Newsletter #9

Greetings!

We have two events this month, both to take place on Sunday, May 19th.  Our June book club will meet on Sunday, 6/30.  If you no longer wish to receive emails from us, please reply to let us know.

Events

Sun, 5/19, 2 - 4 p.m.

BOOK SIGNING with David Forsyth, author of The Amusement Park at Sloan's Lake: the Lost History of Denver's Manhattan Beach.  Come see us for your copy of this cool local history about the Sloan's Lake and Edgewater neighborhoods.  Also keep an eye out for a new Sloan's Lake-themed t-shirt from our friends at Abstract coming soon.

Sun, 5/19, 5:30 p.m.

Book Group discussion of Octavia Butler's Blood Child and Other Stories.  Everyone is welcome.

Sun, 6/30, 5:30 p.m.

In June, our book group will meet to discuss the book Middlesex, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Jeffrey Eugenides.

What we're reading

Phyllis just finished reading Help Wanted, by Adelle Waldman, and is currently reading Blood Child and Other Stories and listening to Killers of the Flower Moon.

Jef just finished reading Morning and Evening, by Jon Fosse. He's currently reading The Checklist Manifesto, by Atul Gawande.

Alex is reading A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway; Becoming a Writer, by Dorothea Brande; plans to start Blood Child and Other Stories soon; and has among other titles in the queue for this summer: Orcs, by Stan Nicholls; Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace; and The Three Body Problem, by Cixin Liu.  He just listened to Half a King (Shattered Sea book 1), by Joe Abercrombie, on the drive to and from Austin for the April 8th solar eclipse, and recommends it to readers who enjoy YA fantasy.

Support Indies

When you order new books, consider supporting local indie shops by ordering through Bookshop.org instead of Amazon, and choose us or any Colorado indie under the button that says "Choose your bookstore."  The shop you support will receive up to 30% of the proceeds of your order.

Lastly, thanks to everyone who came out to shop local indie bookstores everywhere on Saturday, April 27, Independent Bookstore Day :)  We appreciate you!

If you no longer wish to receive emails from us, please reply to let us know.

Phyllis, Alex, and Jef

Newsletter #8

Happy Spring, everyone 😊 We hope you've all weathered the recent snows safely, and that perhaps you even got outside to play in it ☃️ Our last newsletter was just three weeks ago, but we have SIX (6) new items to share so we're jumping the gun with installment #8.

1. Bookshop.org and Libro.fm. THANK YOU to all who ordered a new print book from Bookshop.org or audiobook from Libro.fm in the past year.  Whether you designate us or another Denver bookshop as beneficiary of your purchases, we thank you for supporting independent booksellers through these sites.

2. Book donations and DreamBooks partnership. We recently partnered with DreamBooks, another local company that sells books primarily online.  They provided us a collection cart for donation drop-offs, which will live in the hall in front of our shop.  To avoid the cart growing legs and wandering off like our Roomba vacuum cleaner (RIP Dobby), we'll have the cart outside during business hours only for now.  Depending on the item and our respective needs, books placed in the cart will either go to DreamBooks or go on our shelves.  DreamBooks also accepts items we're not able to take such as DVDs, CDs, Video Games, Textbooks, and encyclopedias. We continue to offer trade-in store credit for good condition books we think we can sell, at our discretion.  Read the trade-in policy here.

3. Shop re-shuffling.Earlier this month, we added a new bookcase, and we're in the process of shifting some sections  to new or different shelves.  We will subsume a few small sections into larger sections, and downsize a few genres.  Our intention is to create more space for the books you want and clear out some of the less compelling material that has sat on our shelves for a long time.  Among other things, you can look forward to an expanded general fiction section.

4. Online sales.  Another project in the works is beginning online book sales, including the ability to search and order books we have stored off-site.  Alex has been working on this for way too long, and with any luck we should be up and running some time in June.

5. Book discussions.  Our next two book discussions are on the calendar, and we have copies of the selected books available for purchase:

               Sunday, 4/21:  The Overstory,by Richard Powers

               Sunday, 5/19:  Blood Child and Other Stories,by Octavia Butler

6. Independent Bookstore Day.  Saturday, April 27, is Independent Bookstore Day.  We'll celebrate with book trivia and some give-aways. Phyllis, Jef, and Alex will be attending a wedding in Austin that weekend (technically Bastrop - it's pretty there and there's a big lake and a state park), but our very able assistant booksellers will be running the shop and dispensing the fun.

Phyllis, Jef, and Alex

Edgewater Books newsletter #5

Happy November everyone!

Thanks to each of you for supporting our shop in the past year!  It has been a fun and rewarding journey thus far; we hope to stick around and continue to learn and evolve.

This month, we are thankful and glad to share that Edgewater Books is celebrating one year in business tomorrow, Wednesday, 11/22.  To celebrate, we'll be offering  20% off everything in the shop and have some treats to share.  Being Thanksgiving Eve, if it is particularly quiet we may close early at 5 pm, but hope to see a goodly number of folks :)

After Thanksgiving, we'll have some new items available for the winter holidays, starting on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday!  We've been saving up children's holiday books, other great books of different genres, fun stocking stuffers and gift items. Used books make thoughtful gifts, since many are hard to find and timeless.

At our next book discussion group, on Sunday, December 10th @ 5:30, we’ll be discussing There There, by Tommy Orange.  Please RSVP by email (or just show up), but the RSVP will help us gauge likely attendance. Everyone will be welcome to bring food and drink from any of the food hall restaurants, brewery, or bar to enjoy during the book discussion. 

