25 Things...

So, it's our 25th year in business.  The big Silver Anniversary.  As a big thank you to our community, that's you Durangotangs, we'll be having a HUGE sale this Saturday, October 17th '09.  25% off everything in the store. 

(There have been a few very nice articles in the local rags that we'd like to acknowledge with our most heartfelt thanks: this one from the Durango Telegraph, and this one from the Durango Herald.)

You guys, the Durangotang family, are amazing.  It's truly an honor to be a part of this overwhelmingly supportive and intellectually stimulating community.  We're constantly amazed at the breadth and width of Durango's intellectual interests and hope that we can continue to support those interests for decades to come.

Both of the articles linked above say quite a bit about our past, and rightfully so.  A varied and intelligent group of amazing people are responsible for the Maria's Bookshop we know and love.  We wanted to give a bit of insight into the Maria's of today, though, with a list of:

25 Things You May Not Have Known About Maria's Bookshop   

1) A boring one first: We generally have about 45-60,000 books in the store, all jam-packed into just over 2000 square feet. 

2) Bookseller Clint used to draw Scooby Doo and, one of my personal favorites, Captain Caveman (!), for Hanna-Barbera.  He often stresses that this was pre-Scrappy, an important distinction, because, as everyone knows, Scrappy completely ruined that show.  Clint now sports a wit so quick he often emits sonic booms.  (From his mouth.)

3) Chances are, if it's happening in Durango, we're selling tickets for it.  If you're bored you could just stop in and say, "Do you have tickets for..." and just kinda taper off and we'll get in the drawer and start rattling off everything that's happening in town for the next two weeks.  Fun!

4) Bookseller Jeanne has reportedly never been photographed without a ladder.  She has international calendar model exposure, in fact, perched on said ladder.  This is not in any way strange or disturbing. 

5) The literary arts are not the only arts we support.  We're blessed with a few large expanses of brick wall that we use to display local artists' work as much as possible.  Here's a shot of Shay somehow levitating in front of one of his incredible wire sketches.

6) Bookseller Chris used to be a backup singer for Hawaiian superstar Keali’i Reichel; one of the "original" back up singers no less.  We think Chris wore a shirt at this time (despite, well,just click on the link) but reports on this are unreliable.  There have been rumors of ti leaf skirts.

7) The Maria's staff sports a total of 50 years of bookselling experience.  (It was easy for Andrea to remember her number because she got hitched to Peter the same year she started working here.)

8) Bookseller Shay often comes to work directly from the Animas River where he practices the time-honored tradition of ripping fish lips.  He has a boat, which makes the rest of us jealous and vengeful, but he doesn't know this.

9) Maria's Bookshop bought over $5000 worth of parking tokens last year.

10) Receiver Meg apparently "plays a mean Pyro in Team Fortress 2."  Pyro apparently sets opponents on fire, judging from the flamethrower.  Meg also ran a marathon in San Francisco but is "not a runner."  Meg is relatively sane despite these things.

11) This website has a "Gift Ideas" section.  Constantly being updated and added on.  I mean, you could always do a gift card, but this section's pretty fun.  There's even a section in case you're not sure what to get someone who just dumped their loser boyfriend.

12) Bookseller Pat, who probably recommended your favorite book to you, was almost kicked out of Catholic School.  She also taught here in Durango for about 30 years.  Everyone loves Pat.

13) Everyone also loves Bookseller Joni.  Joni is a lot like Pat.  Joni was also a Park Ranger in Yosemite, which means that if you don't watch your fires she'll throw a riled up bear at your face.

14) Maria's is only closed about 4 days out of the year: Thanksgiving, Christmas, the day we get our floors refinished, and...and...hmph.  That might be about it.  We're open a lot.  A LOT.

15) Julie buys the kids' books and the, well, the stuff that's not books.  Cards, toys, and all that fun stuff.  Julie will pretty much read anything if it's about food, and her lemondrop cocktails are no longer allowed at staff parties.

16) Maria's is often cited as the greatest bookstore the world has ever even imagined existing, apart from Borges' whole "infinite library" thing, but that was a library not a bookstore, and I don't think you could buy anything from it or it wouldn't be infinite anymore.  Infinity is hard to wrap your head around, though it's easier with one of Julie's lemondrops.

17) How about this: Our staff goes through about 6 lbs of chocolate a week.  6lbs/wk, which translates to 24 lbs a month, for a GRAND total of 288 lbs of chocolate a year.  Round that out, average it, whatever, and that basically means that the 15 or so of us eat almost 2 booksellers a year... if booksellers are chocolate--and you are what you eat, so there you go. Disclaimer: To our knowledge there are no actual cannibals employed by Maria's Bookshop.  Under dire circumstances, however, nothing is out of the question.  

18) Libby made this website.  That in itself is pretty cool, but she also does our events, community out reach stuff, co-op (an ugly and complicated thing that isn't fun to talk about), donations and other things-- all while raising a caped avenger and a T-rex.  Libby's tough like that.

19) Booksellers are very lucky in that we get advanced copies of upcoming books.  This is the greatest perk that mankind has ever devised and worth the vow of poverty that all of us in the book industry must take.  We often get a copy of something that multiple booksellers are excited about but we're all such gentle and loving people that no one at Maria's has ever been shivved over an advance.  Maria's is a *safe* work environment.

20) Kathleen has a good laugh.  I don't mean "has a good laugh at your expense," I mean a genuine laugh.  She reads a lot of books, too, owing in part to that whole advance copy thing.  You should come in and tell her a joke.  Laughter is the greatest of things.

21) Helen (doesn't have a link.  Ya want a link, Helen?  Stay a full year instead of traveling the country and we'll see what we can do) was once a rapping starfish.  Nobody's entirely sure what this means, but she has a theatre career and is the music director for the upcoming live showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.  Helen sings while she shelves books, and not as quietly as she thinks.

22) One of us, who shall remain nameless, (please, please don't insist on a name) spent about 4 years as a hot tub salesman in Denver.  This profession leeched the soul from said poor schlub.  He is now dead inside.  So it goes.

23) Andrea is the co-owner of Maria's Bookshop (with the aforementioned Peter) and won the 2005 Gordon Saull Outstanding Bookseller of the Year Award, an award given by the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association.  Andrea was also President of this association for a while, before she had her kids. Andrea is the beating compassionate heart of Maria's.  That last sentence may well make her tear up a little, but that's not why it was written.

24) This year, Grandma'sDead is one of our biggest selling books because YOU, dear customer, are slightly twisted.  We find this quality charming.  Conversely, this year Maria's has sold (hundreds) more of Right of Thirst than anyone else in the country; this, dear customer, is because you care about the world and about great literature, and for this we are eternally grateful.

25) We have beehives on our roof.   Not sure what else to say about that. I'm hoping to someday dance a jig wearing a beard of bees, but that's neither here nor there.

There may well be more Lists of 25 Things coming up.  25 is a large number, though, and I'd personally like to thank Carver's Brewing Company and their Colorado Trail Nut Brown for assisting in the completion of this particular list.