have heard, but we are having a major book signing on Sunday, July 30, with best-selling author Adriana Trigiani.  We may have mentioned it a few times already.  As of right now, we have posted the Event on Facebook and are adding information on a regular basis.  We have asked public libraries across eastern and central Kentucky to post our flyers and to add the event to their social media sites.  We have started putting flyers up across the Pikeville area as well.  We have been asking local organizations to hand them out at meetings.  We have started to ask local colleges and universities to announce the event.  The official press release should be going out within the next week, so look for it in your newspapers. A review of the new novel, Kiss Carlo, should be on the Review blog, as well as links from Facebook and in a local paper, a week or so after that.  There might be a few other surprises in store as well.  Once again, we would like to thank Adriana for mentioning us both on her website and in recent interviews.  We are very happy for this great opportunity.  That is all for this week, see you soon.

Have a Beautiful Bloomsday

Yesterday, Friday, June 16, was the minor literary holiday of Bloomsday.  It is in honor of the day when most of the action in James Joyce's literary classic Ulysses takes place.  It is named in honor of one of the main characters, Leopold Bloom, who we follow along on both his and returning character from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Stephen Daedalus.  While we have never celebrated this day at the store before, we still love the idea.  However, we are not sure how one would celebrate beyond talking about the book and its complex themes and imagery, or perhaps, having a party in the style of early twentieth-century Dublin.   One thing is for sure, we would not be doing anything the characters do from the book.  While most actions are rather harmless, (e.g. taking a walk on the beach looking at pebbles, placing a newspaper advertisement), many are somewhat strange (teaching a class at a Jesuit school, suffering intestinal discomfort after eating at a pub).  Some are just unusual (attending an friend's funeral, becoming a father figure to a young man).  Others are just downright weird (going out drinking with college buddies and talking about midwivery, having a formal question-and-answer session with a friend about third party events as if you weren't a part of them).  Many actions are immoral (making crude puns to your housekeeper, contemplating the love of your husband while having an affair with an actor).  Some are illegal, then and now (performing a lewd act while ogling a young nanny with her charges on a beach, going to a brothel and hallucinating about your dead mother).  We strongly suggest not doing any of these things.  Maybe we can come up with some better ideas for next year.  (Author's note:  I actually had to read Ulysses in college.  We were originally only going to read excerpts, but the professor changed his mind.  Fortunately, the library had enough copies for the seven of us.  I still had to skip a few pages near the end to finish it in time.  Have yet to re-read it.)

Color Commentary

As many of you may  have noticed, a lot of roses have started to appear around the website.  This is a show of support for our upcoming book signing with Adriana Trigiani and her new book Kiss Carlo.  It is just one of the design elements we have tweaked on our website since it was published.  For many holidays, we have added special illustrations to celebrate them.  Most recently, we had various designs up for Easter.  In the next few days, we will be adding not only more roses and flowers (a major element on Kiss Carlo's cover), but also themed elements in support of Independence Day.  We will also be changing some of the overall color schemes to the site, again in support of the book signing.  This will be about the third time we have undergone a major theme redesign since going online.  To be honest, at least one of those times wasn't intentional, but we couldn't seem to find the original color scheme back in place.  Still, the current look is alright for now.  That is, until we will change it.  We hope you like the pinks and purple that will soon dominate the palette.  Until next week.

Digital Anniversaries Are Always Paperless

With all of the excitement with the upcoming Adriana Trigiani book signing on Sunday, July 30, we almost forgot to celebrate the one year anniversary of the Booknotes website and blog!  The actual site went live in May 2016, so we are a little late in celebrating.  This site was only going to be a test to see how to figure how to build one, but in turned into the actual site instead.  Since we started this site, we have added a few features and took down a few others.  We upgraded the primary store blog to the Blogger format.  Don't worry.  The original blog is still here, and new reviews will be added soon.  At least they should, when the other owner gets around to do one.  To be completely honest, we at Booknotes are not that computer literate.  It is amazing how much we were about to get done with just plug-and-play programming.  Still, there is a lot left to get better.  We are still trying to get some form of sales feature in place, via PayPal.  There is actually a good chance of it in time for the book signing.  Some of the design elements need a little tweaking.  The social media connections could be made to look better.  Although this format doesn't allow for comments, you can still leave them on our Facebook site that might have linked you here.  We really would like your opinions as they do matter to us.  Unfortunately, this week's post is going to be short again.  Maybe more time next week.  See you then.

