Blacksburg Reads

Just Arrived in Hardcover

The used books section of the Easy Chair Coffee Shop is off and running.  We are getting quality donations every day and we are happy to trade for coffee or espresso beverages.  Until further notice, we are strictly taking donations of books you want to give up to make room on your own shelves.  When our shelves are full and we are selling enough books each day to justify it, we will consider a trade-in policy that includes store credits for future purchases.  We are a long way off from that, but the early response is very encouraging.  Keep those books coming and help spread the word by linking to this page or emailing friends with the link.  You can also find out about new arrivals and interesting trades by following us on Twitter or joining our Facebook Group.

I want to emphasize that this is a permanent, long term and (hopefully) sustainable effort to create a small, quality used bookstore in a space that was otherwise underutilized.  The reading room, which we are now calling Blacksburg Reads, has been transformed.  Thank you to everyone who has donated and thank you to the many volunteers who are helping bring some order to our shelves.

Just traded a large iced coffee for a great stack of trade paperbacks, including one of my favorites, Big Bad Love, by Larry Brown.  Also in this stack, Tom Robbins, Faulkner, Raymond Carver, and a near perfect condition copy of White Noise by Don DeLillo.

At this rate we are filling a shelf per day and hopefully you are opening up shelf space in your library while putting great used books back into circulation.  We have many empty shelves left to fill before we can really establish ourselves as a quality used bookstore.  Please help us spread the word by forwarding the link to this page to friends and co-workers or by linking to your own blog.  Follow us on Twitter @BlacksburgReads.

Here’s what we are doing:

For the month of July we are accepting donations of quality used trade paperbacks, mass market paperbacks and hardcovers in good condition (no ex-library copies, stains, torn or missing covers please!).  Bring them in to the Easy Chair Coffee Shop and get rewarded with the coffee, tea or espresso beverage of your choice.

Books are priced at $5.00 for hardcover, $3.00 for trade paperback, and $1.00 for mass market paperback.

Stumbled across Blue Ridge Country via the Twitterverse.  There is an excellent blog post about balancing the excitement of new technology with the calming effect of old technology (books, the real kind).  I’ve been kicking around an entry on this topic for a couple weeks, but Editor Cara Ellen Modisett says it better than I can with her first entry.

You can now follow us on Twitter.  @baristanomics is our coffee-focused account but we will also update you about the status of our used book inventory through @BlacksburgReads. Especially if something interesting comes in.  So, if you tweet, make sure you look us up and follow along.

Other updates will include new coffee arrivals, roast production schedule, cool coffee drink ideas.  Wide open.  We are slowly putting the call out for used book donations and have already received several large contributions from loyal Easy Chair customers.  Also in the works, Selva Negra coffee at the Farmers Market and Blacksburg coffee delivery via bicycle.