This Friday finds me remembering that the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook is almost here – like four days, tops. And it also reminds me that I’m now entering that weird period of time where I have to restrain myself from purchasing any books because I’ve entered…
…the Book Fair Time Warp.
This would be the time (approximately three-four weeks) immediately preceding the book fair for E’s school that is held the third weekend in November at Left Bank Books in the CWE. I volunteer on the book fair committee each year because for one weekend I get to pretend like I work in a bookstore, which is really my dream – except the reality is, it would be a nightmare for my family because I’d certainly spend more than I made if I held such a position. I really dig this bookstore, and if you haven’t been by there recently, they have rearranged and repainted. It looks fantastic. And the best part is the new children’s section is now in the rear of the store next to large windows overlooking the sidewalk and far, far away from the front door. They must have read this post where I detail my perfect children’s section in a bookstore. I’m sure they did.
It looks bigger too – and that is a good (and dangerous) thing.
We start the weekend off late Friday night, after the store is closed for the evening. We work until past midnight taking books off the shelves and restocking them with classroom requests and favorites. The book fair runs all day Saturday and Sunday (November 17 and 18) and all you have to do is show up and the bookstore donates 20% of your purchase back to the school in the form of credit for school book purchases. It’s been a really great way for this fairly new school to build up its library and it doesn’t cost the visitors an extra dime.
Of course, if you want to spend an extra dime there are always books on each classroom’s wish list that can be purchased and donated back to the school. We give you a cool bookplate to fill out and affix on the inside cover and the kids love seeing those when they check out a book. Every year a neighborhood visitor comes into the store and buys a couple of the books and donates them from her dog. I love when those purchases show up in the backpack during the school year.
We sweeten the deal with homemade goodies all day long, so if you are in the neighborhood please stop by and have some breakfast or snacks all day long. I always do the Saturday morning shift and the Sunday afternoon shift – on Saturday morning I bring my favorite blueberry scones and I do some mini cupcakes for the Sunday afternoon homestretch. Although I may have to give the Roasted Pear and Chocolate Chunk Scones a go (seen today on Smitten Kitchen – see, I came full circle!) in addition to the tried and true BEST BLUEBERRY SCONES EVER. So get your holiday list together and stop in on the 17th and we’ll eat scones together and talk books for awhile. We’d love to have you.