The Event Horizon

In case you haven't noticed yet, we have set up a Facebook Event Page for the Adriana Trigiani book signing on Sunday, July 30, from 3:00 pm to at least 5:00 pm.  Since this is the first event that we are promoting on social media extensively, we are still having a few difficulties, beyond the normal one in planning such an event.  In fact, we have only issued a preview press release instead of an official one in the local newspapers.  We would mention them, but the program is messing up a little this morning and not all of the functions are working correctly.  Preparations are still going on, though.  This coming Tuesday, we will be placing the first orders for the event.  We have to reserve our copies of her latest novel early to make sure we have them on hand.  Future orders will be place for the rest of her backlist that will be available.  Stay tuned here, the rest of our website, our Facebook page, and the new Event page for future announcements.  Hopefully, everything will be working again next week so we can talk about this more.  Maybe a different subject, as you might get tired of non-stop signing news.  See you next week.

I Have Seen the Signing

It takes a lot of time and effort to plan a book signing, like the one with Adriana Trigiani this coming Sunday, July 30.  While we have had dozens of events over the years, as seen on the author signing sub-page, it doesn't ever get any easier.  Even with the two month notice, there will still be a lot of things to do.  Most importantly, we have to determine how many books to order and of which ones.  The last time she came here, we sold out fairly quickly of all or her books and had to re-order dozens more for her to sign book plates for later on.  Then we have to plan the advertising.  This is putting our current media schedule on hold until closer to the actual event.  Press releases are starting to be send out.  For her last event, we had people come as far away as Richmond, KY to Richmond, VA.  This time, with Booknotes being her only scheduled stop in Kentucky, we might have customers from even further away.  Still, the overwhelming majority were local last time.  We also have to re-arrange the store for traffic flow as well as any refreshments we will provide.  Not all of our signings are this elaborate, though.  It is just that with Adriana, we expect another huge crowd.  The line actually went out the door last time.  Running late today, so we will have to continue next time.  See you next week.

Adriana Is Returning to Booknotes

As revealed on our home page and News/Events page, bestselling author Adriana Trigiani is returning to Booknotes for a book signing on Sunday, July 30 in support of her new novel Kiss Carlo coming out in June.  Some details are still be hammered out, so we hope you keep checking back to the website or our Facebook page for more information.  As of right now, the event will start at 3:00 pm or so, but that time might change due to factors involving the other tenants at the center.   We will be taking down names for anyone who wants to pre-order her new book, as well as anyone who wants to order any of her older titles.  Many of her older titles will be available along with her new one on the day of the signing, but ordering beforehand will be the only way to guarantee getting a particular one.  The last time she was here in 2006, we sold out long before the event was over; we had to order more and have Adrianna sign book plates for them.  We might offer some online ordering as well of her newest title and a few of her older ones.  The software for this only allows ten products if we go this route, but if we do, it will allow our customers to order their books early and have us deliver them after the signing.  This would be very useful for those who wouldn't be able to attend the actual event for a number of reasons.  In response to this, we have finally gotten a new credit card processor and are now taking credit cards again.  We also have a few more surprises that might be lining up for the event, but we are too early in the planning stages to reveal anything.  As a hint, if your remember her last appearance here, then you might know what to expect this time around.  See you next week.

