Nov 7th and Nov 8th - We are having our First Annual Time to Stock Up on Books Sale this coming Saturday and Sunday during our usual hours 12-4pm. We have lots of $1 hardcovers, 50 cent paperbacks and most of our other inventory discounted 50% (prices on the website should already reflect this unless we missed it accidentally). We also are very excited to have a signing by local, young adult author Bailly Morse. She recently published her second book titled Renegade Ransom. Read more details at her website. She will be reading from her new book and signing copies on Sunday in conjunction with our sale. Come join us!
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Publisher's Weekly printed a nice little writeup about our bookshop in the issue for
the week of January 26th (don't mind that someone at PW didn't check their math - woops).
Have a look at it here.

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The antique wooden ferris wheel and circus wagons were delivered by the Delneros at 9:30pm December 18th, just in time - the night before our holiday party and a big snowstorm. They drove from their home and workshop in Fort Plain, upstate New York, where they make beautiful traditional fine furniture. It took some heavy and very careful lifting to get all the pieces setup. Jessica, one of our bookstore gang, and her dad, Mark, who is Director of Engineering for Heritage Surveys, were there to help out. First, the custom display case that the Delneros crafted was installed. Then the ferris wheel was put into place and finally, the circus wagons were brought in. The electrician installed the wiring first thing on the morning of Friday the 19th and then it was ready for primetime.

Use the thumbnails to the left to see photos.

A little background: Bruce acquired these antique pieces about ten years ago. He was visiting the home of a West Springfield man, who had recently passed away, to peruse the books and ephemera that he had left. Bruce happened upon the ferris wheel and wagons in a backyard shed. Intriqued by the folk art feel and historical nature of the pieces, as well as the obvious care and time that the creator put into them, Bruce decided to purchase the antiques. They needed a good bit of work and so were stored in the basement of the bookstore for a number of years. Then Bruce enlisted the help of the Delnero family, who used to reside and build furniture just up the hill from us in Southampton, to do the restoration.

The ferris wheel and circus wagons are constructed from many thousands of wooden medical applicators. The ferris wheel alone is made up of 29,000 applicators. When Bruce found them, there were many broken pieces, which the Delneros fashioned replicas of and replaced. They also had to replace the ferris wheel motor and rewire it. The paint was chipped and faded throughout, so the Delneros went through the time-consuming process of matching up the colors and repainting. The final project was the construction of the custom oak display case.

The ferris wheel is inlaid with the creator's name and location - Joseph Byron, Coventry Connecticut. Some research by Jeannie Sherman at the Connecticut State Library has uncovered a Joseph Byron from Monson, Massachusetts. Based on an article in the Oct. 2, 1953 edition of the Hartford Courant titled "Annual Fair Draws Crowds to Stafford," Mr. Byron apparently exhibited his ferris wheel at the fair. It seems that he and his wife were residents of Monson at that time but may have moved from Coventry. We are not sure at this point whether or not he also made the circus wagons. We will post more information as we continue the research.