Hello Again,
Long time no blog. Sorry for the long absence, a lot has been going on since I last wrote to you during the lockdown. First of all we are no longer closed to the public. We do, of course, require masks and hand sanitizing before touching the books (cleaning books is problematic you know), but we have been open to the public again since late last summer and we could not be happier to see your faces – and though we only see the top halves of them we assume they are smiling faces because we sure know ours are!
So, what been going on? Back when the lockdown was first announced I was so bothered that I would not be able to talk to you guys every day and tell you about new books and my all-time favorites that I started a service called “Chatting Books Online” where we do just that. I recommend a book each day and invite you to comment, like , follow , or purchase online or in-store. It is going really well, so much so that when we re-opened the doors I decided not to stop so we have already published 329 entries to the Chatting Books Online series. You can find the recommendations on our Facebook or Instagram pages @conundrumbooks or you can follow along on out website at: http://www.conundrumbooks.com/chatting-books-online
As you may know we typically provide the on-site book sales at several events throughout the region. Things like literary festivals, gardening festivals and symposiums, and we even pop-up here and there at marketplace type events – we were actually at one last March where after the first hour of being open the state announced the lockdown and we all had to dismantle our booths and go home one hour into a three day event. Well, events have been few and far between these past months but we have a few lined up in near future. First at the end of February we will be watching The Natchez Literary and Cinema Festival which will be virtual this year and we have set up a dedicated page on our web-site (http://www.conundrumbooks.com/natchez-literary-and-cinema-festival) where you can order books by the fantastic presenting authors. If all goes well and mandates stay as they are now we expect to participate in The Market at the Mill in New Roads in March and to provide a bookselling booth at a couple of garden events throughout the state in March and April. Fingers crossed the virus is on the decline and these events are able to go forward!
And our final change … we have added a new bookstore dog to our family – and let me tell you Buster is Thrilled! Our new girl is named Lady (officially “Lady Wycombe Goes Dancing” but that is a much longer story for another day) and she is an 8 month old Golden Retriever. She came to live and play with us back in July and has (for the most part) been a wonderful addition to the family. She is still a puppy so when you see her in the shop I will do my best to control her excitement and keep her from jumping on you too much. She does like to spend a good bit of the day in the back yard and so far (knocking on wood) has not bothered the chickens. I imagine we will be seeing a fence in our future so that she can be out more of the day and it’s about time we put this back yard to use anyway so that’s all good.
We hope you are well. With vaccines being distributed I think we are seeing the light at the end of this very long tunnel and when it is over we look forward to getting back to normal. I am anxiously awaiting the day I can start planning our next big book event and hope we can all get together then and celebrate. In the meantime you are welcome to shop in store with masks, and please remember we also offer shipping. You can either order through our website or if you see something on our social media feed that you want , even something not listed on our web page, just message us and we can invoice you via email and ship the book or puzzle straight to your home. Take Care and Keep Reading !
