I spent the next couple of hours ordering books and checking the alphabetization on the shelves, so by the time Mart and Rocky arrived a little before ten, I felt totally calm. One of the reasons I had wanted to open this store was that it was tangible in ways that my previous job as a fundraiser for nonprofits hadn’t been. For one, I could see what I was selling. I loved e-books, too, but there was nothing like a physical book to soothe my soul. I was looking into selling e-books through our shop website, too, but I knew I wanted to focus most of my time – and money – on the print copies that filled these shelves.
Plus shelving – it was like meditation to me. Give me a big library cart full of picture books and leave me to it . . . I’ll be calm and rested by day’s end. Today, though, I d
