Cover to COVER Books Celebrates A First Anniversary in Downtown White River Junction
Cover to COVER Books (C2CB) is celebrating its first birthday this month. It’s a jewel box of a place—small, charming, with a great selection of mystery books front and center and a diverse inventory including biographies, travel and art books, history and science, romance, and children’s stories. At $5 per hard cover, $3 per paperback, and $1 for kids’ books, you will, to quote a friend who loves bargains, “never get a better buy.” Perfect for holiday shopping, or for pampering yourself as we settle into winter.
The bookstore, open Wednesdays through Saturdays, is staffed by volunteers, like Rob Johnson, who first began volunteering at C2CB because he loves books and wants to indulge in his dream of running a bookstore. He has started a handful of successful book clubs and reading clubs that continue to thrive year after year. He loves a good discussion and “meet[ing] people over books.”
Nancy Cressman, former owner of Hanover’s Left Bank Books, volunteers because she supports COVER Home Repair’s overarching goals. “Having a home has been a vital part of my life. It’s allowed me to feel safe, invite people over, and make a life for myself. I began supporting COVER in 2011 because its work is home-centered. I wanted to help others have a home.”
What can books tell us about a community like our own? Nancy makes an interesting observation about how the books, donated by members of the local community, demonstrate that what we read may be one measure of who we are.
“One way to one describe the goal of the books selected for the shop is to think of C2CB as having titles that come from our Upper Valley community and are a reflection of the interests of that community. We are a WRJ shop and want to reflect the diverse reading interests of our community.”
Rhenea Regan is a new volunteer from Enfield, NH who says, “No Kindle will replace having a book in your hands. It’s a special experience to hold a book, turn the pages, and see how much is left to read. . . Having a stained dog-eared cookbook is special. You write notes in it. You hold it and turn the pages. And when you pass the cookbook on, all the notes and dog-earned pages get passed on too. It holds a part of us in the pages.”
The books for sale are carefully curated, meaning that not all books donated make their way onto C2CB’s shelves. What happens to the others? COVER’s Executive Director Helen Hong assures that there are “multiple exit points before books end up in a recycling facility or the landfill.” Details to follow; stay tuned.
All proceeds from the sales at C2CB are funneled to COVER Home Repair to support its mission of improving housing in the community. For more information about the bookstore, located at 158 S. Main Street, click here.
(Photo, top, ribbon-cutting on opening day at C2CB one year ago)
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And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.