My Cat Likes to Work in Bookstores!

Two weeks ago I used a picture of a very handsome cat in a bookstore, to draw attention to this blog where we are asking YOU – the people of New Zealand, the readers, the book lovers, the bookstore lovers – to write reviews of your favourite bookstores. (Please get in touch with us at info@booksellers.co.nz to contribute)

Little did I know that the cat in my photo does indeed live in a bookstore and is already quite famous…

Dear Booksellers,

A friend just alerted me to your New Zealand bookstore appreciation page and there, at the bottom, is my store cat Hodge. Since we’re, oh, something like 10,000 miles away, give or take, I wondered how in the world he got there? Is he really that famous? I really do promote him, tongue in cheek, as Chicago’s Most Famous Cat, but now I wonder if I”m being too modest…

Best, Keith Peterson, Selected Works Used Books & Music,Chicago

Dear Keith,

I am sorry I poached your photo of Hodge! It was only in the spirit of attracting more attention to our blog about great indie bookstores. If there is one thing most people like to look at online it is a photo of a cat – famous or otherwise.

I actually trawled Google for some time and Hodge was chosen from a cast of many cats in bookstores. I felt Hodge portrayed the right amount of acumen and alertness. His eyes are bright with interest, he looked capable of reading across many genres, or at least lying across books of many genres. I have now gone to your website and found even more wonderful pictures of Hodge. (My own cat’s name is Barney, but alas he does not live or work in a bookstore.)

Very kind regards to you and of course to Hodge, Megan

Hi Megan,

I don’t mind at all that you used a photo of Hodge to bring attention to your local bookstores, and I’m delighted that Hodge was chosen from an array of bookstore cat candidates. He is quite a character, smart, playful, exasperating now and then, and quite photogenic. People are always taking pictures of him, and the one you used is not one of mine – he keeps popping up on various bookstore blogs, and most on-line consumer reviews of my store mention him as one of the attractions of Selected Works.

In fact, about a year ago my store was named Best Bookstore With A Cat in Chicago by a local independent weekly paper – which really means best cat with a bookstore.

Hodge in Action

Some local media students at Columbia College here did a short video on my store a few months ago, and there is a section devoted to Hodge. (Hodge clips 3.36m into video. This is a lovely overall review of Selected Works bookstore.)

And here’s a video a customer posted a week ago or so, of Hodge selected books. He seems to be doing his part in adding to the avalanche of cat videos on the web.

And yes, Hodge is a male cat, named after Dr. Johnson’s cat Hodge, as mentioned in Boswell [Johnson had to personally buy oysters for his Hodge so as not to make the servants resentful] – there’s a statue of this Hodge in London somewhere in front of one of the places Johnson lived. We think our Hodge is a Korat, one of those ‘blue’ type gray cats – I don’t know for sure since I got him at the city pound. I do know that I’ve heard many people exclaim that he’s the most beautiful cat they’ve ever seen.

Selected Works has been selling used books and sheet music since 1984 here in Chicago, first on the north side and now in the famous Fine Arts Building, which has been a sort of informal art colony for about 100 years. In the past, it has been the home of Poetry Magazine, The Cliff Dwellers, The Little Review, and Frank Lloyd Wright, and was an important element in Chicago’s Literary Renaissance back around the first world war.

Please feel free to use this email or any part of it as a blog post about Selected Works – I think it makes an amusing story how Hodge’s photo ended up in New Zealand. Perhaps this will encourage other booksellers in far away lands to use him as a symbol of the intriguing wonders that wait inside one’s local bookstore…

Best, Keith Peterson, Selected Works Used Books & Music, Chicago IL 60605

WE WANT YOUR BOOKSTORE REVIEWS: If you have a bookstore you’d love to blog about – either in NZ or abroad – please get in touch with us I have a bookstore review!

Indie bookstores are wonderful places inhabited by wonderful beings like Hodge.

Here are 10 great reasons to buy books from local bookstores: Here’s what you just did!

10 Reasons to Shop Local: Here’s what you just did!

1. You kept money in the local economy
Based on US research, we know that for every $100 spent in a local business, $68 is likely to stay in the community, versus $43 when spent in a national business.

2.You embraced what makes us unique
You wouldn’t want your house to look like everyone else’s in New Zealand. So why would you want your community to look that way?

3. You created local jobs
Local businesses are better at creating higher-paying jobs for local people.

4. You helped the environment
Buying from a local business conserves energy and resources in the form of less fuel for transportation, less packaging, and products that you know are safe and well made, because we stand behind them.

5. You nurtured community
We know you, and you know us. Studies have shown that local businesses donate to community causes at more than twice the rate of non-local businesses.

6. You helped keep the high street healthy
Supporting local business means more colour and variety on the high street and creates more reason for local authorities to support them.

7. You created more choice
We pick the items we sell based on what we know you like and want. Local businesses carry a wider array of unique products because we buy for our own individual market.

8. You took advantage of our expertise
You are our friends and neighbours, and we have a vested interest in knowing how to serve you. We’re passionate about what we do. Why not take advantage of it?

9. You invested in entrepreneurship
Creativity and entrepreneurship are crucial to our economy. Nurturing local business ensures a strong community.

10.You made us a destination
The more interesting and unique we are as a community, the more we will attract new neighbours, visitors and guests. This benefits everyone!

