Edda this, Edda that.

Back in high school, (when I actually had to go to a library to research) I did a paper on the two Eddas influence on Tolkien. I don't remember much about that paper, except that a list of dwarf names included Gandalf as well as others that were familiar. 

Having just recently finished a tome about the Vikings ("Children of Ash and Elm") I decided to get the two Eddas for the store. Basically, almost everything we know about Viking mythology comes from these two works, which--even then--were written by Christians shortly after the Viking age. 

What I remember them being called was the "Elder Edda" and the 'Younger Edda." Nowadays, the preferred titles seem to be the "Prose Edda" and the "Poetic Edda."

I don't expect these will sell quickly. I got them because I wanted them.

But it's also a good example of what I think a good bookstore should do. 

1.) Buy something interesting.

2.) Buy something most other stores won't have.

My theory is that everyone is carrying the bestsellers. How many store are carrying the Eddas?

My store is reflection of me, in some ways. I like having books that are significant only to those "in-the-know." That one person, who over the course of year, will pick up the Prose Edda and go, "I can't believe you have this." My theory is that that person will be a customer for life.

Whereas the person who picks up "Where the Crawdad Sings" may not even remember where they bought it. Certainly, the store itself won't be unique or memorable by having it.

When Linda and I owned the Bookmark, we started off with an idiosyncratic selection. Books that came from my parent's eclectic library as well as books I'd gathered over the years. I had enough time to come in and sort through the books, selecting out the books that I thought were interesting.

The latest Tom Clancy or John Grisham or James Patterson weren't interesting to me at all.

I remember once one of our employees lifting up a book and laughing, "Oh, a book about goat herding!" and tossing it in the storage bin.

"No," I said. "That's the kind of book we want."

Anyway, I took my eye off the ball. Linda wanted more time off and so we had a couple of full time employees. A few years passed.

So one day, I walk in the store and I realize that we were just like every other "paperback exchange" type store. Full of Tom Clancy and John Grisham and James Patterson, but nary a goat herding or chicken raising or Edda to be found. No matter how often I told them to look for the unusual, they insisted on filling the shelves with dreck. (Not that the authors are dreck, but that EVERYONE has them.)

So when I buy books for Pegasus, I very purposely give way my whims. Things that aren't necessarily commercial. I pursue interesting sections that don't really pay off. 

Because I just don't want to have a store that has nothing but the lowest common denominator. I don't want my store to be indistinguishable from every other bookstore. 

Hell, Walmart does a better job of that.