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"...a better marketer..." Oh, my lord, everything about this article screams shallow internet marketing. "...a small town book store in rural Texas..." Bastro

"...a better marketer..." Oh, my lord, everything about this article screams shallow internet marketing. "...a small town book store in rural Texas..." Bastrop is a (rather distant) suburb of Austin. "Rural Texas" is Roby (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Roby,+TX+79543/@32.7721923,-100.5799545,10.21z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x8655e471ba626a2d:0xa9c2e3880a14e4fd!8m2!3d32.7448314!4d-100.3776067 https://www.google.com/maps/place/Roby,+TX+79543/@32.7721923...). "...the first 12 months of owning The Painted Porch. ... I love how The Painted Porch is now, but it took weeks and months to get it to where it is. It’s been a continual process of improvement and growth and making changes." A whole year?! "I think one of the best decisions we made was making our book tower. It’s 20 feet tall and made of some 2000 books, 4000 nails, and 40 gallons of glue. It was not cheap to do. It was not easy to do. It took forever. We had to solve all sorts of logistical problems to make it work. But it’s also probably one of the single best marketing and business decisions we made in the whole store. Because it’s the number one thing that people come into the store to take pictures of." This: https://preview.redd.it/2ajncim1mdk71.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=b3d335426e77da2390eebf10a2d6049a3ac6b09a https://preview.redd.it/2ajncim1mdk71.png?width=1200&format=... Really? Really.

srmarm 5y ago
That looks like it'd be a nightmare to keep clean!
wincy 5y ago
What strikes me is the surrounding picture I’m struck thinking “where are the books? Where are the bookshelves? There’s like 6 books sparsely populating a shelf. When I think of a used book store like the one I frequented when I was a teenager, I expect it to be absolutely lousy with books in every nook and cranny, filled to the brim with interesting finds.
- maicro 5y ago
  I mean, obviously they had to get the books for the tower from _somewhere_...
- elliekelly 5y ago
  This is everything I love about the Book Barn[1] it's bursting at the seams with used books. Even though the traffic between Boston & NYC is awful I prefer to drive just so I can stop by and explore. I've never encountered a bad used bookstore but the Book Barn is hands down the best I've ever come across. [1]https://www.bookbarnniantic.com/explore-the-store https://www.bookbarnniantic.com/explore-the-store
  - Aromasin 5y ago
    One of my favourite book shops is in Brixton, London. It piled floor to ceiling in a place opposite the markets, and there's a book in the back with comfy sofas, a store cat, and a very hippy dippy owner who loves a natter about what he read this week. He curated the whackiest collection of literature, from high school text books, to ones on shamanistic practices in pre-colonial Uganda. It's utterly bizarre, and the complete antithesis of the author of OPs article. I try to avoid being critical of people's work, especially businesses because good on them for at least trying, but in this case I think the shop from the article is truly lacking any soul that a traditional bookshop can and should have. Empty shelves look sad, not trendy.
thenerdhead 5y ago
The best part about old book stores was shelves filled to the brim with books and the various displays of how books are formed. The Last Bookstore in LA for example has those fun arches and makes you feel lost.
WaitWaitWha 5y ago
That 20 feet tall tower of books freaks me out. 40 gallons of glue, and 2000 paper books, with a fireplace in the middle of it! Glue. Paper. Fire.
- mauvehaus 5y ago
  Presumably a non-operable fireplace. I don't have to look up the code to know that doesn't meet it. It's something like no flammable within 6" of the firebox and nothing within a certain plane within 12".
- Johnny555 5y ago
  Then you'd really be disturbed by almost every home fireplace that's framed in with flammable wooden studs. Not to mention kitchen stoves that are surrounded by wooden cabinets. Build a good firebox and it doesn't matter what surrounds the fireplace.
tharne 5y ago
> Oh, my lord, everything about this article screams shallow internet marketing. Shallow internet marketing is kind of Ryan Holiday's jam. He's to books what Cheetos is to food.

srmarm 5y ago

That looks like it'd be a nightmare to keep clean!

wincy 5y ago

What strikes me is the surrounding picture I’m struck thinking “where are the books? Where are the bookshelves? There’s like 6 books sparsely populating a shelf. When I think of a used book store like the one I frequented when I was a teenager, I expect it to be absolutely lousy with books in every nook and cranny, filled to the brim with interesting finds.

maicro 5y ago
I mean, obviously they had to get the books for the tower from _somewhere_...
elliekelly 5y ago
This is everything I love about the Book Barn[1] it's bursting at the seams with used books. Even though the traffic between Boston & NYC is awful I prefer to drive just so I can stop by and explore. I've never encountered a bad used bookstore but the Book Barn is hands down the best I've ever come across. [1]https://www.bookbarnniantic.com/explore-the-store https://www.bookbarnniantic.com/explore-the-store
- Aromasin 5y ago
  One of my favourite book shops is in Brixton, London. It piled floor to ceiling in a place opposite the markets, and there's a book in the back with comfy sofas, a store cat, and a very hippy dippy owner who loves a natter about what he read this week. He curated the whackiest collection of literature, from high school text books, to ones on shamanistic practices in pre-colonial Uganda. It's utterly bizarre, and the complete antithesis of the author of OPs article. I try to avoid being critical of people's work, especially businesses because good on them for at least trying, but in this case I think the shop from the article is truly lacking any soul that a traditional bookshop can and should have. Empty shelves look sad, not trendy.

thenerdhead 5y ago

The best part about old book stores was shelves filled to the brim with books and the various displays of how books are formed. The Last Bookstore in LA for example has those fun arches and makes you feel lost.

WaitWaitWha 5y ago

That 20 feet tall tower of books freaks me out. 40 gallons of glue, and 2000 paper books, with a fireplace in the middle of it! Glue. Paper. Fire.

mauvehaus 5y ago
Presumably a non-operable fireplace. I don't have to look up the code to know that doesn't meet it. It's something like no flammable within 6" of the firebox and nothing within a certain plane within 12".
Johnny555 5y ago
Then you'd really be disturbed by almost every home fireplace that's framed in with flammable wooden studs. Not to mention kitchen stoves that are surrounded by wooden cabinets. Build a good firebox and it doesn't matter what surrounds the fireplace.

tharne 5y ago

> Oh, my lord, everything about this article screams shallow internet marketing. Shallow internet marketing is kind of Ryan Holiday's jam. He's to books what Cheetos is to food.