Print a copy of the Here’s What You Just Did flier here!

And remember…

Customer Love: Unity Books, Wellington

A love letter to Unity Books Wellington

The second-worst location of a Wellington job I ever had was in the building next to Unity Books on Willis Street.  The worst location was on the other side of town to Unity.

I have a bad book-buying habit, and Unity Books is my enabler.  It’s really hard for me to walk past on my way elsewhere (“I’ll just pop in for a quick look to see what’s new”).  I’m sure I’m not the only person who has missed buses, because the bus stop is right outside, but there’s a new book in the window and the cover looks really interesting and you decide to pop in and read the blurb, and then something else catches your eye …

For me, there are several things that make Unity stand out from the chain bookstores.

The staff are great; they’re knowledgeable and helpful and they’ve always gone the extra mile for me, whether it’s tracking down a book that’s not shelved where I thought it would be, or making an order for something that’s a bit obscure.

I love the layout of the store.  It’s spacious, and yet jam-packed.  Everything is laid out clearly by subject or genre, so it’s easy to find your area of interest, but it’s just as easy to get drawn into another zone (the proximity of biography and cookery being almost fatal to my bank balance on a number of occasions).  The displays are interesting and eye-catching; my first port of call is always the new arrivals display near the front entrance, and I usually end up carrying one or two books with me while I wander around the rest of the store.  There are little recommendations and reviews by staff dotted around, which have often helped me to decide which book needs to go back, and which will come home.

It’s great that the only thing you can buy at Unity is a book.  That’s not quite true – they sell a range of gorgeous  greeting cards, a little bit of gift wrap, and in spring they carry a small but great range of calendars and diaries.  That’s it.  No stationery, no lotto, no DVDs, no Woman’s Day.  You’re in Unity because you’re a reader; and in my opinion, being a reader is a wonderful thing to be.

But the thing that is most wonderful about Unity Books is the quality of the stock.  It’s outstanding.  Unity is to bookstores what Logan Brown or Martin Bosley’s are to restaurants – you’re getting superior product.  Unity Books is not the place you head when you want to buy a handful of those books that some other stores offer at 4 for $12; it’s the place you head when you want to read something challenging, funny, thought provoking or just plain good.  If you’re someone who believes that life is too short to read bad books, Unity is your place.

It is possible to imagine Wellington without Unity Books, but why would you want to do that?  Wellington would be a poorer place.  Without Unity I would probably miss fewer buses, and would definitely have more money in the bank; but I would know less, laugh less, and escape less.  And there’s always another bus.

What was the last book you bought from Unity Books?

Ha!  If only I could stop at one book.  I last bought Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson, Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories, and The Food of Spain by Claudia Roden.

How often do you visit Unity Books on average?

A couple of times a month.

What is irreplaceable about bookstores?

For me, the ability to handle the merchandise, to flick through the pages, have the weight of the book in your hand, to compare and contrast, to decide if you like the quality of the paper or the feel of the cover … it’s the tactile nature of book buying that I love.  That, and good staff who really love books and are happy to talk to you about them.

By customer, Rachel Moore.

Also –  Congratulations to Unity Wellington who have been on Willis Street for 45 years this week. We can’t imagine Wellington without Unity either. Celebrate by treating yourself to a new book from Unity this week…

Unity Books Wellington, 57 Willis Street, 04  499 4245, wellington@unitybooks.co.nz

Do you love bookstores too?

Get in touch with your bookstore review and share the love!

So far we have only heard from Wellington customers…

email: info@booksellers.co.nz

Customer Love: Pegasus Books

I’m absolutely obsessed with books – I read them constantly, I write them, and I blog about them – and somehow most lunchtimes I find myself in one bookshop or another around Wellington just enjoying the feeling of being around so many stories.

One of my favourites for second hand books is Pegasus Books in Left Bank Arcade, Cuba Street, which just has everything. It’s the kind of place where you go in there looking for something specific, find it, then spend another hour (or two) silently squealing with delight as you browse the rest of the store and find that every second book is one you have on your “must read” list.

A lot of second hand bookstores just stock anything and everything, but Pegasus seems much more selective and they stock a lot of classics and greats as well as new, popular fiction. I was so excited when I saw they had a great selection of Joanne Harris, one of my favourite writers, then a couple of shelves over, a row of Charles Dickens.

The staff are really helpful there. I was looking for some books for my 13-year-old (boy) cousin and had no idea where to start and the guy there was so great, he showed some that he loved as a young man and even suggested a few others that they didn’t have, but I should look elsewhere for.

Wellington is a wonderful place for book lovers, as you’re spoilt for choice when it comes to bookstores. Even though things are moving quickly into the digital age, I think bookstores, if the owners are creative and innovative, have the potential to survive, because there’s something irreplaceable about being ensconced in a room where you’re surrounded by thousands of stories just waiting to be discovered and read. It’s a feeling you just can’t get from a little digital device.This quote sums up the value and potential survival of bookstores perfectly: “Books are no more threatened by Kindle than stairs by elevators.” ― Stephen Fry.

Sarah is an avid reader, writer and blogger from Wellington. Check out her blog, You May Say I’m a Dreamer at: http://youmaysayimadreamer-sh.blogspot.co.nz/

Do you have a favourite bookshop too? We’d love to hear about it. Email: info@booksellers.co.nz