The End of the Year and the Line

This is going to be another very personal post, so hang with me.  While Booknotes hasn't had the exactly best of years, it has come to the point where we cannot stay in business in its current form.  Therefore, sometime in 2019, Booknotes will change or possibly close for good.  Among the reasons for this is my desire to go back to school.  I have been taking some online graduate school classes, and I am hoping to transfer to a program with actual physical classes.  When this happens, I will be leaving the area, so I would do longer have a direct association with the store.  I am looking into various means of keeping the store open as long as possible, though.  One possibility is merging with another local business, or even outright selling it to someone else to keep it going.  There is the chance that the store will go online only, but that might not be a viable option without help.  Until then, Booknotes will try to continue as it has.  Weekly updates to the new releases will be posted, as will the blog on every other week.  New material will appear on our Facebook page.  (We are all but ending posting anything new on Google + as the platform will be ending soon itself.)  I, and Booknotes, would like to thank all of our friends and longtime customers for your help over the years, and we would like to continue this as long as possible.  Here's to a new year, and see you in two weeks.

The Most Confusing Time of the Year

In case you missed it, we had to change some of the upcoming book notices.  Apparently, a title got pushed back a few weeks, but we didn't know about it until after we published.  Part of the reason is that we don't update our own lists as frequently as we should.  The dates we used to create our own list was from early October.  We hadn't updated it since.  Therefore, we didn't know that the on sale date had changed until we had already put it up.  this sort of thing actually happens a lot, but we don't always realize it.  Unfortunately, we couldn't change anything any sooner.  You may also notice that we only put up one new book for the next week.  While there are dozens of new hardcovers coming out, this was the only one that we felt had any merit to post.  We might be wrong, but we usually are.  Things have been hectic this week.  We had to close early one day and open late on another due to deliveries and appointments.  One delivery was a special treat from Adrianna Trigianni for those who ordered her latest book from us.  Also, Monday, December 17 will  be the last day to place an order with us to guarantee delivery for Christmas.  We might be able to do something after that, but we can't be sure it will be available and/or be delivered on time.  So, place those orders now!  See you again in two weeks.

Shopping and Name-Dropping

It is that time of year again, the time for holiday gift shopping.  Unlike many locations, Booknotes chose not to do anything special for 'Black Friday' this year.  We prefer to keep regular store hours that day.  Also, we weren't finished with decorating the store yet.  We always seem to take longer than necessary to finish up.  Someone, not the author, always seems to take their time in doing their part of the work.  Anyway, we aren't running an actual sale either.  However, we might be able to offer some special discounts on some of our products.  Furthermore, many of our books are already discounted: books of the month (currently cooking), older titles, special subjects.  We were hoping to have a big event by the end of the year, but this is looking unlikely at this time.  Adrianna Trigianni just published her latest title, Tony's Wife, but we won't be able to have her return by the end of the year, at least at this time.  We should have some signed book plates to apply to your copy. though.  Oh, the person who always messes up the decorating might be mentioned in the book's acknowledgements.  We have yet to independently confirm this though.  More on it when we can.  See you again in two weeks.

How to Read Greatly in America

It was recently announced on the PBS program, The Great American Read, the results of a months long poll. The winning book of that poll was To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.  Time to get personal.  I have never read the book.  Oh, I have tried a few time, but I could never get into it.  There was just something a little too poignant about it.  Maybe I tried to read it at a time that I really wasn't into such deep thoughts.  I don't know.  All I know is that no one has been in asking about it, or any the other top choices.  We handed out dozens of free bookmarks to customers and browsers.  When we got a second batch of bookmarks, we even left some at a local library, mostly just to get rid of some of the excess.  For some reason, no one around here was that interested.  In all honesty, neither was I.  While I had many of the books and series that made the final selection list, I just wasn't able to keep up with the hype.  In a previous post, I even mentioned my trepidations about this entire project.  It didn't really help out here.  Just too many people don't do book stores anymore.  At least this one.  I don't know.  Maybe it is just my own feelings clouding the issue.  Things have been going not as good lately.  Sorry about the depressing turn.  Hopefully, the next post will be more upbeat.  See you in two weeks.

Christmas in October. or Early November

Although Halloween is still just a few days away, it is time to start thinking about Christmas.  Most of the new Christmas books for both children and adults are already out, although many places might not have them prominently displayed.  In fact, we already have a few ourselves that we won't put out until after Halloween.  We still have a few children's books for Halloween we want ti try and sell, first.  We have always had a great selection of children's Christmas books.  Every year, we would have a selection of older ones we still like mixed in with some new ones.  We have had a few problems over the years.  Last year, we had many special orders for a new tree shaped book that had a musical chip in it that played a song.  While we probably shouldn't have, we tested out the books to make sure they worked.  Not all of them did, even after we changed the batteries out (this was mostly done to books that were already being picked up).  We wound up having to return many of them, and hope to get replacement books that worked in time for Christmas.  Things worked out, but we aren't thinking about getting more musical books this time around.  There aren't any new ones anyway, that we can confirm.  Check our social media pages for pictures very soon.  Until next time, have a good Halloween.

Eighteen Years and . . .

This past weekend was the eighteenth anniversary of opening Booknotes.  Unlike many of the past years, we did nothing to celebrate the event.  Normally, we would have at least had a sale, but this year we didn't.  In fact, because the date fell on a Sunday, when we are usually closed, we did not even feel like doing anything special.  The past year has not been that good of one for us.  We weren't able to have any huge events these last few months, although there is an extremely small chance we could get Adrianna Trigianni back for her new book next month.  We haven't been able order new books as frequently as we would like to, either.  We are just not getting enough special orders anymore to do so on the same schedule we once did.  Just recently, Google announced that it was ending its social media platform Google +.  It was our first presence online, but we never were to really exploit the possibilities as we should have.  Our presence will continue there, even though we have removed some on the links to it on our site.  Truth be told, we are not sure how much longer we will be able to keep the store open.  We will be here through the end of the year, but we don't now how much longer after that.  We will continue as long as we can, as we are this area's only independent book store.  We greatly appreciate all of our customers support, and we hope to do so as long as we can.  See you in two weeks.

They Say It's Your Anniversary

Although this isn't our usual week to place a post, it would be remiss of us not to mention that it is our anniversary coming up.  On October 7, 2000, Booknotes opened for business.  It has been an unusual eighteen years, but it has been a pleasure.  In next week's full post, we will talk about what has been and what to expect from us in the future.  See you then.