March 14, 2026
Things must’ve been a little drunk on South Broadway last night, because when I opened today at Printed Page Bookshop, there were broken liquor bottles and a real estate “Open House” sign on the sidewalk. I swept up the glass but decided to leave the sign.
My first customer was an earnest twenty-something guy looking for books by Chekov, Pushkin, and Dostoyevsky — but only the ones by a certain translator, because those are the ones he enjoys reading with his grandmother. I liked that.
A couple came in holding a red-headed boy about one. Mom told me that they were good readers and hoped to instill that in their child. She said his name was Thelonious. I asked if he was named after the jazz musician. He was, she said. My kind of people.
A woman in a T-shirt promoting archery and a guy with one advertising an ax-throwing place unsurprisingly bought a book about swords.
Shop dog Molly is adjusting, but she’ll still bark sometimes when customers come in. A trainer told me to advise visitors not to make eye contact with her, nor to talk with her or approach her, which I think is how the staff is trained to act with customers at Barnes & Noble.
A woman asked her eight-year-old son if he wanted a book about his namesake, Benjamin Franklin. The kid seemed indifferent. I went back to the children’s section and found a biography of Franklin and told him he could have it. Mom was pleased and surprised. The kid just went back to petting Molly.
We were busy all day. Maybe it was that sign.