Our opening few weeks…

Even our favorite Violin Monster stopped by! Aaawooooooo!

Our opening week, we were planning on doing it very softly. However, the Ann Arbor community was so supportive, as soon as we opened our doors, people were buying books. This is a good thing. Though we have had some hiccups (like running out of receipt paper on Day #1 or thinking we had lost all our sales when really we just weren’t pressing a computer button) so far, so good. We’ve learned a lot so far, both about ourselves, our business, and what Ann Arbor is buying. Thank you to everyone who has had the patience with us as we’ve stammered and stuttered our way through getting our computers up and our special order system (which we are still smoothing out). Here are some other things we’ve learned so far:

-Customers themselves are each others’ salespeople. We were thinking that we would have to do a lot more individual hand-selling to customers than we’ve done. While we get many customers asking for recommendations — which we LOVE — many more people simply browse with a companion and pick up books and say, “Oh have you read this? It’s the best. You have to get it.” And they buy it. That peer-to-peer book interaction, so frequently overheard here, is part of what is lost when you buy online. By far this has been the biggest surprise, just listening to people excitedly talk about books.

-On a similar note, the basement is perfect for couples’ browsing. Many people we’ve noticed just grab a drink at Arbor Brewing or Grizzly Peak or Amadeus, head over to the bookshop, and just wander. Sometimes there are more people in the basement than upstairs, which is something we never expected. We’re planning on putting a few chairs outside so people can just read on the sidewalk. No fuss, no hassle, just a place to sit and read.

-People will steal. I hate writing it, but it’s true. We’ve already had experiences with customer theft. There is a special hell for someone who steals from a small 2600 sq. ft. bookstore that’s swimming in debt.

-Poetry is our second strongest section. (!!)  This has to do with a few factors: Russ and John, two of our awesome employees, are also graduates of the MFA poetry program at Michigan. They have curated a pretty great poetry section, one that we believe is the best in the entire state of Michigan. We stand proudly by our poetry section and we continue to schedule great poets for our store.

-Other strong sections are science and math, fiction (obviously), cookbooks, and essays.

-Science fiction / fantasy was heavily requested by those in the community, so we expanded! We’ll keep monitoring this new section (as we do with all our sections) but this was our first major change since opening.

-Our events are rocking. The Keith Taylor event was just insane. That’s because Keith is an outstanding poet and people love his work. Raymond McDaniel did a fantastic and beautiful introduction, and our first night coinciding with the FestiFools was a smashing success. It was standing room only. As such, we realized our basement gets very hot when you pack tons of people inside. It was just a wonderful night. Thank you Keith and Ray. We still have signed copies of The Ancient Murrelet, so come to the store and pick up one. It’s the perfect chapbook to read outside during a peaceful spring day.

A packed book launch for If You Want To See A Whale!

-Kevin Smokler gave a fantastic reading of his Practical Classics: 50 Reasons to Reread 50 Books You Haven’t Touched Since High School. Kevin is outgoing and a great guy; he dressed in full cap-and-gown to address the audience. Everyone was reminded about a few of those classics we should probably reread. Thank you for all your support, Kevin!

-Abby Bennett turned our bookstore into an art gallery! Check out pictures from her senior thesis: Binding, Together. We love her beautiful handmade books.

-Loreen Niewenhuis talked about her experience walking the shorelines of all 5 Great Lakes!

-We had our first-ever Open mic poetry night w/The Neutral Zone! It was standing-room only. Thank you especially to the great Kevin Coval!

-Last week, Erin Stead of A Sick Day For Amos McGee launched new book If You Want To See A Whale. We still have signed copies at the store. This was just an awesome event. Thank you to the Steads!

-Harlequin Creature stopped by and made custom bookmarks with an old letter press! We’re selling Harlequin Creature’s hand-typed literary journal in our store (and I think there are still a few custom bookmarks around) so get ‘em before they’re gone.

Custom made bookmarks by Harlequin Creature! So cool.

Events coming up:

-Every Saturday we have CHILDREN’S STORY TIME! 11am. Deb has done a pirate-themed reading and a cowboy/cowgirl-themed reading. It’s a great way to spend your morning around Ann Arbor!

-On Friday May 17th, we’re hosting our first music event in the store! Come at 8pm and check out winter/sessions, a Michigan folk band!

