Books Are Magic

Hi Bookworms!

We hope you are doing well and taking advantage of this beautiful weather to do some outdoor reading. There is nothing more relaxing than a book and a cold drink in a sun-dappled outdoor space. 

Construction continues on the bookshop. Prepping for the window installs has been done - framed, Tyvek put on, old windows removed. 

Just look at the size of those display windows...Fantastic! We are getting so excited with each new step!

While we dream and plan, we'd like to introduce you to our Lead Bookseller, Lori Wightman.......

BOOKS ARE MAGIC

"Books are a uniquely portable magic."

Stephen King

Some of my earliest childhood memories include books. 

I have a clear recollection of creeping out of my room during my parent’s dinner parties to show their guests my new library books. The coziness of 

a little cubby hole in our family bathroom where I could read secretly, warmed by the floor heat vent, while my sister called for me endlessly. I can remember the exact feeling of laying my head on my desk in Miss Stechey’s third grade class, lights off, windows open in the heat of early summer, while she read to us from Charlotte’s Web. I recall the fear as I lay in bed after spending the day reading Helter Skelter - definitely not recommended reading for an 11 year old -  still I went back for another chapter the next day, though. 

It wasn’t until later in life that my vocation finally matched up with my avocation and I began working in our local Carnegie branch of the Essex County Library. My favourite part of the job  was being able to talk about books, favourite authors, new reads...all the things that are exciting to readers. There is something magical about passing on a love - of a book, a character, an author. 

As things happen often in life - you meet someone or you do something that leads to the next person, the next step, the next amazing opportunity. It’s serendipity and it brought me here to the River Bookshop, to working with Richard and Colleen Peddie and to sharing even further my love of books with the residents of Amherstburg. 

I’m so excited for the engaging and inspiring things the River Bookshop will offer you. The educational and entertaining books and events we hope to bring to town. I hope I can do for you what was done for me as a little girl and still even now...the excitement of new books, the escape of a story that takes you away from your every day and the connection of chatting about what we like and even what we don’t. It really is magic, what books do for us. 

And I can’t wait to wave that wand. 

Lori Wightman

Lead Bookseller