About Bookstores

During the second week of the holiday shopping season, the first major snow and ice storm hit the Midwest, raging from the Rockies into Texas and then blasting its way through Missouri, Illinois, and Michigan. So bad was the storm that, in an area of the country where snowfall is as commonplace in December as decorations, menorahs, and Christmas trees, local media in Illinois characterized the two-day storm as "historic."

Last weekend, Pass Christian Books of Pass Christian, Mississippi, reopened in a new location about five miles north of the original store destroyed in September 2005 by Hurricane Katrina. Steven B.

The Regulator Bookshop, an 8,000-square-foot, two-story general bookstore in a vibrant Durham, North Carolina, neighborhood, celebrated its 30th anniversary last weekend, and Durham's mayor issued a proclamation declaring December 4 "Regulator Bookshop Day."

It turns out that shoppers were purchasing more than plasma flat-screen televisions on Black Friday. As more than 140 million Americans began checking items off their holiday shopping lists, many were browsing, and buying, in bookstores, according to independents nationwide contacted by Bookselling This Week. Sales were up for many, while, for others, Black Friday was more gray than solid black.

Readers' Books of Sonoma, California, owned by Lilla and Andy Weinberger, celebrated its 15th birthday on Saturday, November 25. Customers and friends marked the milestone with a large party at the store; a book-themed cake; music by Simka, a klezmer-cafe band including Andy Weinberger; and announcements of future projects.

Founded in November 1996 as a children's bookstore in Charlotte, Vermont, The Flying Pig celebrated its 10th anniversary last Saturday as a general bookstore specializing in children's books in the neighboring town of Shelburne.

After three years of planning, author, publisher, and now bookseller David Magee has opened the 5,000-square-foot Rock Point Books in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Chattanooga underwent a massive $120-million waterfront revitalization process, and part of the plan called for an independent bookstore. The "market was right," said Magee. "It's been a long time brewing. We've just been waiting to get all the pieces together."

"I've been waiting for this moment for 15 months now." The excitement was palpable in Scott Naugle's voice, and with good reason. More than a year after Hurricane Katrina washed Pass Christian Books out to sea, Naugle and co-owner Richard Daley expect to reopen in a storefront location. "It feels good and comfortable to have a bookstore again," Naugle told BTW.

On November 10, Bookshop Santa Cruz, in Santa Cruz, California, celebrated its 40th birthday and the passing of store management from owner Neal Coonerty to his daughter, Casey Coonerty Protti. Approximately 350 friends of the store attended the party.

Glens Falls, a scenic town in upstate New York, just south of the giant Adirondack Park, has its first independent bookstore in an estimated 40 years. Red Fox Books, named after husband-and-wife owners Naftali Rottenstreich and Susan Fox, opened its doors on October 19. A grand opening celebration is scheduled for December 7.