hello hello books
about the bookstore- current shop news
- where are we?
- hours and contact info
- sign up for our newsletter!
- trade credit for used books!
- hello hello brigade membership program
- book club!
- follow us on facebook
- job opportunities!
- bookstore blog!
- hello hello calendar
- press!
- photos
- we're on pinterest
- pledge drive archive
- proudly indiebound.
- direct links
- shop hello hello online!
- email me, yeah?
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about the bookstore
- Established in 2011, hello hello is an independent bookshop owned and operated by Lacy Simons in Rockland, Maine. We feature a healthy mix of used, new and bargain books, as well as a selection of hard-to-find magazines, art & craft, gifts and select vintage items.
OUR MISSION:
To maintain an active and vocal enthusiasm for
books and print culture; to help keep that
culture vital and thriving; to encourage the
ongoing appreciation of printed materials in an
age of overdigitalization; to provide a source for
creative and handmade products, and to do all of
this with an independent spirit.
hello hello has deep and fabled roots: it began in 1992 as Second Read (later renamed Rock City), a business that was integral to Rockland's renaissance. In the spring of 2011, Lacy (then manager of the bookstore) purchased the bookstore piece of Rock City's business and transformed it into hello hello books.
Along the way, Lacy and Susanne Ward (Rock City's owner) decided to move out of the old Rock City location into a newly refurbished space just next door, so they could remain adjacent to each other & enjoy some of the synchronicity that was an important piece of Second Read's beginnings while moving forward into a bold new future! Thus hello hello books can be found toward the back of Rock City Cafe, or via the side doors on Orient Street.
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current shop news
- Updated trade credit brochure! Check it out.*4/4/12: Who's in the Boston Globe today? We are.*We've just launched a membership program! Click the 'hello hello brigade membership program' link to the left for more information.*12/13/11: Beyond thrilled to have played a part in this wonderful op-ed by Richard Russo in the New York Times.
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where are we?
- 316 Main St, Rockland, ME 04841, USA
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hours and contact info
hello hello books is open six days a week.Current hours:Tuesdays - Saturdays 10 AM - 7 PMSundays 10 AM - 5 PMClosed MondaysEmail Lacy at hellohellobooks@gmail.com
Call us at 207.593.7780. The phone here is so handsome, we get excited to answer it.
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sign up for our newsletter!
- We'll never share your info with anybody else, ever.
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trade credit for used books!
- We're happy to help you give your books new life! We look at used books Wednesdays-Saturdays from 10 a.m. - 7 p.m; please bring in no more than twenty books at a time, and be sure to read our newly updated brochure for details on what types of books we look for, and how the trade credit system works.
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hello hello brigade membership program
- Sign up in the shop or online, either for yourself or as a gift for somebody else.A $25 annual fee will secure you a place in the hello hello brigade, and that place will get you not just a special membership card--though I promise that's part of it--but a chance to reap these rewards:
- 25% off our Book o'the Month!
- 10% off used books every Tuesday!
- 10% off special orders of new books!
- 10% off hello hello book club selections!
- Special brigade-only deals and sales via email!
- Participation in the new Customer Picks & Reviews section!
- Freebies and surprises!
- The aforementioned ultra-exclusive membership card!
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book club!
- We have, at long last, started a Book Club that's affiliated with the store. We're still in the early stages of working out a regular meeting time, so send us a note at hellohellobooks@gmail.com if you'd like to be put on the email list to get updates on forthcoming plans!
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Wall
- "I don't care if Ceelo's "People" thought it was a bold idea; FAST COMPANY is not in my contract. Give me VOGUE, give me VANITY FAIR, give me CAT FANCY for heaven's sake. I'm an artist, not a businesscat." http://instagr.am/p/Ku43DMwu-3/
- Here's one in an ongoing series of historical updates: Happy 167th birthday, rubber bands! On this date in 1845, you got your very own patent.
- Tickets are available here at the shop! And I'm happy to say that I'll also be supplying books for the event, though I won't be able to be there to sell them...the kind/smart/funny/talented/all-around good egg Kate Russo has volunteered to do so in my place. http://knox.villagesoup.com/business/brief/community/richard-russo-and-andre-dubus-iii-at-rockport-opera-house-may-19/824320
- Come hear Lacy talk rapidly about books and print culture, won't you? Loud "wooooooooooooot!!!"s are welcome.
- Happy mom's day, y'alls! It's Jacob's first solo Sunday at the shop...go forth and be good to him.
- Looking for a last-minute gift for Mother's Day? Look no further than a donation in her name to the Mother's Day movement. Says founder Nicolas Kristof: "Some $14 billion will be spent in the United States for Mother’s Day this year, according to the National Retail Federation...to put that sum in context, it’s enough to pay for a primary school education for all 60 million girls around the world who aren’t attending school. That would pretty much end female illiteracy." Honor your mother by honoring all mothers!
- Nav clouds. http://instagr.am/p/KdyfL3wu0q/
- Happy to say we're stocking another independent, ad-free journal in the shop! Remedy is a quarterly food magazine filled with food stories & their recipes, interviews with food people, and vintage tips & tidbits. Check our more pics and info at: http://www.remedyquarterly.com/about/
- It's a sad day for every last one of us.
