Once upon a time there was a lovely family that decided to visit St Francisville over the Thanksgiving Holiday. On that Saturday they decided to stroll through the beautiful downtown area and browse in some of the unique shops along the way. Low and behold they did not realize that their visit coincided with Shop Small Saturday! They were thrilled to find cookies and tea and specials in many stores. While sipping a glass of tea and lemonade at The Conundrum, the local independent bookstore in town, one young lady in the family happened upon the table in the back of the store that features many signed books by major authors like Walter Isaacson, David Brooks and JD Vance. Imagine her surprise when she realized that these books were not marked up but were being sold (as always at The Conundrum) at the regular retail price even though they were Signed by the Author! But alas, she was just there to browse and was not looking to load down her luggage with a stack of hardcover books. After a cookie or two, some great bookish conversation and a few purchases the family continued on their way about town. Time passed, the vacation ended and everyone headed home. The whole way home the young lady could not get those books off her mind. Oh, how she wished she had picked them up while visiting St. Francisville. Where would she ever come across signed copies again? So she though, and she thought, and time passed. Several days later as our bookstore proprietor was refilling shelves the phone rang: “The Conundrum, can I help you” she answered. The young lady related her stories and asked if there was a way to facilitate a sale over the phone or internet and to have the books shipped. “Of course”, the book store lady answered. “Just give me your email address. We are always happy to send a secure link via email to any items in the shop and will ship them to you very quickly and reasonably once payment is received”. Well, the young lady was just thrilled and that evening in the comfort of her own home she completed the purchase. The next day the books were shipped and within a week of leaving the shop she will have them at her home in Nashville. In the note enclosed in the box she also learned that The Conundrum offers a website that lists many of their signed editions and all of their fun logo wear of funny bookish T-shirts and tote bags. What a find, www.conundrumbooks.com is an awesome resource for not only holiday shopping but year round bookish fun. The young lady had her books, the family had enjoyed a lovely vacation and the book store lady got to share her love of books a little further into the world… and they all lived Happily Ever After. *
· Naturally the names have been left out to protect the privacy of our bookish friends, and a bit of literary license may have been taken in the telling of this tale as this book store lady can’t read minds so had to fill in a bit with what our book loving visiting young lady was actually thinking. Visit our shop or our website today and see what treasures you can find – and hey, we will have cookies and refreshments again this weekend during Christmas in the Country so come write your own bookstore fairy tale with us at The Conundrum!