Avid Confessions: “I’m obsessed with my new planner and I can’t stop talking about it.” -Janet G., bookshop owner and paper goods fanatic
Click through for screenshots of the impromptu love letter/essay I wrote about my latest Avid purchase. ❤️, Janet
From Janet:
Can you take a couple of minutes to submit a Flagpole Favorites ballot? If only to acknowledge the fact that I spent wayyyyy too long creating this silly video—a truly embarrassingly long time, actually—please vote for us and the other locally-owned spots that help make Athens so remarkable: https://favorites.flagpole.com
Deadline is in one week on 2/9!
Yes, I know, actually, that I am late requesting your help. You see, I was too busy becoming an award-winning filmmaker. (Jk jk. I was too ADHD-y to get my act together sooner. But I *did* start several new projects and reorganize our greeting cards!)
We’d love, actually, to to be your favorite:
🏅Place to Buy Gifts
🏅Uniquely Athens Business
🏅Community-Focused Business
Anyone with an email address can vote, actually. You must vote in 5 categories for your ballot to be counted. No worries about getting stumped: you already have ideas for three of the five (hint: see above 😜).
Enjoy this special peek 👀 into a typical morning at Avid Bookshop before we open the doors at 11am.
We do so much at Avid that y'all don't get to see: volunteering for bookseller organizations, attending conferences, reviewing galleys for publishers and authors, meeting with publisher reps, planning events, curating donations, merchandising and tidying the shop, and so much more!
From Janet: After we closed last night, I had such a delightful time in the back of the shop, home to most of our books, puppets, and puzzles for kids, plus our all-ages array of greeting cards, stationery, and calendars. I leafed through picture books, reorganized shelves, updated displays, ogled our boxed notecards, and wondered which 2024 wall calendar I’d hang in my bathroom next. (For the last 11.5 months,, I’ve brushed my teeth next to the 2023 Cats on Catnip calendar—I may have to get the 2024 edition, considering how much this year’s photos make me smile.)
Nights like this make me think of winter nights in the early years of owning a bookstore, particularly the first holiday season we were open, when I tended to be work the shop by myself most of the time. I spent the darkening evenings in the light of the fabulous book balloon at #AvidOnPrince, realphabetizing books, hand-drawing signs, and wondering why every time I dared to take a potty break a customer would walk in for the first time in an hour. 😂
These days we usually have more than one bookseller on the sales floor, plus a few of us working behind the scenes. Avid’s reach and mission have grown beyond my wildest dreams, and I thank y’all for that. Your purchases over the next few days will be what sustains our payroll for the first several weeks of the new year—spending money here vs. a chain truly does have a direct impact on the humans who work at Avid (including me!).
Thank you for supporting little shops like mine, and for keeping me in a job that regularly puts me in a state of blissful flow, which was the case tonight as I revamped the shelves and took a moment to feel grateful for it all.
❤️,
Janet
Avid Bookshop owner/founder
