April Tease

Ah Spring, still you elude us. The sun peeks from behind the clouds, then hides again. Customers duck in to look for books, order coffee drinks and wait out the "intermittent showers" predicted (accurately this time) by the local weather guys. Sunday I sat outside in the sun, reading, drinking coffee and talking with people passing by. It was like a taste of summer. I've optimistically added a small garden table and chairs to the front of the store, knowing that once the weather clears people will again gather at the sidewalk tables in Olde Towne to take a break from shopping and visit with friends. Today, though, the table and chairs are collecting rainwater along with my plants.

Creative Architecture for Book Lovers

My youngest son, Jake, sent me this link: http://www.snopes.com/photos/architecture/graphics/kansaslibrary.jpg  . It's an actual photo of one wall of the Kansas City library, built to look like books on a shelf with bookends. The photo's authenticity is verified by Snopes. What a great idea!
Titles represented are:
* Kansas City Stories
* Catch-22
* Children's Stories
* Silent Spring.
* O Pioneers!
* 100 Years of Solitude
* Their Eyes Were Watching God
* Fahrenheit 451
* The Republic
* The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
* Tao Te Ching
* The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes
* Black Elk Speaks
* Invisible Man
* To Kill a Mockingbird
* Journals of the Expedition (Lewis and Clark)
* Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West
* Lord of the Rings
* A Tale of Two Cities
* Charlotte's Web
* Romeo and Juliet
* Truman

Lost and Found

Just an update after my earlier post, for those who follow this blog and are on the edge of their seats: I've located my sister.

My middle son, Colin, found Kate's daughter on Facebook, I wrote to her, and the rest is history. Another Facebook miracle! Now I have her address, phone # and email address. Hopefully I won't misplace her again (smile).

For Twilight Fans

I just met the owners of Experience Twilight, the Twilight themed retail store that recently leased a space directly across the street from Word for Word. Nice folks. They also do events, and in addition to their Twilight focus they also offer computer graphics and web design services. I see collaboration in our futures!

We already have lots of Twilight fans visiting St. Helens every week, roaming the streets with cameras, computer printouts in hand. Now they can stop in for Twilight related merchandise while touring the filming locations.

Cross your fingers that the Twilight production returns to St. Helens for filming! We got a much better review in the British publication The Sun than Forks did - we're friendlier to tourists and after all, most of the 1st movie was actually filmed HERE, not in Forks, LOL.

Happy Birthday Kate, Wherever You Are

April 14th is my sister's birthday. Today Kathleen Louise hits the 59-year mark and I wish I could call and talk with her - extend my happy birthday wishes, or celebrate even. We have a shared history. We grew up together in the same house (houses), with the same parents, attended many of the same schools and knew the same people. We have both always loved reading and books, writing and arguing our independent opinions and beliefs. Although we often disagree the conversation is always interesting and never predictable. We have a shared genetic heritage as well, which has marked us both in some ways.

I haven't heard from Kathy in several years and have been unable to find her, although I’ve tried. I've called all of our mutual acquaintances and driven up and down the street where she used to live, hoping for a glimpse. I've knocked on doors in her old neighborhood and worn out my welcome with friends, not to mention their patience. I've done everything short of hiring a private investigator. Kate has dropped off the map and despite my repeated attempts to contact her maintains her invisibility. Perhaps it is me she's avoiding and so has made a deliberate decision to separate our lives, or maybe she just needs to focus on coping, surviving. Diagnosed many years ago with Hepatitis-C, she struggles with her health. In addition she has been responsible for raising her grandson. Kathy’s life has been a challenge.

Kate is my baby sister - 3 years younger than I am. We fought our way through childhood, but when she went missing as a teen I'm the one, not my parents, who sat down with the police detectives, trying to locate her and trying to convince the police she wasn't a runaway. Actually she was and this was only the first of many times she ran away from her life, looking for a better one. Maybe she has found it. I hope so. Although I'd love to see her, talk to her, laugh with her about the ironies of life and cry over our sorrows, that probably isn't going to happen any time soon - or maybe ever. So I'm leaving her this message and hoping, somehow, she finds it.

Happy Birthday Kate! I hope wherever you are you have a birthday cake and friends to celebrate with you. I wish you could sit in the reading room here at Word for Word Books and chat with me. (You’d love the bookstore – always interesting people stopping by to talk – right up your alley). You are one of the smartest, funniest people I've ever known. While we haven't always agreed and there is a lot of water under the bridge (OK, rapids and treacherous white water), we and our children are pretty much all that's left of our family, and I miss you. I wish you health, happiness, peace, and love. Happy Birthday!
Love,
Susan

Deep Thoughts on a Sunny Saturday

Lots of folks out enjoying the beautiful weather today and stopping into the book shop to chat. I've been enjoying the conversations and learning a lot. One of the things I just learned about is a series of books designed for teens. A teenager was in the store with her mother, looking for a trilogy called The Uglies. It consists of 3 books, "The Pretties", "The Uglies" & "The Specials", by Scott Westerfield.The series has an interesting premise - one I find a little disturbing.  The fantasy/sci fi books are about a world where everyone is beautiful - physically perfect - due to an operation they all have upon reaching 16.  One group of teens decides NOT to have the operation, creating the conflict. It's full of technological advances and lots of action, but I wonder. Is this our future? Are we as a society so narcissistic that we will someday leave our genetic differences behind, exchanging them for the predictability of conforming to a groupthink perception of "beauty"? Something to think about. 

Comfort Is Where You Find It

There's been a lot written about comfort food, even cookbooks dedicated to the taste of home, the flavors that remind us of childhood and recall the good times in our lives. Not so much is written about the sounds and smells and vistas that relax and nourish our spirits. Driving to work today I realized that one of the most comforting sounds to me is the sound of windshield wipers slapping. I'm the perfect Northwesterner, even though it took me many years to make that discovery. 21 years ago I caught a lucky break and discovered a place that wasn't dry & arid - someplace I could breathe clean air (well mostly) and not risk heat stroke by spending time outside in the garden. And the smells! In the greater NW we have less traffic, less exhaust, less factory olfactory output and thus we can really smell the flowers and scents of Spring. As a bonus we view pine, fir and all the deciduous trees and growth that make up our forests, and we enjoy a bountiful abundance of rivers, streams, mountains & coastline. I know, not everyone shares my pleasure when we have days on end of drenching rain and near-freezing nighttime temperatures, cold enough to keep us indoors but not quite cold enough to bring snow days. For those of you who prefer the dry arid beauty of the deserts, there are other places. For me, this place is splendiferous and I'm so grateful to be here. I'll continue to enjoy the weird weather which changes precipitously and confounds the computer models. And I'll continue to enjoy the sights and sounds and smells of the Greater Northwest as I spend my days handling the books I love and talking to customers and friends about authors, while sipping on a latte. Not a bad place to be in life!

Warm Fuzzies

I'm still smiling, feeling good about a chat I had this morning with Doreen, the owner of Oregon Maiden. She told me about a conversation she had with a customer earlier this week. The young man pointed across the street toward what is now Twilight Experience, describing the bookstore located there years ago, when he was a child. He talked about how much he enjoyed going there with his mother and how it is one of his fond memories of growing up here in St. Helens. The store, of course, was the original Word for Word Books. I closed that store 11 years ago to take a "real" job. Who knew that all of these years later I'd come back and reopen directly across the street from my previous location, or that a child would grow up and remember my bookstore fondly? Imagine!