Welcome to Sarah's Bookshelves Live. I'm your host, Sarah Dickinson. Join me every other week as we get real, and sometimes a bit snarky about books and reading. Let's get rolling.

Gail Weiswasser, co-owner of Wonderland Books in Bethesda, Maryland, came on the show this past

October to talk about opening a brand new indie bookstore. And during that episode, Gail and I talked

about how we should do a follow-up to talk about how the first year went. And we heard

feedback from y'all that you agreed. So that's what we're doing today. Prior to starting Wonderland

Books, Gail was a lawyer and communications executive, a DC native. She now lives in Chevy Chase,

Maryland, with her family and has twin daughters in college and a son in seventh grade. You may also know her as the

founder of the Every Day I Write the Book blog and the co-host of the Readerly Report podcast.

And she is an active participant in our Patreon community. Welcome back, Gail.

Sarah, thanks for having me back. I'm so happy to be here. I'm so happy to get the update from you. I have not heard a ton because I wanted to save it for the episode. So I can't wait. Also, just for y'all, if you have not listened to my episode with Gail from last October, it's episode number 179. You do not have to have listened to that to enjoy this episode. But I do think going back and

listening, if you missed it, would sort of add to the listening experience for this one, if you're

interested. I have to tell you that there have been people who have come into the store because

they learned about the store on your show. Really? Yes. Oh, my gosh. Okay. In fact, there are people who have driven long distances to come to the store because they heard about it on your show. What? Yep. That's crazy. I'm so happy to hear that. That's crazy, though. Oh, my God. People I don't know. There's some local readers who have come in and they said, I'm so excited. I heard your episode on stairs bookshelves, but I've had people who have driven like over two hours to come because they heard about it on your show. Oh my gosh. Well, that is. You should feel really good about that, but like your reach is far. Oh, thank you. I sit here and like talk to a white wall, you know, so. Right. And I've got living, reading people in front of me who have heard your show, who listen to all your recommendations and listen to everything and they liked the episode and they've come to the store.

Well, I'm so glad that it is helping you guys like that and like honored. I flattered. I can't believe it. It's crazy.

Yes. You're doing a tremendous service for people and I see it every day that people are so passionate about reading and they love to be guided. You know, there's so many books out there. No one has time. Yeah. And they love recommendations. And it's like you do such a good service on your show because you're so organized and you're so thorough. You know, you're careful about when you do

things, which books you choose for what episodes. You balance things out. You get other voices. You get Susie and Catherine in addition to you. And like, it really, really makes such a difference. You and I are in the same business. Yeah. We're encouraging reading. You're just doing it in a very concrete way and I'm doing it in a very nebulous way. Well, it's not nebulous. It's just,

well, it's like I can't measure the impact. You're just doing it in a very concrete way, and I'm doing it in a very nebulous way.

Well, it's not nebulous. It's just... Well, it's like I can't measure the impact. You know what I mean? Like you can, you have your like sales data, you know? Yes, true. But we're in the same business and you're doing a fantastic job at it. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. So back when we talked, you had not quite opened Wonderland yet.

You were getting there.

You were waiting on some construction permits. And you were planning to open the store a couple weeks into this past November. So when did you actually end up opening? So we actually opened on December 9th, which seems at the time like it was taking so long. And it's funny to hear you

say that it was only, it's really only a month after when I told you we were going to open. Yeah.

You know, we set a bunch of construction delays and permitting and it just took forever. And I look back

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