In great bookselling karma, the MINI got attention from book people right off the bat. As I stopped in traffic on Bleecker Street, there was a knock on my window… “THE PENGUIN MINI!” said the excited hip gentleman outside. “I drove it last summer and got T.C. Boyle’s signature on the dashboard!!!” I was like “No way! Now it’s on Nantucket, I bought it for my bookstore!!!” (If you missed that news, here’s the Globe article.) Turns out he knew that, and had even been to Bookworks this year. So on that high note I circled the block trying to find a place to park. As I maneuvered into a tiny spot on 11th Street, a woman was locking up her bike right next to me. When I triumphantly opened the door she of course said, “Great car!” so I said “Thanks! I bought it from a publisher called Penguin and they took it on book tour and got all these great authors to sign the dashboard!” To which she replied, “That’s so cool, I design book covers for Random House!” I guess it’s a small world after all… either that or this car is a SERIOUS publisher-type magnet.

The MINI spent a nice night soaking up aromas from the Magnolia Bakery, then in the morning we headed over to McNally Jackson.

Our friend Michele Filgate, who we met at a booksellers’ Winter Institute in Louisville a few years back, is Events Coordinator at the beautiful store. We stay in touch quite a bit through the miracle of Twitter. (Follow @nantucketbooks, @wendyhudson, and Michele at @readandbreathe for fascinating tidbits!) Here’s Michele with the beer:

And admiring the signatures on the dash:

And here’s the beer ready for the event. Note the white tail (not blue!) and the literary allusion of the beer’s name (tale not tail!) BTW, the Whale’s Tale tagline is “For a Moby Good Time” ; )

I wish I could make it back for the event… Sponsored by Time Out New York and with an artistic focus, it’s sure to be fun. In the meantime I’ll concentrate on reading Nat Philbrick’s latest book to convince me to return to the gigantic novel I read way back at the Williams-Mystic Maritime program in the Spring of 1988. (Yes, the details are fuzzy…)

Cheers to Epic Quests.

-Wendy H.

Dana Brigham, Jan Hall & I had fun putting this stuff together and we are available for any questions… just shoot us an email. Our contact info is on the Google document linked below, but here it is again for good measure:

Wendy Hudson: wendy@nantucketbookworks.com
Dana Brigham: dana@brooklinebooksmith.com
Jan Hall: jan@partnersvillagestore.com

Google documents page with links to resources:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B0qfgInoNVHoKtPchCG8iaq8yZZYLNLMfmMbGNNYcR4/edit?hl=en_US

Here is the Google Document with our random favorite line list:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g2LMu7MRdtcAnhfB8MLjbNafgnJctywyBLV-99yByHw/edit?hl=en_US

Enjoy.

Moby Dick sweatshirts & tees! Old Man & the Sea shirts! And yes, there’s waaay more. I love these shirts so much I went a little overboard… they’re soft and cool and will make excellent gifts.

We’re proud to stock the Out of Print line because this awesome clothing company has a lot going for it. The shirts are 100% cotton, made in USA, printed in Brooklyn, and for every item of clothing they sell they donate a book to a needy community in Africa through their partner Books for Africa. What could be better?!

Adult shirts go for $28, kids for $22, and the super-soft fleece sweatshirts are $38.

Here’s just a sampling of the shirts proudly hanging at the ‘works:

The kid ones are adorable. I especially like Darwin for a kid…

And the sweatshirts are dreamy soft. I cozied up with my new P&P fleece with the Flashdance styling last night. The perfect outfit for a chilly June night! I was in heaven with a glass of wine reading “Bossypants.”

Show your literary pride by rocking these great shirts around the island this summer. You’ll look classic.

-wh

400 Recipes 3 & 4 Ingredients

Turkey Burgers

prepared by Suzanne

My excitement of only needing 3 or 4 ingredients ( my kind of cooking ) was quickly dashed when I opened to the first recipe and saw “g” you know for grams , in the ingredient list… dang. Ah but like a good pilot I did not panic. I kept my cool and looked right (nothing political ) and there was the familiar “lb”, phew. These burger were excellent. Not dry which can so easily happen with this sort of burger.I did not have the lime infused olive oil requested nor did I have a lime so I just squeezed some lemon into the OO and it was perfect. Got some organic ground turkey and great gluten free rolls at Annye’s ( just to switch the wheat thing up )  beautiful organic greens at Bartlett’s and thyme from the garden. I have to say I did use a little more red onion than they asked for but I really like onions. Dinner done. Prep time short and sweet. Enjoy.

