Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. What are you going to do? Everything is my guess. It will be a little messy, but

embrace the mess. It will be complicated, but rejoice in the

in the complications. It will not be anything like what you think it will be like,

but surprises are good for you. And don't be frightened frightened you can always change your mind.

Nora Ephron.

I'm Annie Jones, owner of the Bookshelf,

an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and today it's just me.

I'm sharing a little bit about the bookshelf's history and what retail looks like during a pandemic year.

So if you've ever wondered what life looks like for a bookstore owner,

here is my story.

Look, this is a different kind of episode, but I was inspired to do it when I looked at the calendar and

realized that I have now owned or operated the bookshelf for seven years.

My seventh anniversary with the store came and went in May without any fanfare and

rightfully so because there's a lot going on and it's not like you celebrate

your relationship with your job, maybe the way you do your

birthday or your anniversary. But seven years does feel like a milestone. And when I was looking at our calendar for the podcast, I thought, well, maybe it's time to tell people the story of the bookshelf and the story of my dream of bookstore ownership. This is a topic we have covered before a few years ago,

but it's been a while and 2020 has brought some changes in case you haven't noticed. So I thought I would kind of start

from the beginning. If you were not familiar or maybe even are still are not familiar with the bookshelf,

the store has actually existed and operated in Thomasville since 1982. That's before I was even born.

So I am just one of a long line of owners and operators of the shop. In fact,

the bookshelf has always been a woman-owned business, which is something I find really special. I am proud to be a part of

her story and I also know that I will probably and hopefully not be the end of her story, that

...