Penguin Books

I've mentioned before, that at least while I'm getting started in this process of becoming a bookstore, I've decided to eschew the 'best-seller', 'trendy', 'Book Sense', aspects of most independents, and go with the quirky, the unique, the books I've read and can recommend, books that other people love and recommend, books that people ask for but never come in used, books that people can't find.

Classics are a big part of that.

I think I've found a new trick. Plug in a classic author, say Charles Dickens, or Mark Twain, and then plug in the word Penguin, and up pops all the classic, classy, and moderately priced Penguin editions. Which most readers recognize as quality.

Doing that with every order, now. Yesterday it was Dickens and Twain. Next time it might be Robert Louis Stevenson or Tolstoy.

Meanwhile, I still find enough books to pluck out of the ether to fill my orders. In fact, I blew my entire budget yesterday on just replacing sold books and a few quirky choices.

This is my favorite part of being a bookstore, even if I'm not able to read every book. I've found I'm way more influenced by covers than I would have thought -- unique and interesting covers, or titles or subjects.

I'm going to be very interested to see where this all leads.