The Day After

When a Dream Becomes Reality

These days that come after the purchase of a bookstore have become a never-ending to-do list of applying for credit and changing over accounts and updating details and switching social media and scanning in existing inventory and ordering books and dealing with the bank and trying to find money to buy more books. Maile wakes up at 4:30 each morning buzzing with new ideas, slipping quietly out of bed, trying not to wake me.

Ordering books. Old and new favorites and the books our kids love and my brain is so tired right now I couldn’t remember if it is “are kids” or “our kids.” I imagine welcoming these books into the store the same way I might welcome an old friend who has come to visit us.

We stay up until midnight sitting beside each other in bed, laptops open, making more lists of books. Did you remember to order that Newbery book? That Wendell Berry? What about This is Happiness and I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down? A Prayer For Owen Meany? The Brothers K?

I’ll be working or walking through the house or drifting off to sleep and remember another book we still have to add to our list.

There are so many books. So many wonderful books.

I dream of opening the store. I dream of empty shelves and sometimes full shelves and sometimes I wake up smiling.

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These are the days when dreams come down to earth and live among us. The long days of hard work, brain work, lots of thinking and emailing and asking questions. Lots of being on hold and customer service.

And opening day grows closer.

We hope to be open by Thursday, May 2nd.

Here are a few photos for those of you not on Instagram. You can follow our bookstore progress over there (at)shawnsmucker or (at)noooooks. (That’s five o’s.) And soon we’ll have a bookish Substack set up for the bookstore, but in the meantime, here’s a bit of what we’ve been up to.

Leo was ready to go home.

My dad helped us install and fortify a new row of bookshelves.

Poppy helped Mai scan items and enter them into inventory.

A coffee break sponsored by Prince Street Cafe.

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Finally, we’re in the midst of opening the store AND ALSO planning for our first live, in-person event, featuring Lisa-Jo Baker reading from her new memoir, It Wasn’t Roaring, It Was Weeping. This is one of the best memoirs I’ve read in a while, and since Lisa-Jo is a fabulous person and writer and thinker, I’m convinced it will be a wonderful event. Find out more HERE.

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Our first book order should arrive today (apparently we missed the UPS guy yesterday), so we’ll be unpacking eight boxes of so many favorite books today I can hardly stand it. More pics to come.

Thanks for all of your interest and support in this new venture of ours. The emotional support helps us power through! So much more work to do in the next ten days!

I really do appreciate you all.

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To keep up with all that’s going on at the store, you can follow Nooks over at Instagram.