Comics Are Books Too

Today is Free Comic Book Day and many local comic book stores around the country are participating.  While we are not part of this event, we would like to mention our support of such stores.  Recently, there were events celebrating independent record and book stores.  We were unable to show our support for the former in time and we were unable to participate in the  latter because we are not part of a retailer association.  However, it would be a shame if we didn't promote one of the earliest such events and the local store involved.  Pikeville's comic book store is Page 3 Game Zone , which we have had a long standing relationship with.  We have frequently sent customers over to them when they needed products and services that they were more suited to and we couldn't really provide.  [Author's aside:  I have been reading comic books since I was four years old, and I am fortunate enough to still have at least parts of some of them even after forty years and two floods.  I mostly started our on Disney reprints of Carl Barks duck stories which were still fairly recent at the time.  I didn't transition to super-heroes until I was seven or eight.  I still get five to seven most weeks.]  Since not everyone can be here, I suggest you check out your own local stores.  There are a wide selection of titles available, and many are acceptable to all age groups.  Many stores will allow to get more than one of these special issues, and some will even have older comics for free that are not part of this promotion.  We cannot stress enough how special this event can be.  Just make sure to look over some of the comics if you have very young readers as some of the titles involved are definitely not for children.

Unannounced Outages

Not much going on, so let's just go over a few things instead.  First, the internet was down this weekend, so we were unable to update the website and blog until today.  It was not due to the rally in downtown Pikevile this weekend.  We were far enough away not to be affected and were open normal hours.  Second, we cannot apologize enough for not announcing online that we would be closed last Tuesday.  We did put notices up in store and will do better the next time this happens.  Third, we might be planning a book signing in the next month or so featuring at least one local author.  On a side note, we have been asked to mention that M. H.  Wilson still has copies of both of his Galactic Seven novels available.  Next, there have been at least two wild turkey sightings at the shopping center lately.  While we have seen turkeys before, flying from the cliff behind the center to the hillside across the road and back, this has been the first time that the birds have actually been seen in the parking lot.  We will try to post pictures of this if it happens again.  Finally, this Saturday, May 6, is Free Comic Book Day, so everyone please go out and support your local comic book store.  We will mention more about this event in the next post, as long as we have the internet connection to do so.

Let's Try This Again, and Again, and Again

For what feels like the umpteenth time, we are trying to set up an online store for the website; we are experiencing problems again.  The free service doesn't allow for a wide range of products, we have no way of connecting to the internet at the store, we are unfamiliar will Paypal and other online buying solutions, and we don't know what we are doing.  Literally, the staff is almost computer illiterate.  For instance, the Facebook connection on the Home page has disappeared, and we have no way of knowing what happened to it.  Even the app's button has vanished from the app store.  We even had some difficulties getting into the blog today.  Anyway, at least we can show you the latest ad in the current campaign.  Just because we are closed today doesn't mean we don't have work to do.

Hillbilly Daze

As we mentioned last week, Booknotes will be closed on Saturday, April 22, because of Hillbilly Days in Pikeville.  Don't worry though, the website, including this blog, will be updated on Saturday as regularly scheduled, just at a slightly different time.  That being said, we are not against things regional or local.  In fact, we are currently involved in two projects with high local interest.  The first is our attempts to get a very popular-selling book at our store back in print.  A Pictorial History of Eastern Kentucky was one of our biggest sellers when we first opened the store.  In fact, we sold more copies of the book then anyone else.  Too many, as the supply quickly sold out and the book went out of print.  We have been in contact with a publisher to try and gain the permission to reprint the book and possibly update it with new photos and information.  Unfortunately, there are a few problems with the current copyright holder that are still being ironed out.  We initially contacted this publisher for another reason.  The other co-owner of the store has been trying to get a pictorial history of the Wheelwright and Weeksbury area based on the old Inland Steel magazines published in the last century.  The main problem we are facing here is that no one can seem to determine who currently holds the copyright on said photos because of all the mergers that have taken place over the decades.  All of this is being done without the help of other organizations that might hold similar goals, but any assistance would be grateful.  There is much that could be done here with the right connections, so contact us if you have any clues.  That is all for this week.  See you here next week, just not at the store.

