Welcome to From the Front porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South.

In truth, we will only perform any action a certain number of times, and to know that can never be helpful.

There is, in my opinion, no use in demanding to know the number, in demanding to know upon waking the number of boxes to be ticked off every single day.

After all, why would it help to be shown the mathematics of things when instead we could simply imagine that whatever time we have is limitless?

Julia Armfield, our wives under the sea.

I'm Annie Jones, owner of the bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and this week I'm recapping the books I read in July.

As promised, we launched our new website earlier this year, and wow, there have been a few kinks.

We are grateful for each and every order you all have placed, and perhaps more importantly, we're grateful for your patience as we navigate these new systems.

It was always our goal to have a new point of sale system and a new website in good working order by the fall, and I think we're on track for that.

That meant, of course, that we had to launch now, even though we knew things might not be perfect, and things have not been perfect, but you all have been patient and gracious and kind, and we're really grateful for that.

From the front porch is first and foremost a part and parcel of a small business, and I am grateful for every way you choose to support our independent bookstore by listening to this podcast, by supporting us on Patreon, or by purchasing books through us long distance from our website.

Aaron, our online sales manager, is continually working alongside our website developers to ensure your customer experience is excellent, and to ensure the new site is an accurate reflection of our store in Thomasville.

We want that to be seamless for you.

I hope you'll browse the new website. All of today's titles are available for purchase there, and thank you again for bearing with us through these changes.

Good things take time, and that sentiment rings especially true as our store adapts to these new systems.

You can view and shop the new site at www.bookshelfthomasville.com, and stay tuned to the end of this week's episode where I'll reveal what our titles are for our July Reading Recap Bundle, which can also be purchased on the new site.

Now, let's get started.

July held way fewer books than June, and I was trying to analyze why that is, or was, because I'm in Anyagram 5, and I like to figure things out.

It's because I listen to way more audiobooks in June, which I found really fascinating.

I think in June I wound up reading 12 books, which is for me, a little absurd. That's a lot of books.

And if that's what you read on an average basis, great, good for you, but that is not really typical for me, it feels like.

And I think that is because I had a little bit more free time in June, as mentioned above, the new point of sale system and the new website have been just a smidge stressful.

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