the opening

one rainy saturday in may

The day before

Charging speakers. Checking price tags. Checking lights. Checking the register. Baking cookies. Another good scrub.

Nerves wouldn’t settle.

The day of

9AM: I prepare the giveaway entry slips. Print sample bills. Check the internet connection. Blow up balloons for the entryway. Mother and sister come with flowers to congratulate me and help me set up.

10am: The very first time I open our doors for customers. Saturday mornings are usually full of slumber still, but slowly but surely, the first guests come in. Out of curiosity, some through Instagram, mostly international folk gasping at the fact that the entire store is filled with English literature.

12: It gets fuller than I expected it would, I focus on the till & the conversations, soaking in the congratulations and the compliments on the cookies I give out for free. I barely have time to take in how much more successful the first day open ended up becoming, and I look at everyone with such gratitude that I hope they can somehow feel it inside of them as they leave.

2PM: I reach my not-expected-but-hoped-for income for the day. My best friends come in with plants and flowers, more friends walk in and suddenly it becomes a tiny gathering, and strangers are still flooding in and occupying me at the register.

3PM: Tied in conversations, I am getting to know a lot of new people, I hear about their occupations, that they live around the corner, that they have been waiting for a space like this in the neighbourhood. The cookies are completely gone. I’m very pleased to notice that nothing major has gone wrong, not even anything minor.

5PM: I reach double of what I had hoped for. I receive more flowers and congratulations, and get too excited to get choked up. I can really feel how acquaintances are becoming friends. I save the grateful cry for later. Outside, it starts to rain.

6:30PM: I close the front doors shut after bringing in the benches. It’s rainy, but my heart feels the opposite way. I put down as a reminder that I have to re-order and re-stock on Monday. My own written books are sold out, which I didn’t expect either, so I have to re-order those as well. I kind of don’t believe my luck, but decide to relish in it.

Thank you so much for the best opening day I could have asked for for Read The Room. To those who have been following my journey from other parts of the world – your encouragement and kindness means the world to me & motivates me to no end.

Yours in gratitude,

Hannah