Managing the Campaign

This week featured the debut of our new as campaign in various local newspapers.  We were a little wary of starting a new campaign so soon after our last one, especially since it did not work out too well.  We never did get to place our book review pieces back in.  However, with so much happening in town for April, we thought it would be a good idea to get a lot of publicity out .  (Personal aside:  This also macks the first time I have ever allowed my image to be used in any advertising.  All previous newspaper ads/pieces have either used the other co-owner or no image at all.  I also have never been in the radio ads/call-ins or on television, save for a few quick clips in the background.)  Since so many people will be in town soon for Hillbilly Days, we thought we should get the word out.  There will be at least three more ads that will be running, each one might be different -- we aren't sure yet what they will be.  The odd thing is, we won't even be open for all of the event.  We usually close early that Friday and not re-open until the following Monday.  While we are just far away from the main action that our business isn't disrupted, we aren't close enough to benefit greatly from the extra crowds.  People just park in the lot and walk to downtown and ignore the local businesses.  Oh well, maybe this can help us out after all anyway.

When Is a Box Really a Book

When coming up for the titles for the Upcoming Releases board at the store and the Upcoming Titles page on the website, we create a list of promising books and then narrow down the field to the best candidates.  However, sometimes mistakes are made, and this isn't an April Fool's Day joke either.  When making out the list for March, we mistakenly listed the James Patterson novel The Black Book as The Black Box instead.  This probably happened because the previous title on the master list was Vicious Circle by C. J. Box and the words got transposed somehow.  For almost the entire month of March, the book was incorrectly listed on the board.  It was only corrected when we (and in this case I mean me)  saw the actual book cover.  What is worse is that the title had also been incorrectly listed on the website since it was updated last Saturday.  Well, the website was also corrected as soon as possible, but not as soon as was liked.  Sometimes mistakes like this do occur, usually when a book gets delayed after we check the on sale date lists to make our list.  We do try to correct this type of error, but they can slip through.  In fact, we have been trying to correct some other errors on the site since we changed the color pallet.  We are still finding some even after a month.  Well, that is all for today.  Goodbye until next week.

Frustration Is Setting In

While preparing for today's post, we just noticed that the app for setting up a Blogger blog for our website doesn't really allow for comments.  We never noticed that until today.  We knew that the app didn't have access to everything a full fledged Blogger blog has, but we just never looked over all of the options before now.  The good news is that we have enabled the social bar aspect at least.  Now you can like the blog directly to Facebook.  It also has a Twitter button.  The store is not on Twitter at the moment, and we are unsure if we can remove the button yet to avoid any confusion.  Still, tweet about us anyway.  There won't be anyway we will be able to interact, but the publicity will be nice.  In all honesty, we didn't have an idea for today's post.  None at all.  It was totally random that we noticed this little mishap, or there might not have been a new post at all today.  Just some rambling topics that don't mean anything, but there should be something else to say.  Well, nothing else today.  Really.  See you next week, hopefully with something more prepared.

Adventures in Old-School Advertizing

So, our most recent attempt at publicity did not go over as well as it could have.  Therefore, we are trying something different for the next round of ads, and it will have something that we have never done before.  What that is will have to be a surprise, especially since we don't know if we will be actually able to do it.  Still, it could possibly be different than anything that we have done before.  On a related front, we have been thinking about expanding our product lines.  While we never have sold just books, we are thinking about having some related products to go with them for awhile now.  We are welcome to any and all suggestions.  The thing is no one wants just to have books at a book store anymore.  Customers want an experience, one we need help in creating.  What should we do to make BookNotes a destination people need to come to and not just check in when they want a particular title they want us to order?  There is an audience out there that is not being fulfilled, and we aim to target them.  For that, we need suggestions from you, our former, current, and potential customers.  Throw any ideas out there.  We cannot do everything, but we will try to consider as many ideas as possible.  The store is starting to look a little empty since the makeover and we need to fill it back up again.  This post is going live as soon as it is done, so you can comment as soon as possible.   That is all for this week.  Maybe next week there will be more to say.