Red Onion and Olive Pissaladiere

prepared by Dani (and friends)

I made this after a fun night out with some buddies and a few glasses of wine.  It’s fantastic to only have to deal with a handful of ingredients and the prep takes two shakes.  Or it would have if one of aforementioned buddies wasn’t a suex chef and did a number on those onions.  They were chalked full of heavenly perfection.We piled our ambrosial onions onto frozen pizza crust with the olives and a sprinkle of goat cheese and popped that baby in the oven.  And did we ever make short work of it… we burned the crust a bit but it didn’t slow us down a lick.  So simple and so flippin’ good.  I really dig this cookbook!

So any holiday that celebrates candy is my kind of holiday and then you throw bunnies in … no brainer. Having spent a bit of time as a kid in a place where “shalom” was the common greeting, I can’t tell you how enchanted I was with the idea of the Easter Bunny and baskets filled with chocolate. I got right in there and added what I knew… knitted bunnies!

These guys are from a really great book called Knitted Animalsby Anne-Dorthe Grigaff. There are so many sweet little creatures to make and PERFECT for beginners. Ms.Grigaff uses basic squares to form her animals and they knit up quickly so if you have little knitters in your world  that need to do something where they can have more immediate results these are the ticket,  completely doable.

Now these two farmers are from Toy Knits by Debbie Bliss. You definitely need a little more skill to pull this off but not a lot…

knitting is following directions and counting. We can all do that… right?!  Shelia Fee of Sheep to Shore fame can set you up with everything you need to make whatever you want. She is also a great teacher. Well I think we need a holiday to celebrate ice cream. I will begin to look for the perfect cow pattern!

hilarious actor…

art collector, and author of some knock out works…

Shopgirl

An Object of Beauty

Born Standing Up

Pleasure of My Company

Late for School

The Alphabet from A to Y with Bonus Letter Z!

Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Other Plays

…he has his own band  (a bluegrass one) and we have their album.  In our store.  Right now.  Yeah… an actual album.  You can touch it and hold it and sleep with it under your pillow if you want to. (not sure why one would do that, but the cool part is that you can)

Thanks to the NPR Discover Songs series, which rotates some awesome groups and albums every six weeks, we carry Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers Rare Bird Alert.  You don’t have to be from the midwest to dig yourself some bluegrass, and this albums proves it.  It’s smart, tight and guaranteed to get you stompin’ that foot.  We only have two left so come and get it while you can.

Check out our other albums while you’re at it.

A Chair for Mother by Vera B. Williams

Softies Only A Mother Could Love by Jess Redman and Meg Leder

Color of Water by James McBride

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

Mom: A Celebration of Mothers from Storycorps edited by Dave Isay

Bad Mother by Ayelet Waldman

Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman

The Gift of an Ordinary Day by Katrina Kenison

Tomie dePaola’s Mother Goose Favorites 

Mothers Need Time-outs, Too by Susan Callahan, Anne Nolen and Katrin Schumann

Mama Says by Rob D. Walker

If you dig this book, and I don’t know how you can’t, you may also like which we have hanging out on our shelves…

Fruits by Shoichi Aokiand it’s sequel Fresh Fruits

The Truth About Unicorns by Bonnie Jones Reynolds

As it turns out the book was published in 1972 and has been out of print.  Lucky for us, Felony and Mayhem reprinted it in November 2010.

I can’t say I was instantly hooked, it started off a little slow but once you get a little more familiar with the characters (of which there are many) it’s hard to put down.  I almost always nod off on flights but I was so enthralled by the time we were up in the air I didn’t even yawn.  Just nibbled my surprisingly free Delta Airlines cookie, sipped my ice water, and read the hours away.

It’s a wonderfully dark fairy tale that has a blend of fantasy and human reality that makes even the impossible seem possible.  Its not chick lit but it is a book with a more feminine target audience.  From witches to preachers wives, the women in the book are strong, authoritative characters.  And as strong women do, nerves are struck, tempers flare and vindictive ladies cut each other to the quick. A mysterious wood, family rivalries, a sleepy township, irresponsible youth, and generations of misplaced beliefs make this book a must read.

*If you didn’t get a chance to respond yet, just click right here.

And what did we find out? Well we had lots of great feedback, but as for clear direction… it’s still complicated. Overall, there was great consensus that people don’t want to see us reduce our inventory of physical books, so we will certainly hope to oblige. People love our hours, so we’ll keep that tradition up as well. Many people that have E-Readers other than Kindles are willing to try E-Books from our website, provided it’s not too hard to figure out. Many people say they would love to shop with us more but parking is a pain. (‘Twas ever thus.) And lastly many people opined their wish that we had space to offer refreshments. Them and me both is all I can say to that!

