Chapter Thirty-Seven, in which the Windows are dressed anew

Banned Books Week is over, so away go the wrapped, censored, chained, and otherwise silenced books which decorated the windows last week. Take care with your window displays, for after only a week in the sun the paper that had covered some of the display books is yellowed and brittle, so nature surely attacks the other books in like, though less noticeable, manner.

Also gone now is the special table for science fiction. The front is returned to its normal look, with the catalog of Banned Books and special flyers promoting Buy A Friend A Book Week left on the table for perusal.

To the front goes a selection of haunted BOOks, including Dracula, Frankenstein, some Anne Rice vampire novels, and a survey of ghosts and hauntings. Perhaps we will bring out the secret scarecrow and prop him up in the window as well.

Other tidbits: three photographs of Madonna and her exceedingly rare and beautiful book collection clipped from Ladies Home Journal (or some such magazine) are now framed and accenting the stores aisles. We also received a telephone call today from a local radio station in response to last week's press release. Stay tuned for what that call may bring. And we have given the final approval on a billboard design, the first of which should be proudly on display in several days.

A final note from the weekend: we took a drive through town (elapsed time: 17 seconds) the other night, as we often do, for no other reason than to admire the store and the big "BOOKS" light from the street, and at the other end of town (the next block) we saw The Cracker Jack was cleaned out. This was the gift/junque store that opened shortly before ours in the building that we almost took last year. We also learned the owner had been living in the back of the store to save expenses on an apartment. He had posted a sign about six weeks ago advertising a going-out-of-business sale, but he hung on. Until now. It is sad he could not make it. I just hope books are a more compelling purchase than lamps and faux antiques.

So far, we are surviving, and we are optimistic.