Sychronize Your Connections

In case you have missed it, we have finally linked up the store's Facebook page to the website.  Now we can connect our social media output more closely to our, uh, something.  For some reason, today's post is difficult to write.  But anyway.  It will now be easier to see the capsule reviews we have been posting on our Facebook page, without having to go back and forth as much.  Also, we just posted a 360 degree video of how the store looks now after the recent remodeling.  It is our first video post ever, so it isn't as clean as it could have been.  Still, we finally put the digital camera to work and it only took two years to use that function for something.  As you can see, we didn't change that much.  We moved some of the shelves around.  We moved some of the books to better feature some of them.  The local pamphlets and Will Moses materials are now featured in new spots.  Some of the clutter has finally been dealt with.  We hope you like what we have done.  We are still looking more your input on how we can make Booknotes the best independent general purpose book store in a twenty-mile radius, so don't be afraid to offer suggestions.  It is probably a good time to finish, so see you soon.

It's Time for a Spring Makeover

This year, apart from the usual change of seasonal decorations, we are doing a little remodeling of the store as well.  Many of our shelves and display areas have been moved to provide a new flow through the store.  We have moved our discounted hardcovers to a more prominent shelf.  Much of the clutter has also been removed.  A few categories are in different spots, so fell free to ask if you cannot find what you are looking for.  This is all in keeping with our new direction, also represented on our website, with its new color schemes and features.  We are having some problems with our search engine listings, as well as our ties to social media.  We hope to have these problems cleared up soon.  One thing we are most anxious to do is have this blog posted directly to our Facebook page.  We are still trying to find the correct app for that, and figure out how to install it properly.  That is all for today,  not too much to say.  Hopefully, we will have a lot more to do next week.  Bye.

The Case of the Disappearing Snowman

Every year, at Christmas, we decorate the window with appropriate decorations, including a giant stuffed snowman.  While most of the decorations are taken down just after the holidays, he stays up until Valentine's Day.  But after.  Every day or so, we take some of the stuffing out of him, as well as some of the fluff on the display surrounding him.  This makes him look like he is slowly melting.  How fast he melts depends on when Easter is.  If Easter is in late March, we quickly melt the snowman so that the Easter decorations are up in time.  However, when Easter is in mid-April, like this year, we take a little longer to melt him.  Still, we expect him to be gone in another week or so.  Then we start the change to spring and Easter.  That is not the only decoration that goes revisions over the year.  Take a look at our rabbits, as seen on our Facebook page and on the site's title page if we can't get it to show up here.  They are dressed as the king and queen of Mardi Gras.  For Independence Day, they wave flags.  For Halloween, they wear masks.  For Christmas, they have stockings and have garland on their necks and ears.  For Valentine's Day, they hold hearts.  For Easter, they have nothing because they are already rabbits after all.  One last bit of news,  we might not be contributing reviews to the Pikeville Medical Leader after all.  Wait for further updates.  Until then, check out the original blog, now retitled for Reviews, elsewhere on the web site.

The Blog Is Back Baby

Somehow, the original blog has come back.  The glitch is gone.  Now that it is gone, we will be using it as a destination for book reviews starting this weekend.  We feel that this would be the best use for it as this blog has a more general feel for news and events.  With that, we are going to cut this post short so you can get to reading the first review, hopefully up about the same time as this.

Reformatting and Optimizing and Other Techno Jargon

We are a little late with this week's main post as we have been adding a few changes to the site.  First, we have changed a few of the headings to make sure they are in the correct hypertext to be read easily by search engines.  Not that big or noticeable a change, but it has to be done since we might not have did it correctly when we first created the site.  Second, we have added a chronological listing of all of the author signings we have had over the years.  As mentioned on the News/Event page, we have not yet completed putting every author in yet.  We need to cross-reference our files with old calendars to get the years right, as most of the old ads and flies have a day and date, but not a year.  Also, some local authors needed to be checked up on to make sure we have the right information.  Last, we might be removing some things from the site that do not really go with the overall theme we are going for.  It will take some time to finish, but we hope it won't be too distracting.  That is all for now.  See you next week.

Pacer Recaps, Part Four

Here is the final post recapping the topics from the original store blog.  Hopefully, we can bring the blog's posts back up somehow or transfer the original text of the original posts back.