For the still curious, here’s an overview of the results from the basic multiple-choice questions:

• 73% of those who responded are year-round island residents
• The top three categories of purchases listed were: 1) Books for adults  2) Gifts  3) Cards & Stationery.
• Less emphasis was placed on books for kids and toys & games, which surprised me, but then they are mainly huge in the summer.
• The number one reason people shop at Bookworks is to “Support the local economy” followed by “Sense of community
• Price was listed as the number one deterrent, with selection and parking following close behind.
• There is strong interest in us offering more events of all types.
• There is strong interest in us offering used & antiquarian books.
• When it came to E-Books, 42% of our respondees said “No way, not ever” would they have an E-Reader, which I found surprisingly high.
• When told that we sell E-Books on our website, the majority said they would buy from us if the price was the same and if we offered support & help.

All that was very interesting indeed, and believe me I’ve been mulling it all over. However, the real meat of the matter came in via the open comment fields, which were included under almost every question. People were very generous with their time and made wonderful suggestions, and they also did not hold back from sharing criticism. This was particularly valuable.

Here is a small smattering of direct quotes. Some I list for the sake of the industry, some for the sake of my staff, and some to elicit further comment. (I should note that the survey was confidential, so I have no idea who said what.)

•  ”I love bookworks and will continue to support your store. … The reason I don’t buy more books is only because I’m trying to have less stuff and borrow from the library more. … I do like the idea of fostering communication, interaction with others, community by having an area to sit, read, write, drink a cup of coffee…but this would likely mean you’d need a bigger space, don’t know if that is an option.”
• “How anyone can prefer holding a plastic device to turning the pages of a real book is beyond me. I love your little shop and I pray that it can continue. It is the first place I go the first night I am on island.”
•  ”Keep up all your good work. Independant bookstores are a must for an informed, literate culture.”
•  ”Add a mid-island location?? A Bookworks library out at cisco? Read with meade? Brewworks? Cisco cafe? you could run book clubs, a la stitch and bitch. More is better though you guys do a great job with what you do.”
•  ”I certainly hope Bookworks survives the seachange in reading that is upon us. Perhaps adding a used book section would help.”
• “A “take-it-or-leave it” section?”
• “A little coffee area? wine?”
• “Regrettably two book shops is simply one too many for this town with its excellent library (including e-access).”
• “It would be great to have a selection of magazines and periodicals, foreign and domestic, that are not carried elsewhere (like at The Hub). This could cover a spectrum of topics such as literature, politics, fashion, health, esoterica, and art, just to name a few.”
• “You had an AMAZING selection a few years ago…now…not so much.”
• “Rental of books on cd.”
• “Selected CD’s and DVD’s. A lot of bookstores off island have Putamayo selections of ethnic music. Is there some distributor with a classical music and classic movie DVD and jazz CD program tailored to put a selection of disks in stores for those of us who don’t steal our music? This is one area where I still spend heavily at Amazon, and there is no competition on Nantucket.” [note-we've been selling Putumayo for several years]
• “Reading glasses & cases exotic tea & honey & crumpet selection ? summer saturday morning outdoor book sale ?”
• “You guys are great. Other than valet parking, I don’t know what you could do better.”
• “When I go off-island to my favorite independent bookseller, they have a section of very high quality, well selected, current and classic discounted books: remainders, hardcovers now out in paperback, printer’s overstock, ect. (Check out Book/Book in NYC to see what I mean). I wish you’d consider something along these lines.”
• “What would Nantucket be without Bookworks , Mitchells and a thriving public library ! I’m proud to be a part of a community that supports these valuable entities.”
• “Love the gestalt, and i believe that local bookstores are the cornerstone of (what remains of) a free society.”

There were also many many comments about our service, some raving and some ranting. In many ways this was the most useful part of the excercise, because we think of ourselves as a helpful and fun-loving bunch!  The fact that we had even one person dissatisfied with service would have been distressing enough, but there were a couple of comments to that effect and we’re taking it very seriously indeed. On the other hand, so glad the rest of you had a good experience!

So what will we do with all this info? First off, we are ramping up our events schedule, beginning with more events for kids and plans in the works for book clubs and the like. We are looking for ways to fit used books in, perhaps seasonally, and we would love to know if someone has a suitable space at affordable rent for an offshoot. We will be putting more emphasis into training, and we will have more shelftalkers and recommendations in the store. Also, we hope to add more magazines not sold at other locations on island. Keep your eyes peeled for this good stuff and please keep your great ideas coming.

Okay, off I go to IMPLEMENT!

Cheers,

Wendy H.