An update on Christina Ambrosia’s bookstore Odyssey
Bad Summer at the Bookstore
This summer, though my first as a bookstore owner, was horrible. I’ve been agonizing over closing the doors completely or waiting out my lease. In reality, I’ll wait out the lease, but I dream of being home and writing more. The work involved in a used bookstore is far more than I ever dreamed.
I do love being here, I love being surrounded by the books, and seeing that it’s been me and them for most of the summer, we’ve become friends. Seriously, even though sales have been slow(25% drop in sales for August alone) I’ve still been very busy. Customers are still exchanging books and we’ve had a trickle of new customers. It’s time for changes.
It’s been a quiet afternoon with the last two hours completely to myself, the sky is turning an ominous grey-black colour, the small hand is moving closer to the five, and I start busying myself with pack-up. Switch off the music, the heating, pack my mobile in my pocket, and the front door swings open. In come a woman, a man, two small children, and a request, “Can we bring our dog in? He’ll bark if we leave him outside.” Wondering what they do at the supermarket, I agree that it’s okay if he stays on his lead, and I sit back down, glance discretely at my watch, and surreptitiously flick the heating back on. The kids run to the children’s section and start going through the toy-box, the dad sits down and opens his paper, and the mum disappears with the dog down the fiction aisle.