If The Open Book could talk I am sure it would have lots of stories to tell. A bookstore can be a witness to blooming love stories, angry fights, laughter, friendship and many other human experiences. It has been a privilege over the last ten years to witness the human drama unfolding in the store, to take part in lots of the laughter and to have formed unbreakable friendships. This is my last week at the bookstore and I have to tell you that it feels a bit like an extremely long wake. Although the bookstore will go on, my stewardship of this business will come to an end. It is an understatement to describe it as bittersweet.Unwinding a ten year old business is a lot of work, which is too easily and too often interrupted by the discovery of things that take you wandering back in time. I remember standing in an almost empty store holding balloons to give out to the children and wondering what this new career would bring. I could not have imagined the richness of the bookseller's life.
I am moving onto a new career which is full of intelligent, interesting people. I am so glad to be working in a place filled with books and people who love them. It will ease the transition and I look forward to growing as a librarian and the new adventures I will have.
The Open Book has hosted lots of good times (some of which I am sure I am not aware of....so many people had keys). Christopher Morley said, "When you sell a man a book, you don't sell him just 12 ounces of paper and ink and glue....you sell him a whole new life." I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had to give "whole new lives" to so many and to be The Open Book's Bookmama for awhile .
