Amongst Chaos, Friends

What a couple of weeks it has been! T-minus three days (final push!) and so much has happened. Our admin is mostly in place; we have insurance, internet, Booksellers Association membership, an electricity account, bins, we are registered as a food business, we have interviewed and picked staff, our till system order is in progress and a coffee machine is on its way... all of the boring stuff is falling into place. The big news, though, is that we got word from the Aardvarks that we could start moving things around in the shop from Wednesday so we have had one week to really get into the space and try to make it our own before we have to show it to the public (you). We have had some big ideas about it and are excited to see what you will all make of it when you come and see us.

Big ideas have met reality, however, as the actual feeling of beginning to move a large chunk of 70,000 books around, plus furniture, has really challenged us. It is a mammoth task that we have taken on, both physically and logistically, and there have been quite a few moments when I have not been sure we were going to make it in time. We are having to tag-team the transition as both Polly and I are still working out the notice on our full time jobs and apparently that requires us to be present and correct in those places at least some of the time, so we are taking it in turns to head up the teams of helpers to move things around.

I think it is fair to say that the Aardvarks were maximalists when it came to stocking their shop so the view at the beginning looked a lot like this (although the volunteer bum is a surprise optional extra!).

The cafe area of the bookshop, before we started working on it

The Aardvarks took shelving and some books with them, so the opportunity to reorganise has presented itself, and we have made the decision to attempt a few radical changes while we are at it, really setting our stall out from the start. The number one piece of feedback we have had about the previous set up is how overwhelming it can be when you walk in to see all those books and lots of people haven't quite known where to begin their browsing journey so end up not buying anything. We want the shop to look quite different, with much less stock on display so that we can really see each individual treasure, but achieving that in such a short time has required a certain amount of adjusting expectations on our part. We have gone from ordering all the shelves perfectly as we go along to a more 'broad-brushstroke' approach, keeping sections together but having to release the idea that every book will be in exactly the right place for now. We have left some sections in place, but you will see some sections in completely new places... you will have to come in to see exactly what we have put where.

The cafe area of the bookshop, in the chaos of transition.

Books are heavy, and so are shelves, and all this moving about has been made possible by a small army of friends and family who have kindly volunteered to help us make it happen. I have been so touched and grateful for every single person who has turned up and cheerfully accepted instructions to move lots of heavy dusty things up and down stairs, put this here, put that there, fix this to the wall, throw that away, carry yet more heavy things from this end to that. It has been a delight to see friends from different walks of life meet each other for the first time, chatting over lunch and working together to shift the mountains of books from place to place. Every now and again I caught a glimpse of one or other of them pausing to look at the books, exclaiming over something particularly beautiful, ridiculous or interesting, and many of them have walked away with a book of their choice as a small thank you. This includes our kind, patient and determined electrician who turned up to set up for wiring an oven in and ended up staying for three hours as he carefully worked through a 'snakes wedding' (his words) of cables to make our internet work. What a hero.

The vision of how we want it to be is emerging from the chaos, but it is going to be a work in progress for quite some time. Anyone coming along looking for a specific book may be disappointed, but if you are up for a voyage of discovery, you will find lots of lovely things on the shelves to enjoy. In amongst the thousands of books I have moved over the last few days, I came across this one hidden in the fiction section:

Cover of a paperback book The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps by Michel Faber

I had the great pleasure of meeting Michel Faber last year, and this book felt like seeing a friendly face in a weary, dusty moment. An extraordinary man and a beautiful writer, reminding me with this book to keep moving step-by-step, eating our elephant one bite at a time as we get closer to achieving our dream. We are not all the way up our one hundred and ninety-nine steps, but we are well on the way. And breathe.

Anyway, back to it, I have to write a fire evacuation plan before our risk assessment is done on Tuesday. If you are coming to visit us on opening week (and we hope you will), bring cash just in case the card reader doesn't arrive in time (another expectation vanquished en route!) It will arrive one day soon.

Rachel

P.S. Michel really loved the lemon shortbread that will be appearing on our menu once the oven is in place. He's right, it really is delicious...