REMINDERS:  

We are accepting special orders of new books through the Bookshop.org program, which allows customers to support independent bookshops of their choosing with a small percentage of each purchase.

Now we are also participating with Libro.FM, a similar program to order audio books.

Story Time with Ms Kate will be on Saturday, December 2 @ 11:15a. All are welcome. The picture books are geared to preschool and early elementary aged children, but adults have enjoyed them, too!

Trade-in program & September events

We are happy to announce after many customer inquiries, thoughtful consideration, and review of other shops’ policies, Edgewater Books is now offering a trade-in program for books. Our trade-in policy is currently linked on the home page under announcements. We’ll find a home for it in the static pages shown in the site header at some point.

EVENTS: September story time is Saturday, 9/2, at 11:15 a.m.
September book club is Sunday, 9/17, at 5:30 p.m., discussing The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett. See more info on home page under “Announcements.”

Special orders, staff favorites, and email list sign-up now LIVE

We are excited to now offer special ordering for new books online through a third-party program that supports independent bookstores like us with a percentage of each sale. We are also excited to say that some of our staff favorite books are now listed on the website. Click over to our “Books We Like” page to see our recommendations, and simply click the cover images to order through Bookshop, or click the Bookshop link at the top of that page to search and order other titles. You can also click to our “Email List and Contact” page to subscribe to our monthly newsletter and occasional updates. Happy Summer everyone 😁❤️

Bookshop.org and Pride discounts

Click on the link to our Books We Like page above to learn about Bookshop.org and 20% discount on online orders of select titles through Bookshop.org, which supports independent booksellers nationwide, including Edgewater Books. Check back soon to see the Edgewater Books staff’s lists of our favorite books for online ordering through Bookshop.org! Happy Pride Month ❤️📚🌈

Yours in reading,

Edgewater Books family

Picture Postcards

We have two new picture postcards in the shop, featuring two beautiful images of the Rocky Mountains taken by Alex outside Leadville and Jef between Glenwood Springs and Aspen. New books coming in every week, too :)

Coming soon: special orders

Edgewater Books is joining the American Booksellers’ Association, and soon we will have the ability to assist customers with special orders through the Bookshop.org program, which will provide a link through our website to order new books we don’t have in stock while supporting our shop and the local and national independent bookstore community with a percent of each sale. We are excited to bring you this feature, and will announce when it is up and running.

Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 14

Before Mother’s Day is upon us, I want to mention that it is not the same happy celebration for everyone. For those sons & daughters who have lost their mothers, it can be a difficult day. At Edgewater Books we try to carry books and cards that are appropriate for the different situations life brings us.

Story time, April ‘23 edition

Join us for the first Story Time of spring! Ms. Kate will read to us Saturday, April 15, at 11:15 a.m. Feel free to bring food or drink from your favorite Edgewater Public Market restaurant.

Feb. 18 - Story Time @ 11:15a

On Saturday, February 18 @ 11:15, we’ll host Storytime with Ms Kate! All ages are welcome, ages 3 - 6 y.o. are usually the most interested.

Feb. 14 - Poetry Sharing @ 6p

Valentine’s Day Poetry Sharing, Tuesday, February 14th @ 6:00. ~ Since Valentines’ Day is a celebration of love, we’ll be providing a special time for sharing the love of poetry. We have some favorite poems to read for you and hope you will bring a favorite: one that has spoken to you, inspired you, had an impact on your life. Someone else can read it for you, if you prefer, but please come! Adult beverages from the Edgewater Public Market vendors are welcome.

Happy New Year!

We hope you and your families enjoyed a happy and healthy holiday season, and we wish everyone happiness, health, and good fortune in the new year. Please come by the shop and say hello when you get a chance. We will host our second story time on Saturday, Jan. 21, at 11:15 a.m., and are working on plans for a book club and other fun social activities for adults in 2023. Your suggestions and ideas are welcome.

Books for Holiday Gifting

This holiday season when you’re out hunting for the perfect gift, consider that a secondhand or “pre-loved” book is a thoughtful AND eco-friendly choice.  

Secondhand books are an economical choice for your pocketbook and the natural resources consumed in the publishing industry.  Many used books can be purchased for half the cost of the same book new, and some become valuable keepsakes over time.  Out-of-print books are no longer published, and especially unique out-of-print books may command higher prices.  These might include the first printing of a title by an acclaimed author or a copy signed by them.

You can also reduce, re-use, and recycle by buying used books, making an impact on deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions produced by the publishing industry.

Producing a new book may generate 8.85 pounds of carbon dioxide, while shipping a book 2,000 miles by ground may generate a fraction of this at 1.7 pounds carbon dioxide. See Bookfinder.com.  According to another source, a single tree, 30 feet tall and 1 foot in diameter, may produce approximately 118 books. See The Guardian.

 “When you buy a used book, you never know what you are going to get, [i]nscriptions in margins or dedications in the front page. You’re taking part in a shared history and better yet, you’re free to add your own little mark along the way too.”  See World of Books blog.

At Edgewater Books, we recently sold a copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales to a person whose grandfather had read to them from the same edition when they were a child.  As this customer found something unexpected and special at our shop, wandering a used bookstore you may just find that special old friend you’d forgotten about, or a new friend you didn’t know you were missing.