Doctor Doolittle

I've loved reading animal stories and am still a fan of the Gerald Durrell books, the first of which I read was 'my family and other animals', But I have to say that still among my favorites is Hugh Lofting's 'Story of Doctor Doolittle'. Reading about those adventures, the giant snail and Luna moth, and then seeing the push me pull me as illuminated in the magical film version starring Rex Harrison. Later yet, the remake with Eddie Murphy was also a great reinterpretation of what began as a brilliant adventure story book.

Book store psychology

Today something occurred to me about a fundamental difference between a new bookstore and a second hand one. A customer walking into a new bookstore will likely carry with them an expectation for some current release and may find themselves annoyed or disappointed if it's not in stock, and then leave feeling let down. For a second hand bookseller, almost always, walk ins have no real, disappointable expectations, and subsequently leave thrilled when they've found an unexpected treasure, the result being that there is always good, gentle, happy energy in a second hand store that also feels of awe and magic.

My literary thumbprint,

As an avid reader I amaze as to the variety of subjects that have grabbed my attention over the years. A few years ago when I bought my first laptop computer and discovered the Internet, having just moved out of the deep woods of BC. I started thinking of books that I'd read, and I created a docier of thumbnail photos of the covers of those books that I clipped from the web. As it grew I became aware of the significance of making that docier, I was recording my literary discovery path which is as unique to me as my thumbprint. And with every book that I remembered, I was flooded with the memories and feelings of its time, place and circumstances. Memories more profound even than those conjured up by smells and odours. I call that my literary thumbprint. So, I'm working at developing and understanding the usefulness of this exercise, stay tuned for more reflections later,

Webster's third edition

I've taken in and rescued quit a few books in these past few weeks and am saddened when I hear stories of what has been sent to the landfill, however there are good stories also. This week I got rewarded with a rescue book that will be added to my collection at home, this beautiful 1928 black leather bound Webster's is in mint condition, though the dust jacket is a little tired... It finds it's place among friends of the same vintage,

On Being heard

Books come into the store fairly regularly as well as they go out, I also go out hunting for what I need in the store, over the winter I diligently sought out a few extra Nora Roberts titles because of their popularity, ( I've read three, they're good) well, shelving books last week, I put my 20 or so Nora's on the shelf and said to myself that I need to bump it up and find some more so that I have extras. Four days ago I received a call to pick up a few boxes of books (25 of them) got them to the store and found in them about 200 unread Nora Roberts, thank you universe for responding so readily,