If you need books and can’t afford them, let us know. We have more than we need. The clearance cart will be in the vestibule every day, and the books there are now free for those who can’t afford them, despite any markings. Please help yourself if you have scant resources that you need for food, rent and pin money. That said, the books are subject to being handled by folks looking through them, so please don a pair of gloves and ask for a bag before you pick any out, then take ’em home, wipe them down with alcohol, wash your hands and let them sit for a couple of days before you delve into them. Reasonable precautions, please!

If you can afford them, please leave them for others or buy them at the small cost marked (tax included on the clearance cart books) and donate an equal number of books for us to give away. Don’t load us up with too many, just the number of books you buy.  We need to keep feeding the cart for folks who need to use their funds for basic necessities, but we don’t want to be juggling piles of cast off books either. The challenge is to stay in balance–something we’re all coping with, I’m sure.

We do also need to sell regular ol’ books, so feel free to ask us if we have something for you or if we can order such a thing! Sales are naturally less than in normal times, so if you can tuck a $10 in an envelope and drop it in our mail slot, we’ll use it to help meet the rent. Thanks very much for that! Five hundred $10 bills each month, and we’ll be living & operating rent free! We don’t need that much, though. We are at least breaking even at the moment, I believe, while meeting our small payroll (Jenna & Michael) through this pay cycle and the next, at least. We’ll find work for them to do at home after that if possible and keep them paid. We’ll try, anyway.

Store hours have changed. I’m taking Mondays off and may build in a little siesta from 3:00-4:30 pm Tuesday to Friday, I do believe, staying open 11-7 on Saturdays and Sundays. That’s the current thinking, anyway (4/4), anyway!

I need a volunteer cleanliness consultant. You’d need to be willing to come to the shop. It’s only me inside, except when solo and cohabitating musicians and poets are live streaming, and it’s just two to three people total on those occasions. I’m trying, and improving a bit each day, but it’s so complicated that it makes my head hurt and it’s hectic here during the “open” hours. Please get in touch if you feel confident that you can figure out what I need to be doing better and how to do it consistently.

Let’s build a paradise from this hell! Good luck to us all with that, but thanks, RS!

Love you madly,

/s/ Eric, prop., since 1999