• September 3:  the announcement of joining Google+
• September 10: the Lundy book signing announcement
• September 17:  more on the signing
• September 24:  announcement of the start of the new blog on Blogger (you're reading it now)
• October 1:  ending of the old blog, originally to be used by a different author
• November 5:  problems in the presentation of the original blog on the website

We hope this brings everything up to date.  Remember, regular posts to this blog are scheduled for viewing every Saturday morning.

And The Reviews Aren't In,Yet

Starting in the next week or so, Booknotes will be providing a monthly book review for the Pikeville Medical Leader.  Many years ago, we had also wrote an occasional book review for them.  Over the years, we ultimately decided to stop.  Now, with a renewed interest in getting are messages out, we will be writing them again.  As of this time, it is unlikely that we will be able to publish the reviews on our websites, but we might be able to have a link to them.  The technical issues are still being decided.  However, starting this upcoming Wednesday, February 8, we should be able to post a secondary review on our Facebook page.  This review will be written by the same person writing this blog, at least for now.  It won't be on a regular basis, but it might be every other week or so.  Start looking for it on the Notes tab.  Furthermore, some of the issues with the original blog seem to be working themselves out, so it might make in back up to the site soon.  The last of the recaps will still be posted soon.  That is all for this week.  Check back soon.

Social Media Blitz Is Go

Booknotes has been open for over sixteen years now, but we only had a website up since last spring.  On this site we had a non-Blogger blog going that has since been acting up and has been superseded by the blog you are reading now.  Yet we have only been on other social media sites for a few months.  First there was Google +, and while we have some presence there, we probably are not using it correctly.  In fact, we frequently forget that we need to do anything upon it.  Then, last November, we finally joined Facebook.  Now we are trying to get more information out on it as well.  Among the things we will doing is adding a list of all the author signings we have had over the years.  We thought it would be a nice thing to do for all of our customers to remind them of all of the authors they have seen as well as thank all of the authors themselves for their time and effort of appearing.  The only problem is not all of our records have years connected with them, only a day and date.  Since we have had many authors who have came multiple times, it will take some time before we can get every single signing online.  So, don't be too alarmed if we have not posted every single event this first go around.  We will be correcting them as soon as we can.   Also, we are still exploring alternatives to the credit card problem from last year.  Keep checking for the recaps from the original blog as well; there should be at least one more coming up.  Check back next Saturday.

Recap Spacer, Part Three

This is getting awkward.  Every time we try to update the original blog, it crashes on us and we cannot do anything about it.  Well, that what this series of posts are for.  Forgive us if we cover a post that had already been mentioned.

• July 23:  I mention starting my own personal blog.
• July 30:  Mentioning mistakes on the website and their corrections.
• August 6:  Complaints about delays in book releases (one mentioned in that post should be coming out next week, The Hanging Tree)
• August 13:  Didn't really say anything, or write on a theme that week.
• August 20 and 27:  Teasers about an upcoming event which would turn out to be a book signing.
• September 3:  Finally acknowledged our listing on Google + and started posts there as well.
• September 10:   Conformation of the Ronni Lundy book signing.
• September 24:  Started a second Booknotes blog on Blogger, that you are looking at right now.

This almost brings us up to when the original blog started to end.  Only a little more than a month to go.

This Is The Month For Books

As mentioned in last week's bonus post, we are returning to an old idea for this regular post -- the upcoming releases board and the books of the month.  The upcoming releases board features from 12 (usually December) to 24 titles, each one with a special color and graphic treatment.  The top portion features a heading with the current month and the words 'upcoming releases.'  The rest of the board features the books and authors following certain rules:

•  a mix of male/female authors
• at least one book from each of the major genres (romance, mystery, fantasy/science-fiction)
• at least one non-fiction title
• at least one children's title (usually middle-grade or young adult)
• at least one literary work or by a lesser known author

Furthermore, every letter of the alphabet is used at least once in the heading, titles, and authors.  If it isn't, then the unused letter or letters are hidden in the accompanying graphics to the titles or the heading.

