During this season of giving, KLCC checked in with some local booksellers to find out how they’re doing and what books they recommend for gifting or reading yourself.
The holiday season is a busy time for local bookstores.
“I think the statistic is something like bookstores in general make over a third of their total sales for the year during this time of the year,” said Deborah Harms, floor manager at The Book Bin in Corvallis. “I think for us it's maybe even more than that. We're in a college town, but we see a distinct rise in foot traffic during the holiday season because we are located right in the heart of our downtown.”
The Book Bin features new and used books and remainders, which Harms describes as publishers' overstock. Those are sold to the bookstore at a lower rate so the store can sell them at a discount to customers. She said they also sell puzzles, games, and calendars.
“The fourth quarter really makes our whole year, especially the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas,” said Cassie Clemans, owner of Roundabout Books in Bend. “We're already more than doubling our regular daily sales outside of that month, and then the week before Christmas, we triple or quadruple our daily sales leading up to that holiday.”
Roundabout Books features books for kids and adults. It also has lots of gifts and cards, and a small cafe.
“This is like the busiest time of year,” said Madeline Moulton, who’s the book buyer at Smith Family Bookstore in Eugene. “I think for most local businesses, the holidays are kind of the make or break season, just as a business, where it goes from red zone to green zone even. So it's a really important time and it's a fun time because we're busy.”
Moulton’s grandparents founded Smith Family Bookstore in 1974. Her mother, Evon Smith, owns it now.
The store used to specialize in textbooks and had a location near campus. Their downtown location sells new and used books.
“We’re primarily a used bookstore,” Moulton said. “When you come in and you see all the stacks of books, or any used book you see, those are all things we bought from people who come in and sell their books to us. We give cash for used books, and that’s the bulk of our business.”
What’s selling well, and what booksellers recommend
“Folks are getting really into birding again. Last year, Amy Tan released her book 'The Backyard Bird Chronicles,' and that kind of reinvigorated birding, particularly here in the Willamette Valley, So, we do have a lot of bird guides right now and I'm a birder, so I really enjoy those as well.” - Deborah Harms, The Book Bin
“I'd say our most popular fiction title right now is 'The Correspondent.' It's by Virginia Evans, and it's this wonderful, epistolary fiction novel, about a woman who, so an epistolary novel, when the whole thing is written in letters. So it's her entire correspondence of her life, as she reflects on some mistakes she's made and some decisions she's making at the moment. But it's just this beautiful, beautiful book, of a look back on a life and I finished it and I want to go buy my own beautiful stationery and start writing letters again.” – Cassie Clemans, Roundabout Books
“'Lord of the Rings' is as hugely popular as it's ever been, but there's this author named David Day, he's also an illustrator, who does this whole series of books. There's 'The Illustrated World of Tolkien, Volume 1 and 2.' There's like all these other volumes about all the other aspects of that world and the books are all really aesthetically pleasing and cool, so people often come in looking for those, or (are) seeing them and buying them.” - Madeline Moulton, Smith Family Bookstore
“We have a number of true adventure memoir titles. A big one this year is 'A Marriage at Sea,' and it's the story of the Baileys who tried to sail from the United Kingdom to New Zealand and their boat sank. And so it's about how they survived for, I think it was like 119 days.” - Deborah Harms, The Book Bin
“Nonfiction– there's this book for history lovers, 'The Gales of November,' by John Bacon. It's the untold story of the Edmund Fitzgerald. It's just kind of this wonderful history book about the Great Lakes and Lake Superior, specifically, and the Edmund Fitzgerald and that story that surrounds that sinking of that ship, so that's been a really fun one. I can't keep that one in stock right now.” - Cassie Clemans, Roundabout Books
“I don't think there's a better gift than a book." - Cassie Clemans, Roundabout Books.
“There's this series of books I really love right now which are (called) '5-Minute Nature Stories,' '5-Minute Ocean Stories,' and '5-Minute Space Stories,' by this author named Gabby Dawnay, and they're only $15 but they're like really nice hardcovers, really nicely illustrated.” - Madeline Moulton, Smith Family Bookstore
Why books are a good gift
“I always give books every season, not just because I work here, but because I like being able to see people get excited about something maybe they didn't think about before or hadn't considered, and then being able to speak with them about it.” – Deborah Harms, The Book Bin
“I don't think there's a better gift than a book. The price point's really nice. I know book prices are rising, and so sometimes it's hard to consider giving a $30 hardcover as a gift. But if you think in terms of the hours and the quality of time that you're giving, I think it's a really valuable gift.” – Cassie Clemans, Roundabout Books
“There is something fun and special about somebody having this idea about something you would love, and going into a store and looking around and picking something that they've read and recommend or that reminded them of you.” - Madeline Moulton, Smith Family Bookstore
(Music for audio postcard by Noru and Music Word from Pixabay)