-On Friday May 24th, we’re hosting an evening of poetry with Gahl Liberzon, Haley Patail, and Aimee Le. Gahl will read from his collection, “Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, Bodies” as well as some new stuff. You won’t want to miss these up-and-coming poets for what will be a very energetic and great event for us. Get here early as we’re expecting a huge crowd.

Finally, thank you everyone for your continued patience as we smooth out our ruffles and kinks. Running any small business is hard work, and I just want everyone to know Hilary and I are working as hard as we possibly can to give downtown Ann Arbor the best small independent general bookstore that we can. It’s tons of work, but it honestly doesn’t feel like work. It feels like we are creating  something good and we are always boosted by all your wonderful and warm feedback. The store is new and we are learning and growing our inventory, but we hope, in a few years from now, that our bookstore will be a pretty special place.

A sincere thank you to everyone who has stopped by, offered us a word of encouragement, a supportive cookie or hug, flowers, cards, typewriters, wine, champagne, signed David Mitchell posters, suggestions, smiles, and kind sentences. You continue to be the boost we need and make this entire process worthwhile and wonderful.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Meeting one of our all-time favorites, Dave Eggers.

We are OPEN!

Hilary on opening day. Never too early for celebratory champagne!

We are open. After moving from Brooklyn back to Ann Arbor (where Hilary grew up and where I have family), we have opened Literati Bookstore. It feels great. It feels wonderful.

First, store details: We haven’t set hours yet, but we will generally be open 11am-8pm. We’ll stay open a little longer on Friday/Saturdays and close earlier on Sundays (6pm.) We may expand these hours just seeing what the foot traffic is like.

Second, we have a suggestion list in our store for customer recommendations! Please be patient with our growing inventory. If there’s not something you think we should have, say so! We are only as good of a bookstore as our ability to give our community what it wants. We left room in our inventory to grow, learn what Ann Arbor wants, what it wants to buy, and give a few suggestions of our own.

Third, events. The wonderful Keith Taylor, Ann Arbor poet, will read from his new poetry chapbook this Friday @ 8pm. If you’re in the area, please come by. It’s free. It’ll be fun. Lots of book lovers from the community will attend, and it’s our first ever in-store reading, so we’re super nervous/pumped/anxious.

We also have a kids’ STORYTIME this Saturday (and subsequent Saturdays) @ 11am. Deb will read Click, Clack, Moo as well as Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel.

Finally, Kevin Smokler, a writer with Ann Arbor roots, will visit our store Wednesday April 10th @ 8pm to remind us about some classics we probably should all reread (or read for the first time.) I’m looking forward to this event because I should definitely reread many of those classics I haven’t touched since high school.

OK, now behind-the-scenes stuff:

People buying books!

We technically opened last Sunday on Easter. We wanted to quietly open our doors and attract one or two pedestrians and lure them into our store, practice our credit card machines, and get our feet wet slowly. Turns out, Easter was a beautiful sunny Sunday and people were excited to visit! We were going to wait until Tuesday to announce the opening on Facebook, but AnnArbor.com ran this great article, so we posted our “OPEN” sign on Facebook. Since then it’s been a steady stream of support, both in the store and online. We couldn’t be more thrilled.

Our basement isn’t so scary after all.

Also, I sit in my office in the basement and occasionally hear some funny quotes as customers walk by my doors. Here are some of my favorites:

-A guy walked down the stairs, looked around, and said with a smile, “This is f**king AWESOME!”

-”Daddy, I’m going to go get Mommy upstairs because I found a book that she will just LOVE to see.”

-”Books! Wonderful books! Books, I tell you!”

-”This is the best day.”

Also, Crafting With Cat Hair continues to be a fan favorite.

See, Hilary and I have generally been trapped in our own little bubble. Little bubbles can be sometimes bad. We have had so many anxiety attacks and mini-heart attacks about opening, knowing when we would be ready to open, our inventory, our layout… We are thrilled that so far, so good. Our staff has been the best. Our families have patiently dealt with our insane moments. The community has kept giving us notes of positivity, both on Facebook and Twitter and in person, that we are just so happy and thrilled to be finally open.

So much more to come, but for now, it’s my sincere pleasure to finally say with a smile:

We’re open.

Mike and Hilary with Mike’s high school English teacher and family, who drove 2 hours to come to opening day.

Update: Inching closer to opening.

Lots of books to categorize and scan.

Scanning, categorizing, and stocking thousands upon thousands of books is a pretty time-consuming process. Nevertheless, we’re moving as quickly as we can. We have completed our hiring process. We have some of the best book ninjas in our store — passionate, wonderful people, including some who have worked at Borders and Shaman Drum. We have carpet, lighting, tables, and an office in our basement. Hilary is giddy at the prospect of doing one of those “before” and “after” posts for that once-dungeon of a basement, but more on that later.

A few interesting things have been happening, so here are some tidbits:

Our window display.

- People have already been walking into our store, hoping we are open. This is awesome. For now, we have to sadly say, “We’ll be open in a week or two! Please come back!” The past few weeks we’ve been cleaning, ordering, stocking, and shelving, so from the outside we look functional and open. The notion that we are already picking up foot traffic and people are already walking inside ready to browse books is amazing and wonderful. When we first started this journey, one of our biggest question marks was, “How are we going to get people to know about us the first year?”

Tom, pictured here, used to work at Shaman Drum.

- Book ninjas are hired. We have hired three former Borders employees, a Shaman Drum employee, the director of the Great Lakes Independent Books Association, and two Michigan MFA students/graduates. All are passionate. All are experienced. We’re thrilled. We hope we are successful enough in the future to hire even more of the great applicants we had. We are working our butts off to ensure that we’re successful so we can bring on even more.

Getting there.

- Every day people ask, “When will you be open?” And every day we have to say, “Soon!” The thing is this: We are beyond thrilled to be opening our doors to Ann Arbor, but we have to do it right. With any business, it can take some time. We’re ordering books, re-ordering books, asking book yodas in the community which books we should carry. We are tweaking, refining, and adjusting. We have moved sections at least once every day this week. Every day the bookstore grows, changes, and takes on its own life. We have to be ready when we open our doors, but we can’t announce a date until we’re sure everything will work properly, the credit cards will swipe, the books are stocked and placed properly, and everything is screwed-in and bolted down. When we do open, there will be growing pains and chaotic days and learning curves, so we ask patience. Especially since Ann Arbor is used to these great iconic bookstore institutions. We’re in this for the long haul. If you don’t see a book you think we should carry, please say so! Our inventory will grow with time and in a year from now will be streamlined with what the community wants and needs. We’re trying to predict exactly what that is, but until we open, we just don’t fully know.

Event calendar!

- Events. We have our first event planned with Keith Taylor, a local University of Michigan professor, poet, and writer. Keith was one of the very first people we met with when we first told some people we were planning on opening a bookstore downtown. Since then, he’s been incredibly supportive. We’re so excited to host Keith for our first-ever reading on April 5th @ 8pm. He will be reading from his new collection, “The Ancient Murrelet”. It will be a magical night for us. (We will be open by then.)

- We also have Kevin Smokler, an author with Ann Arbor roots, coming in on April 10th @ 8pm to read from his latest work, “Practical Classics: 50 Reasons To Reread 50 Books You Haven’t Touched Since High School.” Personally, I’m thrilled about this event. I always re-watch movies, but never books. Hilary is the opposite; she loves to re-read books but never movies. This is a great kick-off event to remind us about some of those classics to rediscover.

-We’re partnering with The Neutral Zone! A few weeks ago, we went to a reading at The Neutral Zone. It was incredible. Energetic. Lively. Engaging.  We’re thrilled to announce a partnership with The Neutral Zone to bring an open mic event every month to Literati!  The first one will kick off on April 30th @ 8pm. I cannot wait to see and hear what the vibrant artistic community of Ann Arbor comes up with for this series.

-Finally, we have lined up Erin Stead. She, along with her husband Philip Stead, is the genius behind “A Sick Day For Amos McGee,” one of the most beautiful, funny, and touching children’s books I’ve read. The married Ann Arbor team (who live in a 100-year-old converted barn in Kerrytown) won the prestigious Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished children’s picture book.  They’re coming to Literati on May 9th @ 6:30pm to launch Erin’s newest book, “If You Want To See A Whale,” which means the community can be the first to receive signed editions from one of the most talented illustrators in the world. We’re ecstatic that Erin chose us to do so.

Lots happening. Lots going on. We hope to continue to build our events program. Right now we’re just focusing on getting open as soon as possible. Then we can move forward.

We’re excited. We’re ready. We’re opening soon. We thank you all for your support. It keeps us going.

mike + hilary

Update: Books have entered the building.

Our first shipment of books.

We have books. They aren’t sorted, scanned or stocked, but we have books.

Each day, we inch closer to opening. Last week, brick walls turned into bookshelves. This week, like Christmas in February, boxes upon boxes of books are delivered to our door. 38 boxes were delivered Wednesday — our first shipment. Yesterday we received 30 more. Every day is a baby step.

So far, we have ordered approximately 7,500 books. Hilary individually perused each title, one-by-one.   We hand-picked these books to offer Ann Arbor the best possible selection. But at the same time, we will listen to our customers and the community and add to our growing inventory. Because our customers will know just as much (or more) about great books and we’re excited to have a dialogue about what you think are amazing reads and make that be part of our store, too.

Already, we’ve been getting great recommendations from the community. John Tewsley, former Borders buyer with expertise in History/Current Events/Politics/Law, helped us hone our non-fiction section. Peter Roumanis, owner of the new (and fabulous) restaurant Vellum on Main St, provided us with a great recommendation list for cookbook and food writing titles. Lovely MFA students (and soon-to-be Zell Fellows) Gina Balibrera and Claire Skinner gave us some personal poetry reading recommendations. Rebekah Modrak, UofM art professor, also provided a great list of titles that her students and colleagues wanted to see in store.  And many, many thanks to Dave Jansen and all those at Above the Treeline (who are just down the street!) for providing much needed information on bestselling titles at indie bookstores. The vast knowledge of the community has been our greatest asset.

When we first toyed with the bookstore idea, we wanted every book to be a “good book”. But there are many different definitions of what is a “good book.” That’s the beauty with independent bookstores: The inventory is specifically catered to the community. We are able to select certain books because, as independent booksellers, we’re not tied down by shareholders or obligations to publishers or personalities. We can just carry whatever we believe to fit that category of “great books.” Our opening inventory will be far from perfect and will evolve (and grow!) over time. But for now it reflects our knowledge (and love) of books and we hope that to be a good starting-off point.

“When I go to a bookstore I like the sense that some kind of thought has gone into what is in the store. Someone has decided what is worthy of being on the shelf and what is not…. It will never be the case that every book in this country will be ordered online, never. And I say that with absolute confidence.”

-Malcolm Gladwell

Thank you to everyone who has been stopping by the store. Your kind words and encouragement keep us working late into the night to open as soon as possible.

Our favorite love stories

“Love is the whole world.” -Love is Walking Hand in Hand

Love is everywhere: in our protagonists, our antagonists, and our favorite books. Today, Hilary and I quickly scanned our personal bookshelves for our favorite books about love of any kind. Here are some of our favorites. We’d love to hear some of yours, too.

Cute Love: Love Is Walking Hand In Hand, by Charles Schulz.

Doomed Love: The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Teen Love: The Fault In Our Stars, by John Green.

Book Love: Too Loud A Solitude, by Bohumil Hrabal.

Parental Love: Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson.

Sexy Love: Written On The Body, by Jeanette Winterson.

Self-Sacrificial Love: The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein.

Hollywood Love: Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walter.

Dog Love: Where The Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls.

Sports Love: The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach.

Drug Love: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S. Thompson.

Nature Love: A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold.

Misguided Dystopian Love: Super Sad True Love Story, by Gary Shteyngart. 

What are some of your favorite love stories?

5 Reasons Why I Love Physical Books

Every night we debate why we love books. We are asked so many times about the market place for “physical books” right now, the rise of e-readers, and Amazon. And every night, we remind ourselves why we love books so …

Sneak Peek: Let the construction begin!

Since signing the lease, our lives have been in a whirlwind. The outpouring of local Ann Arbor support is both awesome and incredible. The community has been fantastic. We apologize if we haven’t responded to all the messages and comments and questions — we’ve been working hard with our contractors to get this bookstore as open as soon as possible.

The big question: When?

We’re hoping early March. A lot of that depends on a variety of factors, including construction and build-out of the space. We are doing some improvements including a complete cosmetic redesign of the basement. Our store will be two levels of 1300 square foot space for a total of 2600. So, if you walk by Washington and 4th Ave. and peek inside, you’ll see an upstairs space that is an open, exposed brick, tin-ceiling cathedral of happiness and wonder. But if you peak down the staircase, the basement is (right now) a dungeon of gloom and doom and vague creepiness. Our challenge the next six weeks is to brighten up that dungeon, make it inviting, and turn it into a destination for book lovers and writers (as well as exorcising any ghosts who may still linger).

