Become a fan?

Bowing to multiple suggestions to do so, I have made a Facebook page for the shop! Here it is:
The Green Hand on Facebook

Thanks everyone! :)
Michelle

P.S. We're open late tonight, 'til 8:00, for First Friday Artwalk!

Giant veggies on my mind

One of the many reasons I love book hunting?  Just take a look.  You NEVER know what you're going to find.  Who knew that my secret obsession with the weird world of giant vegetables would come out this way?

Wow.  Was it B. Kliban who so clearly stated the obvious?...  "Never eat anything bigger than your head."

Oddly enough, I ran into a friend at the grocery store the other night who had two amazing giant leeks in her shopping cart.  Needless to say, they weren't quite this enormous, but the synchronicity is giggle-fit inducing.

Wow! We're really open!!!

Well, it's the first real week of store hours here at The Green Hand. It will be interesting to settle into a regular rhythm.

The First Friday opening was a huge success. Thanks for coming!!! It was a narrow squeak -- I only got my hands on the permits from the City at 2:00 that afternoon! Phew. But it happened, all was well, and it was a blast.

You can see some photos and a quick write-up of the event over at Loren's website by clicking here:
Artwalk Crowds Stampede Sasquatch

There are still a few loose ends to tie up, and tons of books to process yet. I'm finishing up my newly acquired paperback bookcases (thanks to Nancy over at Cunningham Books). They are now bright shiny red! Only one left out of the three to put a final coat on. Good thing too, 'cause I have boxes and boxes of paperbacks to break out for you all to rummage through.

Of sincerity and sleeplessness

If you find yourself unable to sleep in the wee hours of the morning, one reprieve is having a good book to distract you until you are able to lure yourself back into the dreamy depths once more.

With that in mind, I would like to recommend Louis Bayard's The Black Tower. I read his earlier book, The Pale Blue Eye, only to be disappointed. Heaven knows why, but I read the whole thing, hoping for last minute redemption, I suppose. Ha! So it was with trepidation that I took home The Black Tower from the library. I couldn't resist it. It sounded too tasty!

I was not disappointed this time. On starting into the first few chapters, I was hooked. Now, most of the way through the book, I am still unable to tear myself away.

It has finally occurred to me what the difference between The Black Tower and The Pale Blue Eye is. The difference is sincerity. The characters in this book, each and every one of them, are living and breathing within its pages -- and are now alive in my own mind.

The author has wrought his magic!

This time his canvas is painted using the legendary Parisian police detective Vidocq. Narrated by medical student Hector Carpentier, the tale weaves through the layers of deception, treachery, and redemption found surrounding the French Revolution, and the son of Marie-Antoinette and King Louis XVI.

Officially, the Dauphin died a brutal death in Paris's dreaded Temple -- a menacing black tower from which there could have been no escape -- but speculation has long persisted that the ten-year-old heir may have been smuggled out of his prison cell.

Well, it's a darn good story, so I'll let you find out the rest by reading it for yourself.

Sunday: No opening of The Green Hand

Hello everyone --
Due to bureaucratic delays, we are unable to open The Green Hand Bookshop as planned on Sunday. Please bear with us, those of you who hoped to come along, and we will open as soon as possible.

I'll be at the shop working regardless, so if any of you do show up, you are certainly welcome to pop in and get a sneak preview of the grounds! :)

Many thanks again for all your support, and we'll see you soon. We are still planning to have our gala ribbon-cutting next Friday at 6:00!

Regards,
Michelle

Update on a rainy evening

Well, the big bookshelves are done -- all stained, and varnished, and sanded, and installed. Now onto the shorter cases that will be on the floor. A much easier prospect, now that I've decided to paint them. I started the process of sorting and pricing books this weekend with help from Loren L. and Amie, and the process of painting the floor bookshelves with help from Loren, Salli, and Summer. Good times!

I have a huge bruise on my left elbow from whacking my funnybone repeatedly while sanding the bookcases, etc. Just call me Grace. I have been contemplating taking a photo of it and sharing, because it really is quite majestic in its circumference, but restraint holds me back. Ewwww, who wants to look at a gross bruise?! Certainly not you.

Our latest adventure comes in my discovery this afternoon of a lovely line of dripping water descending through a seam in the ceiling of my front display window (don't worry, LC, your window area is dry as a bone). Of course, there is no handy emergency maintenance number for me to call, so I'll have to wait 'til Monday to address that fine event with the powers that be. However, the sign on the window, newly applied on Saturday by Brendan of Mobile Imaging, looks pretty swanky. You see below a Photoshop-doctored draft of what it will look like when its finished.

Please also note that you can now sign up for e-mail updates through the blog, so that you never miss a thing!

For those of you who don't get pestered by me via e-mail, here is some info about the shop opening...

The Green Hand Bookshop is officially opening (barring complications on the city business license front) on November 1st. We are located at 661 Congress Street, right next to Joe's Smoke Shop in the big old Trelawny Building, conveniently across the street from Tristan's shop, The Fun Box Monster Emporium (which is at 656B Congress Street).

November 1st is a Sunday, so it will be a fairly quiet affair, from 12:00-5:00, but the big brouhaha will be on First Friday, November 6th, when we will hold a ribbon cutting and open house from 5:00 to 9:00. The ribbon cutting will happen at 6:00, with Representative Herb Adams presiding.

The Green Hand is the culmination of a lot of dreams and hard work, and a lot of help from so many people I can't list you all here, but please know that you stand out like stars in the firmament of my mind, even through the fog and haze of sawdust, woodstain fumes, and all the rest that has been going on for the last month or so! Countless thanks to you all, you know who you are.

... in closing, I hope I see some of you on or after the opening day. Whether you make it to the festivities or not, please come check us out! :)

Cheers,
Michelle

...Of stains and famous authors

The walls are all painted now, leaving just the display window areas and a few other trim pieces to do. My dad was kind enough to come in today and help me stain bookcases -- three are done, ten more to go. The irony is that while I was removing stains by painting over them (the walls were filthy!), my dad was staining perfectly clean wood on the other side of the shop. Ha!

The bookcases are going to need two coats of stain each, and then they need to be sealed. I think I'm going to switch to paint for the half-stacks that are going down the center of the room, because this is nuts! However, the wall cases really need to be stained for the right look, so... onward.

... come to think of it, switching to a water-based stain for the last 10 tall cases would make sense, too. Phew!

While we were working, a gentleman came in to see what was happening, and to comment on the bookshop idea by remarking that Erskine Caldwell had run a bookshop across the street. Sure enough, when I went home to research it, there was the info. According to Conversations with Erskine Caldwell by Edwin T. Arnold, in 1928, Erskine Caldwell and his wife, photographer Margaret Bourke-White, opened the Longfellow Square Bookshop at 666A Congress Street which he ran through the 1930s (pg 89). Erskine was inspired by Maine when he wrote God's Little Acre (he also wrote Tobacco Road). Today, an architect's offices reside at 666 Congress Street.

More on Erskine Caldwell on Wikipedia (photo source).