Keeper of the Books
Donation protected
The Bookstore has been located at the Market of Marion in Belleview, FL for over 10 years and has been under my ownership since April 2013. It is a magical place where used books are bought, sold, treasured and passed on through many loving hands. The opportunity to purchase this store was a serendipitous occasion since I was down to my last dollar and happened to be in the right place at the right time.
The Bookstore comprises 4 booths, a mere 400 square feet of selling space but, strangely enough, I most always have the exact book a customer is looking for.
Miraculous events began to happen almost immediately. A customer who came in for a title I had never of heard of, Holy Blood Holy Grail, told me he had been searching for that book for years. I had just that very minute before unpacked it from a box of donations. "Holy Smokes!" we both exclaimed!
Or I would be taking stock of inventory and be low on a certain author when out of the blue someone would walk in with a box of those exact books to sell me. One day I was cleaning a copy of the only book I had by Margaret Atwood when a customer came in and said, "I know this is crazy, but do you have a copy of The Handmaid's Tale?" I lifted it from my hands and asked, "Do you mean THIS ONE?" That's the God's honest truth.
Each morning I ask the Universe to SEND THEM TO ME and the Universe responds and sometimes with little surprises just for me: A scrap of paper falls out of a Bible with a handwritten passage about keeping the faith. A meaningful bookmark. A photo of a little girl who looked just like me.
One time I had just finished reading In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson about pre-Hitler Germany which referenced a book written in the 1930s by our ambassador there, William E. Dodd. I went to my tiny non-fiction section and there it was. William E. Dodd's book.
Another phenomenon is that I know just about every single book in my store down to its size, shape and the color and design of its cover. When I first started I used to sit for hours organizing my books. I listen to what my customers have to say about the authors they like. I have over 20,000 books. My customers are mind boggled at this and so am I. I am often asked if I have a photographic memory. I do not. I cannot explain my affinity for my books other than maybe they are all my children and how could I forget the name or the face of a beloved child? Or a best friend?
As a used bookstore my business also helps others. It helps people who love to read and feel and touch a real book but who can't afford to pay full price for a new book. I buy books back from my customers and they use that money to buy more books. It helps public libraries and other organizations that sell used books to raise money because I buy many of my books from those sources. I also donate books I can't use to the VA and give away books so folks can try a new author. It even helps children because children LOVE BOOKS and get so excited when seeing my store and I have a special section just for them.
My used books also help authors because I pay premium prices to customers who bring in brand new titles. This encourages them to pay full price at Barnes & Noble or Amazon knowing they can bring them to me and receive cash to offset their cost. I also offer authors the opportunity to hold book signings and allow them to keep all proceeds of their sales.
For the first couple of years I was making it and I was elated to see my devotion to and excitement about saving books and loving books and finding great books together with my inexplicable knowledge of books was paying off and affording at least a very modest income for myself. But then the Market's customers slacked off, my rent went up every year and my financial tide ebbed out into an abyss of red.
My rent for the 3 days a week the market is open is approximately $18,000 a year. Since April of 2016 I have barely made my rent and have maxed out my business credit card for other overhead. I work on my feet all day with no air conditioning in the summer or heat in the winter. I am 1 out of 3 surviving independent bookstores within a 50 mile radius and I've watched others fall like dominoes because they do not get the foot traffic my store does. If there are no more bookstores what other brick and mortar booksellers will be left other than Barnes & Noble? Where do the booklovers go to browse and dwell in the awesome silence of a billion words? Who will remain to be the keeper of the books?
I am asking for your help in raising $18.000 so I know will be able to pay The Bookstore's rent for a year. My 72 year old husband and I live very modestly. No vacations. No nights out. No entertainment except for books & TV. The wig vendor gives me free haircuts outside my back door. I treat myself to a pedicure twice a year. My husband just had to leave his part time job because he is undergoing 45 radiation treatments for prostate cancer. Plus we just had to refinance our home for much needed repairs. Not easy being seniors with a mortgage payment. I have looked into moving The Bookstore to another location but it is not a feasible option. I am also attempting to negotiate the rent with the Market but the Market is not very negotiable.
The Bookstore is my last stand at age 62. Entering the winter of my life feels as if my life and the life of real books are in synchronicity. I hope I'm wrong. I pray that real books will long outlast me. The Bookstore is who I am. It is my soul. My pastor encourages me all the time telling me that God has me where he wants me. How can I disagree with God? If I won the lottery tomorrow I would still keep it running. When I can't do it anymore I will seek an apprentice to keep it going and if I am able to I will just hand over the keys to them for free.
I feel guilty about asking to be funded because there is always someone somewhere someplace so much worse off than I am. But books are important. Books must be saved. Books, and the truths they hold inside of them, must be preserved. I am one of the few remaining Keeper of the Books.
Please help me keep all of the stories, the legends, the truths, the history and the real books go forward to happy endings and into the happy hands who hold and cherish them.
