Notes from Juror No. 3!

I have to tell you how many people on the jury love Village Books!  It was wierd.  I felt like I was a politician, so many people knew me or knew the store.  First there was this lady who was reading Suite Francaise and she was telling me all about it, saying she was reading it for her bookclub and of course (being employee of the year...absent employee but...anyway) I said, well, you know I work at Village Books in the Palisades and Katie gives all bookclubs a 15% discount.  She burst into this huge smile and said she gets all her books from us, and she loves the bookstore and how wonderful it is, etc. etc., so then a voice pipes up from down the row and says "I'm an author and I just did a reading at Village Books.  I love Village Books."  It was Melissa Clark, the one who wrote the chicklit about sperm (Swimming Upstream Slowly).  So of course then tons of people had her autograph her publicity cards.  Then this other woman said she was from the Palisades and she too buys all her books from us.  So..anyway, I put in many good plugs, reminding them all of our discount program, etc., but the main thing is, I don't think any of us realize how really important the store is.  I mean...its like a small little light in the world.  But SO MANY PEOPLE see it.....