Newsletter

Book Cranny Bookstore : used and new books, Southwest art and jewelry

Past newsletter article.

Book Cranny Newsletter	Issue Three December 2011

In This Issue

Lagniappe this Tuesday

Latest Craft Photos

Bestsellers of 2011

Call for articles

True story of Misguided treasure hunters

Where are you from?

Dear Wayne,

Since Book Cranny opened its doors at 7580 Grant Place in Olde Town Arvada in January 2010 we have sold over 11,000 books. We would like to thank you our loyal customers for your support.

We believe the reason we have been able to keep our doors open is that we take our customer input very seriously. We have benefitted greatly from our customers feedback and book recommendations. Please continue to forward your suggestions to us at blueplanetbooksellers@gmail.com or on our Facebook Book Cranny wall ( http://www.facebook.com/pages/Book-Cranny/156266287756828) or simply call us at 303-420-7765

Below some items that may be of interest to you:

Tuesday, December 6th from 6pm-8pm is Lagniappe, a signature event of Olde Town Arvada. Please come in for complimentary wine and a pumpkin/chocolate treat. Meet your fellow booklovers.

From the Historic Arvada website:

Celebrate Lagniappe (lawn-yahp) as our local business owners thank their loyal customers with small gifts of appreciation. The Mayor will begin the festivities by lighting the Tree in Town Square. Olde Town will glow with holiday lights, carolers will sing traditional holiday songs, and Santa will be waiting to meet young children and listen to the Holiday wishes. We will also have our 2nd annual Lagniappe chili contest benefiting the Arvada Fire Department at DiCicco's. 8 AFD stations will compete for teh peoples choice award while folks enjoy beer and wine from DiCicco's, goodie bags for kids, and hot apple cider. Mmmmmmm!

Call for newsletter articles!

You, our customers are a well read and interesting group of people. We will start including articles written by you in our newsletters. Please submit your article to Blueplanetbooksellers@gmail.com with the subject line "Newsletter Article". 10 Store credits will be given for articles selected. Topics can be book reviews and any local or national news about books and writers. Ideally we will hear opinions from our local readers.

We love our new front window display look, compliments of the students at the Art Institute of Colorado. However we still hear from folks living in Olde Town : "We had no idea you were here!!!" Please help us by spreading the word about our store. Another way you can support us it to leave feedback for us on www.Yelp.com or Google.com or any other search engine.

Angelika & Wayne

Online: Blue-Planet-Booksellers

http://www.blueplanetbooksellers.com

Storefront: Book Cranny in Olde Town Arvada, CO

303-420-7765 store 303-756-1964 (cell)

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Bestsellers:

You might be interested in knowing what your fellow Arvada booklovers are reading. Here are the top ten best-selling books at our store since Jan 2011.

Adult category:

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Smaldone: The Untold Story of an American Crime Family by Dick Kreck
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
True Grit by Charles Portis

Children's and Young Adult Category:

A to Z Mysteries (various titles) by Ron Roy
Diary of a Wimpy Kid (various titles) Jeff Kinney
I Spy Treasure Hunt (various titles) by Jean Marzollo
The New Captain Underpants (various titles) by Dav Pilkey
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling

Craft Inventory

We have dozens of new craft items (and more coming). Come in to see them! Here are photos of some of our current craft items.

babyShoes

Where are you from?

This is the question co-owner Angelika often hears from customers while she is busy counting out change. It is not an easy answer and in order not to shortchange customers we decided to give the answer here. It all started when Angelika's mother and father met at an English for foreigner's class in Washington, D.C. Julitta was from Germany and Mohammad was from Iran. Some years later Angelika was born in Tehran. In her family the parents communicated in English, the mom spoke German to her kids, and the father and everyone else spoke Farsi to the kids. This is how her unique accent was born. Angelika came to the United States to attend university in 1977. Angelika now speaks almost exclusively in English, which is a helpful trait for running a bookstore in Arvada.

A True Story from Two Misguided Treasurehunters

Four years ago when we first started selling online we were novices in the book trade. One of us would scout out garage sales for interesting book titles then call the other partner to check values etc.. Well at one garage sale Wayne had seen American Policy Studies by Charles Press & Kenneth Verburg and thought it looked interesting so he recorded the information but left the sale empty handed. When he phoned Angelika and asked about "American Policy Studies" she checked the item and said it started at $2500 and there were only 6 copies available! So I rushed back to purchase the rather thin good condition large paperback for a whopping 50 cents. When I got home we listed it for $2,500 and waited. Well that was in December of 2007 and just recently the going price for "American Policy Studies" starts at $20 !!! It is now a standing joke in our business that when we are asked to guess what amazing thing has happened the response is always "American Policy Studies" has sold !!

The unanswered question is how the asking price became so astronomical. Examining the book for value and appeal I found no appeal at all, it is to put it bluntly, a very boring book. Short vignettes of how American foreign policy unfolded in different historical situations. Most of the books in our bargain bin (0.50 - $1) are more entertaining and/or informative. Perhaps some government agency at some point had it on their required reading list and as the numbers dwindled and demand rose the price shot up. Or maybe the first person to list the item set it at $2500 because it seemed so rare. The lesson learned is to take prices listed online with a healthy grain of salt. The unreasonably high priced items are often never matched with buyers and the unreasonably low priced items are often not actually available. We try to keep our prices both reasonable and competitive. Books that languish on bookstore shelves are a financial drain. As an added bonus we are offering our beloved customers: This month only the very rare and sought after "American Policy Studies" by Press & Verburg for the amazingly low one-time price of $19.95 (a $2500 value)!

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