Also, please feel free to make suggestions on how I and my bookstore can help others more. Books are for everyone.
Thank you.
Janet Cucharo
The Bookstore LLC
The Bookstore comprises 4 booths, a mere 400 square feet of selling space but, strangely enough, I most always have the exact book a customer is looking for.
Miraculous events began to happen almost immediately. A customer who came in for a title I had never of heard of, Holy Blood Holy Grail, told me he had been searching for that book for years. I had just that very minute before unpacked it from a box of donations. "Holy Smokes!" we both exclaimed!
Or I would be taking stock of inventory and be low on a certain author when out of the blue someone would walk in with a box of those exact books to sell me. One day I was cleaning a copy of the only book I had by Margaret Atwood when a customer came in and said, "I know this is crazy, but do you have a copy of The Handmaid's Tale?" I lifted it from my hands and asked, "Do you mean THIS ONE?" That's the God's honest truth.
Each morning I ask the Universe to SEND THEM TO ME and the Universe responds and sometimes with little surprises just for me: A scrap of paper falls out of a Bible with a handwritten passage about keeping the faith. A meaningful bookmark. A photo of a little girl who looked just like me.
One time I had just finished reading In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson about pre-Hitler Germany which referenced a book written in the 1930s by our ambassador there, William E. Dodd. I went to my tiny non-fiction section and there it was. William E. Dodd's book.
Another phenomenon is that I know just about every single book in my store down to its size, shape and the color and design of its cover. When I first started I used to sit for hours organizing my books. I listen to what my customers have to say about the authors they like. I have over 20,000 books. My customers are mind boggled at this and so am I. I am often asked if I have a photographic memory. I do not. I cannot explain my affinity for my books other than maybe they are all my children and how could I forget the name or the face of a beloved child? Or a best friend?
As a used bookstore my business also helps others. It helps people who love to read and feel and touch a real book but who can't afford to pay full price for a new book. I buy books back from my customers and they use that money to buy more books. It helps public libraries and other organizations that sell used books to raise money because I buy many of my books from those sources. I also donate books I can't use to the VA and give away books so folks can try a new author. It even helps children because children LOVE BOOKS and get so excited when seeing my store and I have a special section just for them.
My used books also help authors because I pay premium prices to customers who bring in brand new titles. This encourages them to pay full price at Barnes & Noble or Amazon knowing they can bring them to me and receive cash to offset their cost. I also offer authors the opportunity to hold book signings and allow them to keep all proceeds of their sales.
For the first couple of years I was making it and I was elated to see my devotion to and excitement about saving books and loving books and finding great books together with my inexplicable knowledge of books was paying off and affording at least a very modest income for myself. But then the Market's customers slacked off, my rent went up every year and my financial tide ebbed out into an abyss of red.
My rent for the 3 days a week the market is open is approximately $18,000 a year. Since April of 2016 I have barely made my rent and have maxed out my business credit card for other overhead. I work on my feet all day with no air conditioning in the summer or heat in the winter. I am 1 out of 3 surviving independent bookstores within a 50 mile radius and I've watched others fall like dominoes because they do not get the foot traffic my store does. If there are no more bookstores what other brick and mortar booksellers will be left other than Barnes & Noble? Where do the booklovers go to browse and dwell in the awesome silence of a billion words? Who will remain to be the keeper of the books?
I am asking for your help in raising $18.000 so I know will be able to pay The Bookstore's rent for a year. My 72 year old husband and I live very modestly. No vacations. No nights out. No entertainment except for books & TV. The wig vendor gives me free haircuts outside my back door. I treat myself to a pedicure twice a year. My husband just had to leave his part time job because he is undergoing 45 radiation treatments for prostate cancer. Plus we just had to refinance our home for much needed repairs. Not easy being seniors with a mortgage payment. I have looked into moving The Bookstore to another location but it is not a feasible option. I am also attempting to negotiate the rent with the Market but the Market is not very negotiable.
The Bookstore is my last stand at age 62. Entering the winter of my life feels as if my life and the life of real books are in synchronicity. I hope I'm wrong. I pray that real books will long outlast me. The Bookstore is who I am. It is my soul. My pastor encourages me all the time telling me that God has me where he wants me. How can I disagree with God? If I won the lottery tomorrow I would still keep it running. When I can't do it anymore I will seek an apprentice to keep it going and if I am able to I will just hand over the keys to them for free.
I feel guilty about asking to be funded because there is always someone somewhere someplace so much worse off than I am. But books are important. Books must be saved. Books, and the truths they hold inside of them, must be preserved. I am one of the few remaining Keeper of the Books.
Please help me keep all of the stories, the legends, the truths, the history and the real books go forward to happy endings and into the happy hands who hold and cherish them.
Also, please feel free to make suggestions on how I and my bookstore can help others more. Books are for everyone.
Thank you.
Janet Cucharo
The Bookstore LLC
Organizer
Janet Cucharo
Organizer
Long Hammock, FL
