More big news from Roger and Nancy Page, longtime owners of Island Books of Mercer Island and newly-crowned Mercer Island Citizens of the Year: A couple of years ago on a Sunday in August a young mom and her toddler came into the kids’ section where Nancy and I were working. She looked vaguely familiar …
Congratulations to Roger and Nancy Page, owners of Island Books of Mercer Island, WA. They have been chosen as Mercer Island Citizens of the Year for 2015! The pair has been selling books on the Island since 1973, so as their store blog explained, even though they’re not official residents, “they do spend more time …
With all the noise about Black Friday and stores being open on Thanksgiving it occurs to me that we didn’t used to shop as much when I was a kid. (Pardon my doddering nostalgia.) I remember just two kinds of shopping with mom. Grocery shopping at the A&P, which I loved (“Trix are for kids!”) …
Regular readers of this newsletter will be aware that our house is presently absent of offspring. Our last fledgling has flown. The nest is empty. Nancy and I were quite nervous about this moment. We actively spent some quality time together—just the two of us—this summer to make sure we would still be good company …
Holidays are a mixed bag for me. On the negative side, the hours are long, my feet are sore, and I wake up most nights worried about stupid stuff. On the bright side, I like to watch people shop. It’s fascinating, really. Everyone approaches it so differently. It can be so revealing of one’s inner psyche. …
Three or four times a week a new salesperson comes to town, or it’s a rookie school donation seeker, or, occasionally, an unhappy gift recipient. They casually stroll in, survey the assembled staff and customers, and when their eyes alight on the old tired-looking guy in the corner they will step up and ask, “Are …
“Right now our bookshelves and tables are groaning with the weight of all the Father’s Day flotsam and jetsam that publishers could launch. An entire years worth of manly books arrived in the last two weeks and there’s way too much to absorb. It’s hard to pick out the pearls amidst the crashing waves of …
Mother's Day is Sunday, May 12. We thought we'd share this lovely letter on the subject from Roger Page, owner of Island Books on Mercer Island. Our editoral board met at Miriam’s house for breakfast last week to hash out the May newsletter. Amidst coffee, croissants, and six month old twins, I was assigned Mother’s …
“This month we are sharing our Top 40 list and have a display of the hot-selling titles from last year. I have an increasingly cranky view of this yearly exercise. It seems that all the press, media, blogosphere is focused on telling us what is most popular. What’s cool, what’s now, what everybody else is …
Island Books’ Roger Page lead the store’s March newsletter with a thread that ran from his daughter’s Senioritis, to his long-tenured, very capable staff at the store. Though they all smile and nod, at this point “they pretty much know what to do and don’t have a lot of use for me.” Which is why …
