This information is from Shelf Awareness. I enjoy the various bookstores they continually feature. Since The Hill Team all enjoys mysteries, this one really struck home as special. It was first published in Mystery Scene magazine and was written by Oline Cogdill.
Mystery Scene magazine profiled the award-winning Mystery Lovers Bookshop, Oakmont, Pa., and co-owners Mary Alice Gorman and Richard Goldman, who opened their store on Halloween in 1990 at a time when “there was only one chain bookstore in the Pittsburgh area and Amazon was just a river.”
“Richard calls it the ‘blinding glimpse of the obvious’ that we settled on a mystery bookstore,” said Gorman. “It was like a lightbulb because that is what the two of us read. We’ve always read a lot of the same authors.”
The couple recalled considering the possible sale of Mystery Lovers Bookshop about a decade ago, when they “put the store on the market and then took a month-long cruise to South America. They returned energized and took the store off the market.”
“The response of the authors and readers at the Festival of Mystery that year warmed our hearts,” said Gorman. “What we discovered is that we really had created a community, almost a family [of authors and readers]. Every year the festival moves me and makes me realize that we have a far-flung community of folks who come [from many states]. We have more than 40 writers who say they can’t wait. We give no awards; there are no speeches. It’s just all fun and ends with pizza and beer.”
Gorman also observed that “people want to read and they want to read mysteries. August is one of our biggest months as people are choosing what to take on vacation. I had a customer who was going through a difficult pregnancy. The doctor prescribed Rex Stout. Mysteries are magical. We sell to readers, not collectors. And we’re having fun.”
I hope you enjoyed reading about this as much as I did. Mary Alice Gorman and Richard Goldman obviously enjoy their store. Congratulations on your anniversary.
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