    Every month, we feature a different group of titles at a discount of at least 20%.  These are our books of the month.  Over the years, some of the selections have shifted months or changed.  For 2017,  the following selections are scheduled:

•  January - Fantasy/Science-Fiction/Horror
•  February - Romance (with some Suspense)
•  March - Mystery (with some Suspense and Thriller)
•  April - Science/Technology, Computers
•  May - Reference, Study Guides
  
•  June - Self-Help (with Psychology and Sociology), Humor
  
•  July - Medicine/Health
  
•  August - Business/Finance/Career
• September - Literature, Language Arts
• October - New Age
• November - Cooking
• December - Crafts/Home Improvement

We hope this clears some things up and provides and update to a lost original blog post.

Recap Spacers, Part Two

Time to get personal again.  Here are the recaps for most of the posts from the original blog from June and July  2016.  Still trying to get the old blog back up, but until then this will have to do.

• June 4:  I told about some of my favorite type of non-fiction books, with New Age/Occult coming out on top.
• June 11:  I didn't really say anything that week, just went on more about non-fiction.
• June 17:  I did something off topic about a conspiracy theory I had.  I re-used it for a post on my personal blog for December 28.
• June 27:  I just mentioned how the post was late.
• July 2:  I talked about the new releases board.
• July 9:  I talked about the books of the month.
• July 23:  I mentioned the start of my own personal blog.

The last two posts will be the subject of the regular blog to be posted this Saturday, January 21.  I hope to have more to say by then.

Well Look At Us Now

We are in the midst of adding some more new content, including updating some of the missing original blog posts.  As you may have noticed, we have updated some of our image as well.  One of them is this picture of our upcoming releases board that has been mentioned in a previous post.  Or not.  There seems to be a problem in downloading the picture to appear in the post at this time.  Well, we will try again and maybe it will appear when a better opportunity arises.  There was also going to  be an image of some of our books of the month for January.  The covered genres are fantasy, science-fiction, and horror.  We will try to insert those pictures in here soon, but you may still check them our on the News and Events section of the main website.  We will try something else in a day or three to get those images up on this post.  Regardless, this post is done for now.
Well, I actually got it up now.  Sorry for the delay, but I hope everything is alright now.  Wait, I forgot something.  Here is the picture for books of the month.  Enjoy.

Recap Spacer, Part One

As mentioned in the last post, we are posting short synopses of the posts from the original store log until we can see if we can get it to work properly.  So, to get things started, here are some recaps from May 2016.

• May 10:  Announcement that we have a website and a blog.
• May 14 (2 posts):  Another announcement that we have a website with a blog and that the site had gone live.
• May 21:  Announcement that we were having time issues and other problems with publishing the site, as well as a general plea to wait for more.
• May 24:  I, personally and not the store, provided a list of fiction authors whose titles and series I liked; I have since posted an updated list with links on this blog.
• May 28:  This was supposed to have been a list of non-fiction subjects, but I ran out of time that day to finish it up, so it was actually done the following week.

 We hope this helps everyone out.  Next time we post one of these bonus features, we hope to go a little more in depth.

Where Did All the Posts Go

When the store website first come online, we had a blog based on the app our host provided.  Later on, we switched to a Blogger feed while keeping the original blog as a second format for the other owner to use.  Unfortunately, that hasn't happened, yet.  Also though, there have been some technical issues so that the original blog doesn't seem to be able to be uploaded any more.  We have been trying to fix this for awhile now, but beyond hiding the page from viewers, we have yet to do any major corrections.  So, starting later this we, we will be posting recaps of the original posts as bonus material.  Some of the posts will just be a synopsis of what was said; others will be a re-writing of the post in a new form.  After this has been done, the old blog might be removed entirely from the site, especially if we cannot get it to work properly.  Until then, enjoy the bonus posts as we can get them adapted.  It will also help out in case weather prevents the blog from being updated at the usual time.  Remember,  opening and closing time might be effected due to bad weather.  Finally, winter clearance sale going on now.  Come in right away.