While reading my morning online edition of Shelf Awareness, I spotted a nifty quote from Kelly Justice, the owner of Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia. When asked what advice she would offer folks entering her bookstore, she replied, Open your eyes! Don’t just look at the size of the shop and say, “They don’t have anything.” People who give us a shot realize that it’s a browser’s paradise of colorfully showcased books that are carefully selected to satisfy and delight! The store says I love you! I picked these out just for you! That made me curious about her particular bookstore and I clicked onto the link.
An ad in the center of her store’s website immediately caught my attention. Instead of a picture of food behind the words, Feed A Hungry Child, was a picture of books, stacks of books. Of course I then clicked the link to that site. This is what happens when I sit down at the PC without my morning dose of fully caffeinated black tea – I tend to wander, both physically and mentally (are they different?). I went from “Yes, support your local bookstore!” to “Yes, give a book to a needy kid and support the future of the world!”
Just the day before I had learned of a similar program begun by Dolly Parton. Now I’m Googling “book gifting” and have stopped after page three. I still want to support local bookstores, but that idea is down the toilet without a literate populace to find their way to a bookstore. My guess is that until the world of technology lowers its prices on its book reading devices, so that even the poor can afford to download, the world of paper may still have a fighting chance. My morning thoughts are rapidly clarifying: Gift a book(s) and you will be supporting your local bookstore and saving humanity at the same time! Even without the caffeine, that’s not bad thinking.
Here are a few sites worth viewing:
http://www.family-to-family.org/
http://www.willjames.org/book_gifting.htm
– Sunny Solomon
