Keeping up with the blog

At best it's pretty challenging, I'll start formulating my thoughts and have them half written and then there's a distraction,and another and another, and then I forget that I've started it.
I've started a Facebook page for Read and Green ind have posted a few times since Brighton's Applefest this past weekend, it was a great event and I'm looking forward to next year's already

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,

All the pieces together

There we go, shelves installed, books on shelves, furnishings arranged, it looks like a book shop. Many thanks go to those that lent a hand Alex, Sacha, Julian, Adrian, Anthony, Jaye and John, Aidan, Xan, Kaz, Cody, Meagan, Liam, Pamela, and my dear Tante. This is what many hands helped to make,

The last tile

We set ourselves odd challenges, it was observed to me that this tile floor turned out to be my 'hair shirt'. Well nearly, only that the tiling project was finite. See, I used 'was', I glued the last tile at 4:15 this morning, woohoo! I'm heading over to grout, grouting is much quicker.

E readers

A few folks express concern about the growth of the e reader market and it causing the decline in the book market. While, at once I am eager for my own e reader and am amazed by its potential, capacity, I maintain that the real book market will have it's place and remain as a strong market. People love the feel, character and history of a good book, and there is a romance associated with perusing a well stocked book shelf, that will allow both media to co-exist quite nicely.

Balance

This floor is testing me, my muscles, my faith, my patience, my endurance. And as each new stage reveals how the end result will be and reminds me that however impractical from a business perspective, good works are worth the time and it never harms to make ones bit of the world a little prettier, balance between business and being,

Display window

I've decided that, since the first alcove is done, I'll move the purple bed sheets back and set the alcove as a display window while the tiling gets finished up In the rest of the shop, it was a thrill for me to get to unpack and shelve some books already, here's what it loos like

Details

Even slightly Changing the appearance of some of the necessary less pretty parts, like the heater, makes a more appealing space,

Shelf genre headers

All the parts slowly come together, there are just enough incomplete scrabble sets in garage sale world to give me just what I needed.

Display alcove

So the tiling of this first alcove is done, tomorrow shelves will go in and the first books, poking out onto Main Street,

Tile grout

I love using the charcoal tile grout putting it on and then watching how the colours and textures appear, as if out of the mist, as I wipe the surface clean, it's magic.

More books

I was out and about on errands for a spell yesterday and I bought a big bag of books. Somehow, in this rare case, more is always better, I found a few, Khalil Gibran's, hard to find ones, the rare books are always a thrill for me, makes my job feel like Christmas a lot of the time.

Tiles and the land fill

It is an amazing thing to think just how many millions of tons of tile go to the landfill in North America each year, samples, job leftovers, sku ends, all of these were leftover from one thing or another. I've mostly enjoyed breaking them up and now have begun turning the chaos into something a little less so...

Leaded windows

In keeping with the green, I've employed two leaded windows that I salvaged 25 years ago. I've glued them together and installed them where the air conditioner used to be.

Creating the space

Sounds a lot more romantic than it is at the beginning, started with fixing light switches and door frame, also removed one very big air conditioner, it is attending to all the minutia that sets the canvass for the space to come into its own, and that takes the lions share of the time,

Final shelves

Down to the last five units for the trade sized books, that makes a final total of forty oak veneer shelves of recycled wood for the store, the next stage will be the work on the store space, which will begin with wall patching, and ceiling painting and in 10 days will end with tiled mosaic floor, which is also comprised of recycled materials, and will look similar to these two projects that I've done in the past,

Reviews

Currently I am all consumed by getting the store open, which is reflected in these progress report posts. But this morning I am thinking about how much I enjoyed writing book reviews for the north Thompson Times, the Clearwater Chronicle and the Blue River review, so I'll be adding in reviews to this blog in short order.

12 shelves done

By the time the edge ironing and the size cutting, the jig making and the assembling are all done its a few days to crank out these shelves, the first 12 are done, eight of them stained and ready for their backing, 12 more to go.

Shelf building Jig

Now that all the gluing is done I've built the first jig for the shelf assembly, there will be 22 new units in total divide into 3 different jig forms...

Gluing shelf boards

I've been gluing the one inch strips onto the recycled shelf boards to make them a little deeper, that done, today I'll iron the edge trims on the side boards

Looking back

I just had another glance at earlier posts about the the first store location and have noted some changes since then, the most dramatic is in the tools that I have no. In the interim I have upgraded my world to an iPhone which allows me to post in my blog, Facebook and emails anywhere, any time, which I could have hardly imagined possible when I had my little Rogers flip phone, how things change!

Cutting shelf unit parts

A lot of cutting to start with, almost done this stage, next on to the ironing of the oak veneer edging,

Reduce, Re-use, Re-do

Quite some time ago I closed the shop in order to find a better location and strengthen its inventory and my business acumen. It is time to re-do, location two has been found and I'm cutting wood for shelving,