Wow!  How to squeeze 50,000 weekend visitors into a village of 611 North Country souls?  Well, that's Applefest!  It was a rollicking good time and our little store provided an oasis of quiet and respite from the frenetic whirl of people and dogs and smoke and music which filled the streets.  There was a palpable sense of relief as refugees from the streets stepped inside.  Depending upon who was on duty, Pandora played mixes of blues, bossa nova, Yo-Yo Ma, Neil Young or Blossom Dearie.  Pink Floyd remained banned!  Books about apples were prominent on the shelves - how to grow them, how to cook them, how to press them.  Most people gravitated to our Apostle Islands, Lake Superior, Northwoods, and Ojibwe Country sections.  Many others preferred to browse and choose from our basic inventory of fiction, non-fiction, science fiction, mysteries, stories, poetry, children, young adult, cookbooks, gardening books, music, art, architecture, spiritualism, health and well-being, travel and adventure.

With that over we downshifted to our shoulder season and began to look back at the high traffic days and evenings of Summer.  What worked for us?  What went well?  We had the most interesting and appreciative group of customers and clients we could possibly have asked for.  We learned so much from them about books and about bookstores that we often felt we should trade places.  We had the best staff of professional, personable and reliable booksellers in the world.  We had the benefit of the advice and counsel of neighboring bookstores and neighboring merchants who had been through all of this before.

So, what sold?  Well, the Millenium Trilogy of Steig Larsson, of course, led the way.  That dragon-tattooed girl not only played with fire and kicked the hornet's nest, but she made our margins as well.  Close behind were the wonderful Northwoods and Ojibwe Country murder mysteries of William Kent Krueger.  Our own Dennis McCann's Badger Boneyards was a big hit especially when Dennis was in the store to chat and sign this new release.  Many left with the beautiful signature volume of the Apostle Islands, Jewels on the Water, which helps support the Friends of the Apostle Islands.  Our artist-in-residence, Bob Holton, had a huge following for Lucius (which he illustrated for Kathy Coughlin) as well as his own poster and guidebook The Realm of Tales Told Twice.  And Hunger Games, The Help, Hiawatha, Ladybug Girl at the Beach, and on and on and on.

Now that we are back to our 611 stalwart North Country people, we are turning to our role as a community resource.  Friday mornings we co-host a read aloud for children with Big Water Café and Coffee Roasters across the street.  Our book clubs are ramping up, and will begin mid-November.  Jack has scheduled our first poetry workshop for November 10^th.  There are plans for language salons and discussion groups and we are open to any and all suggestions.  We are arranging meetings with the schools, library, park service and other local entities to find areas of collaboration and synergy. 

One Thousand White Women - The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus