Contest Winner Looks Forward to Next Five Years

At this year's Celebration of Bookselling -- held on Friday, June 4, at BookExpo America (BEA) -- Joseph Marsh of Chaucer's Books in Santa Barbara, California, won the grand prize of the Book Sense at Five Contest drawing. Marsh won hotel accommodations and admission to BEA for the next five years.

In a recent interview, Marsh told BTW that it was the first contest he had ever won. "It was a very pleasant surprise," he said. "I usually only go to BEA when it's in Los Angeles, so it's nice to have the opportunity to go to other cities -- and it's been a while since I've been to New York. And I haven't been to Washington, D.C., since I was a kid." He added that, being from Maine and a lifelong Red Sox fan, he may take advantage of next year's trip to New York City to go "see the Yanks lose or see the Mets win."

For the Book Sense at Five Contest, booksellers who attended one of ABA's winter/spring Booksellers Forums and those who voted for the 2004 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards were automatically entered into a drawing to win the grand prize or one of four first-place prizes.

First-place prize winners were: Jen James of Curious George Goes to Wordsworth in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who won an A&E gift basket; Tim Bryson of Locust Books in Westminster, Maryland, who won a gift basket from The History Channel; Janell Lili of Aunties Bookstore in Spokane, Washington, who won a framed, classic New Yorker cover; and Stephanie A. Geyer of Village Bookstore in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, who won a five-year subscription to The Atlantic Monthly. --Dave Grogan