a room of one’s own

A Room Of One’s Own, one of the few independent bookstores still surviving in Madison, recently moved from the downtown area, where they couldn’t afford the rent any more, to a store front so far up the isthmus that it’s very nearly in our neighborhood. Well, it’s not really that close; it’s all the way around the north end of the lake, past the botanical gardens, but it’s closer and it’s a nice book store so we went to their reopening last week to show our support. The building it’s in was some kind of utilitarian place originally, a store house or maybe a garage, and it’s been remodeled several times over the years to hold the various shops that have taken up residence. For the book store they completely gutted the inside and refurbished it, and it looks very nice. They have almost as much room now as they did in their downtown shop, thank goodness. It would have been sad to see them diminish in size after the move. We order all our books there now; they have an online service and will hold the books for us until we pick them up. Better than giving our money to Bezos. The turnout was good on opening day; they allowed only thirty people in the store at a time but it was always maxed and there was a line of people waiting to get in the whole time we were there. Both B and I found lots of books to take home so we feel we did our part to make their opening as good as it could be.