
{"id":796,"date":"2007-08-23T05:39:57","date_gmt":"2007-08-23T13:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2007\/08\/23\/book-cellar-brings-chapter-to-a-close\/"},"modified":"2007-08-23T05:39:57","modified_gmt":"2007-08-23T13:39:57","slug":"book-cellar-brings-chapter-to-a-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2007\/08\/23\/book-cellar-brings-chapter-to-a-close\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Cellar brings chapter to a close"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/books082307.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/books082307.jpg\" height=\"198\" width=\"263\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<em>Tim Grant in front of The Book Cellar at Carr Mill. Photo by Kirk Ross<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>By Kirk Ross<\/strong><br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Tim Grant hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been behind the counter of The Book Cellar for all of its 22 years of operation, but he knows that as he prepares to close the store, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the end of an era in his little corner of Carr Mill.<\/p>\n<p>Grant has managed the shop for three years, taking over from longtime owner Pat Wall, who retired a few years back. The shop opened its doors in 1985, and visitors for the past couple of decades may recall the stacks of romance and mystery novels packed to the rafters.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153For years, it was what it was,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Grant said. And many of the longtime clientele still returned to the shop to stock up on the paperbacks that were its stock and trade for so many years.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>But Grant, who confesses a particular fondness for the Southern authors of this region, says when he took the space over he tried to diversify the shop. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I wanted to open it up a bit and have a space for readings,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Grant said.<\/p>\n<p>And while there was some success, the basics of business made keeping the store open impossible.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a flea market inventory and Madison Avenue rent,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Grant said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had a good run with it. But I had to take a hard look at things.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>With plans to close the doors after September 1 and a half-price sale fueling purchases, the shop is starting to empty out a bit. Still, the selections on the shelves give you an indication of the wide-ranging tastes of the patrons. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plenty of romance, travel, mysteries and military histories, of course, but also Best Dog Writing and The Cluetrain Manifesto. I Survived Academia is shelved a few inches from The Scarlet Letter, and stacks of old Norman Rockwell paintings, custom-made bookmarks and postcards are on display near the checkout.<\/p>\n<p>What he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll miss most, Grant said, is that connection with the regulars.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wonderful,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Trinna Vaughan said of Grant after she took a look at recent additions to his postcard collection. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the best salesman I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever met. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a friend right from the start.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Her mother, Barbara Vaughan, added that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s especially appreciative that Grant has kept a lookout for her for John Grisham novels.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh, yes,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Grant chimed in, and told the story of recently sorting through a box of books a customer brought in to trade. In the box was an almost new hardback copy of Grisham\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s latest.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We usually have to wait until they come out in paperback before a copy comes in, but there it was. I called Mrs. Vaughan up and told her \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI got it.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the kind of small-town merchant experience he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to miss \u00e2\u20ac\u201d but maybe not for long.<\/p>\n<p>Grant, who lives in Carrboro, is collaborating with an artist friend who wants to open a gallery in Durham that may allow him some bookstore space as well.<\/p>\n<p>One regret he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll leave with is that his idea of a Carrboro shop that sells the latest titles by the authors of this area and eclectic used items didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take off.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Carrboro,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153really needs a new bookstore \u00e2\u20ac\u201d one that sells new and used books and one that really has a focus on local authors.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tim Grant in front of The Book Cellar at Carr Mill. Photo by Kirk Ross By Kirk Ross Staff Writer Tim Grant hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been behind the counter of The Book Cellar for all of its 22 years of operation, but he knows that as he prepares to close the store, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the end of an&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}