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| The "Bookalicious" department at Lorelei Books in Vicksburg |
The following is a guest post from Laura Weeks, owner of Lorelei Books in Vicksburg, Mississippi.
For independent booksellers, our independence is indeed the virtue which sets us apart from other brick-and-mortar bookstores. This is validated daily by proclamations from customers: “Oh! I’m in a book boutique!” “Such a great selection of books! ” “What a lovely bookshop!”
A booklover’s experience with a print book is very much like the “lovely bookshop” experience. Purchasing a book in print format yields more than the opportunity to read; various senses are engaged and ultimately this thing of beauty becomes the reader’s possession.
Author and UPM Marketing Director Steve Yates recently discussed the future of print books with me; we’re inclined to believe that some print books will become ever more exquisite. In fact, this response from publishers to an equal-and-opposite reaction by booklovers to the eBook is already evident.
I told Steve about a special section I’ve recently introduced at Lorelei Books: The Bookalicious Department. Here, clothbound classics bearing the designs of an acclaimed graphic artist reign. Bookalicious books flaunt their deckle-edge pages, elegant endpapers, fine illustrations, and sometimes their sheer mass. Even the elusive book plate has been spotted in this neighborhood.
I respect reading in any format, and sell Google eBooks on www.loreleibooks.com. That said, some books stand in firm defiance to download. And as long as readers delight in the ink perfume wafting from books fresh off the press, I’ll sell them.
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