For those unfamiliar, here is a shot of the upstairs space. In the back will be a new bathroom, and we’ve worked with an architect to design our floor plan and general layout. It’s going to be an open, modern, well-lit upstairs space with a children’s section near the rear entrance.

Upstairs image taken last month. If you peak inside now, you’ll see the frame for a bathroom near the back.

Aaaaand here is the scary basement. While we could turn this into a nice haunted house area for children, haunted houses don’t sell books. We imagine it eventually as having a very cool, cozy vibe with possibly some seating and a space for groups to meet (book clubs, etc). But it’s going to take quite a bit of work. We’re generally cleaning it up, redoing the flooring, adding lots of lights, and painting. So, in short, a total transformation. We wish we had a magic wand to wave, but instead we’ve got some hard work cut out of us. Stay tuned…

A portion of the scary basement. In six weeks, this will look totally different.

Please continue supporting us on Facebook and on Twitter. Your Facebook messages and continued support are the fuel that gives us the pep in our step. Thank you all so much!

LEASE SIGNED!

We have exciting news: WE SIGNED THE LEASE!!!!

The green storefront on the corner is officially the home of Literati Bookstore!

Literati Bookstore will officially open at 124 E. Washington Street in downtown Ann Arbor, on the corner of Washington and 4th. Our space is directly next door to Amadeus Restaurant and two doors down from our favorite happy hour spot Arbor Brewing Company. We couldn’t be more thrilled about the location! Washington Street is quickly becoming a hotspot for restaurants and businesses and we’re happy to be adding to the vitality of the area.

Hilary signing the lease. Our witness was a giant Bob Marley banana.

Thank you so much to everyone in the past few weeks who has reached out, supported us, sent a kind note, or supported us on Facebook and Twitter. We will have much more news in the upcoming days and weeks, and hopefully, we will be opening very soon, too. We have lots of work to do… but the biggest step is done!

A special thanks to our families and friends who have supported us thus far. We couldn’t have done this without you. We are so excited to be in downtown Ann Arbor. We are so excited to enhance the vibrant book culture that already exists. And we are so excited to finally call Ann Arbor home of Literati Bookstore.

More to come….

We are so excited! Here’s the obligatory self-shot just after signing the lease. We’re looking forward to adding to the book community in downtown Ann Arbor.

Borders Bookshelves Repurposed

Borders shelving we removed from the walls and stacked in the loading dock area.

When we started thinking about how we were going to shelve the store, we initially thought we’d use a mix of used and custom shelves. But then we heard that Borders No. 1 downtown Ann Arbor still had lots of shelving available. So we went and checked it out and decided, let’s do this. We removed/disassembled more than 50 shelves.

Michael moving shelving through Borders No.1

The children’s area had custom-made shelves that are fabulous. They have adjustable shelves with built-in lighting (which we’ll have to re-wire). Additionally, they have a board covering the built-in lights that are painted a whimsical navy-blue with stars. We’ll try to give the new shelves some Literati personality and paint over that with chalkboard paint, making it easy to write in our sections. We’re planning to accent the store in black and white so we can to keep in line with our logo design, hence our signage in the black/white of chalkboard. This was an idea passed along by Kate McCune, a Harper Collins rep, who suggested this after Parnassus Books in Nashville instituted chalkboard signage for their sections, making it easy to switch them up if need be.

Children’s section shelving we are repurposing.

You can see the detail of the painted board over the lights here. Hoisted by the strong Mike Gustafson.

The other shelves, seen below, are standard oak units that could be found in almost all Borders stores. They are a little tall for our basement so we might have to cut them down to ensure they fit.

Standard oak shelving found throughout the store.

We also bought some display items like magazine racks, four-sided display islands, and lots of slatboard. Not only do we feel fortunate to have access to this great shelving, but we are happy to be reusing it in an eco-friendly way. And a little bit of Borders, this great Ann Arbor institution, can live on in Literati.

Support us on Facebook / Twitter!

We’ll save our long updates/rants/novellas for this blog, but for shorter updates, “LIKE” us on the Literati Bookstore Facebook Page, and for super short updates, follow us on Twitter at @LiteratiBkStore. Much more to come…

Thank you for your support!