~ Happy Halloween

"This one!"

In North America the Jack-o'-lantern is carved from pumpkins ~ fruit native to our continent. In other countries folks used other fruits or vegetables such as turnips.

Halloween hearkens to an ancient tradition: The Celtic festival of Samhain. The word Samhain comes from old Irish, meaning summer's end.

Cheryl MacDonald, well-known local author, writes, "What is a bookshop worth? Among my best memories are trips to downtown Montreal's St. Catherine Street. It was crowded, everyone mesmerized by colours, covers, the smell of ink, and the array of topics. Mum, Dad, my sister and Sandra and I split up to pursue our own particular interests. . .then met at the cash with our treasures. Then it was back home to delve into books ~ trading back and forth. Often, all four of us would read the same book simultaneously, picking it up when someone else laid it down.

"Today at chain stores you sometimes get the feeling people are just shopping for a product, not the whole experience of discovering a book. But the independents!! Fantastic! Neat Little Book Shop is a stellar example. The books are the draw, of course, but the atmosphere is such that you get to share ideas, exchange thoughts and recommendations about books, and always leave with a smile on your face. Bookshops like this are cultural centres, gathering places, sources of entertainment possibly focal points for rebellion and social change, community builders, and totally irreplaceable."

~ Cheryl, We could not have said it better ourselves! Thank you.

What is a bookshop? What is a bookshop worth?

After all ~ there is nothing like a good book!

Emma & Aiden, of Vavoom Photography, visit the bookshop

"What is a rare book and what is it worth? How high is up? The first question is easily answered: A book is rare when the supply is short and the demand long. Its value is what one is willing to pay for it in a competitive market. Often, a rare book is rare by virtue of its limited first printing. If one hundred copies were printed and most of them landed in institutional collections, the chances are the price will be prohibitive."

~William Targ, p. 264 A Passion for BOOKS, Harold Rabinowitz & Rob Kaplan, Three Rivers Press, 1999.

The Neat Little Bookshop is a used bookshop.

Today we are meeting with a reporter from one of the local weekly newspapers. What is the story? What is the lead? The fact that we are now in our fourth location? The fact that we believe that there is a role for used bookshops even in small-town Ontario? The fact that the downtown business section of Cayuga has experienced an exciting revitalization in the last five years? (At one point in our entrepreneurship there were five empty, abandoned commercial spaces in our block! There is only one today ~ the one from which we just moved. Five years ago, an unimaginative landlord waved his hand over the main business block declaring, "This all needs to be converted to apartments." )

We get asked for "rare" books. We follow the legendary Herb Martindale who opened the first Neat Little Bookshop. He probably had more rare books than we have. His books were certainly old. When we have remained long enough in one location to have the confidence to house such treasures, we will have made it!

What is a bookshop and what is it worth?

In the book, How to Write & Sell Your First Novel, Oscar Collier points out, "The editor, usually a person who has chosen the profession out of a love of reading, is first and foremost a reader, a consumer of books. For a novelist to have a successful dialogue, the necessary give-and-take, with his editor, the novelist must first regard the editor as a reader or fan and ignore the notion of the editor's power over the writer's business success. The relationship, to be successful, must be one between equals. Editors must find, and get along with, many types of authors. And unless you, the author, are interested in self-publishing -- a rough road for a first novelist -- you must work with an editor at a publishing house. Just remember the equation has two sides, separated by an equals sign, and you'll find it easier."

*Writer's Digest Books, F& W Publications Inc.

Lilly & Rebecca ~ Carving the Jack-O-Lanterns