Sheryl

I am Sheryl and 17 years ago, with help from family and friends, I opened Book Again. My five sons have always been very involved with this bookstore. They all sat down with me initially to barnstorm ideas for a business and the proceeded to paint shelves, purchase books etc. etc.

My oldest son Joe named the store, edited the newsletter and wrote the folklore column. My son Mike managed Book Again for the first 12 years with only brief help from his brothers and myself.

In 1999 I retired from my daytime job as a RN and relieved Mike. Mike continues to help out behind the scenes with his brothers, and is now editing the newsletter and sale notices.

My brother, Mike designed our website and kept it updated for 10 years. He devoted much time and effort to this, but his most difficult task was first convincing me that I needed to put the store in cyberspace.

My youngest son, Dan has recently relieved his Uncle Mike as the Book Again's Webmaster.

That brings us back to the present and our Friendly Four. Fun was my keyword for Book Again when I first opened the doors. After years of working in a very serious profession, I returned to manage Book Again and I kept "Fun" foremost in my head as I did a bit of redesigning. I changed the hours to my retirement hours of 11am to 4pm. It's easier to have fun in 5 hours! I recruited some help from three "Fun" friends and that is fun.

As much as I love fun I also relish change. Book Again changes frequently. Our customers are wonderful sports and just call out for directions when I move their favorite section. We want you to have fun as well as us and we do our best to make that happen. It all seems to be working because Book Again has never been so active and we see many more smiles than frowns!

Diana

One day in 2000, Diana and her good friend Dina came into Book Again. They were obviously having a lot of fun and just as obviously fell in love with Book Again. As the talk and laughter continued between the two friends, they pulled me in and I felt very comfortable. Diana commented that it must be great to be able to work in such a wonderful bookstore and I knew I had found a friend. She then sealed it with the question---Do you need another helper? Diana now helps out at Book Again usually on Thursdays and Saturdays.

Diana enjoys a good story and reads general and war fiction and romance. She is currently focusing on young adult fiction in order to assist our younger customers.

Diana is our chief organizer. If you don't see her immediately know she is at the shelves re-organizing one area or the next and yes she is inclined to talk to the books on occasion.

Carol

I want to introduce you to Carol, our newest Book Again "worker bee." Carol is not new to Book Again - she has been a customer for years. She once thought that it would be fun to work at Book Again after retiring, but didn't give it much thought until our "help wanted" sign went up. So now here she is, and we are so happy to welcome her! Please come in soon on a Tuesday or Wednesday to meet and welcome Carol.

So now you know a little more about us. I'd just like to close by saying that I am having the perfect retirement thanks to Book Again. It is such a fun and friendly place to be thanks to so many of my customers!

As a child I was such an avid reader that my mother worried because she saw it as isolating and she was frequently pushing me to be more social. I think I have the best of both worlds now because I meet and talk to the "best" people in the world — book lovers.

I look forward to meeting you and helping you find a good book. Most of my favorites have come from the Mystery section.

—Sheryl................