- Our trade credit brochure, newly updated for Spring and Summer! https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByVGHZTMh17xMDViWEV2VDc2V2s/edit
- Another gray day...might we humbly suggest that a meandering visit to our shelves with a cuppa Rock City Coffee in hand might be the best way to spend your time?
- Darth Tater & I want to wish you a Happy Star Wars Day! May the Fourth be with you.
- Make no mistake about it: we're well-stocked with copies of Alison Bechdel's new graphic-novel-memoir "Are You My Mother?" Lacy devoured it basically in one sitting, and if you were a fan of "Fun Home," her 2006 graphic memoir about her father, you'll likely do the same thing.
- Jacob's first day at the shop was today! A smashing success, it was. Come in and introduce yourself to him sometime this week, won't you? He'll be back Thursday-Sunday this week!
- hello hello newsletter nummer zes!
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job opportunities!
- Thanks for your interest in working at hello hello! We aren't currently hiring, but do check back from time to time.
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Posts
Every picture of Vladimir Nabokov catching butterflies deserves the caption, “Haters gonna hate.”
New HBO Comedy Veep With Julia Louis-Dreyfus Has British Roots
If Laughing Squid is tellin’ you about it, you know it’s awesome. T-minus five days til I get to see my brother Tim on teeeveeee!
Canada to Introduce Glow-in-the-Dark Quarter
“When Canada introduced polymer bills last year to replace their paper ones, we thought – cool! Then just a few weeks ago, the Canadian government announced it was doing away with pennies as a cost-cutting measure, and we thought – seems drastic, but ok! Now they’ve announced that a new quarter to be released next week will glow in the dark. Alright – Canada’s completely lost it.”
It glows in the dark AND it has a dinosaur on it. I think it’s possible that the Royal Canadian Mint is being run by an 11-year-old boy. And, you know what? I think we should hire one for the United States Mint too, because that quarter is awesome.
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The Listserve, A Giant Email List That Receives 1 Email From A Random Person Each Day
Even though we might not *need* a little more email each day, I think this idea is kind of incredible.
Did you ever think you’d be able to sit and watch the Northern Lights…live? Thanks to the Canadian Space Agency’s AuroraMAX Camera — located in the city of Yellowknife, near the Arctic Circle — you can watch Aurora Borealis in action, every night from now until late May (the camera shuts down during the Arctic summer, when the midnight sun prevents aurora viewing).
Science, you are magical.(via)
This is so much cheaper and warmer than actually going to Canada! Turn it on tonight, and every night through May.
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Here’s a little antitheft message sponsored by your local independent bookseller, who has suffered the mysterious loss of several copies of this: this book is about creative inspiration, not actual theft. What I mean to say is, please note that the title isSteal Like an Artist, not Steal From an Artist.
Tiny diatribe over!I’m not much of a Kerouac fan, but you bet I’m a Sam Riley fan. If he’s anywhere near as wonderful in this as he was in Control, I’m in.
In 1937 [Graham] Greene was a film reviewer for Night and Day magazine. In a review of the Shirley Temple vehicle Wee Willie Winkie, he wrote: “Her admirers – middle-aged men and clergymen – respond to her dubious coquetry, to the sight of her well-shaped and desirable little body, packed…
Our inaugural hello hello Book o’the Month is Edward St Aubyn’s finally-available-in-the-U.S. The Patrick Melrose Novels: Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, and Mother’s Milk.
These four stand-alone novels have been published together in advance of the collection’s final installment, At Last, which was released just yesterday. I wasn’t familiar with St Aubyn until I read Zadie Smith’s marvelous August 2011 Harper’s essay on his work, which sent me running to buy used UK editions of the Melrose novels. (Quotes like “’ It’s the hardest addiction of all,’ said Patrick. ‘Forget heroin. Just try giving up irony” ramped up the anxious I-gotta-read-these feeling.) Dark though they are at times, I adored them, and the release of the collection along with the new book seemed timed perfectly with the launch of the hello hello brigade and the addition of the Book o’the Month pick, on which brigade members get a healthy 25% discount.Here’s some jacket copy; come into the shop to dive in further…
“For more than twenty years, acclaimed author Edward St. Aubyn has chronicled the life of Patrick Melrose, painting an extraordinary portrait of the beleaguered and self-loathing world of privilege. This single volume collects the first four novels—-Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, and Mother’s Milk, a Man Booker finalist—-to coincide with the publication of At Last, the final installment of this unique novel cycle.”
Owning a bookshop does have its advantages; for example, choosing to wear slippers on a super slushy & cold day.
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hello hello calendar
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press!
- The road to hello hello was proverbially long and bumpy, and these kind folks helped me get the word out:POST-OPENINGThe Boston Globe did a nice little roundup of spots to visit and shop and look around in Rockland, and you bet hello hello was included. (And so was a little picture that gives Lacy some serious perspective on the visual chaos that is the desk area she works in.)Twice in a month ain't bad: interviewed for this piece in the New York TImes on how little shops are competing with giants online.Beyond thrilled to have played a part in this wonderful op-ed by Richard Russo in the New York Times.PRE-OPENINGThe Portland Press Herald did a feature on the transition into hello hello (note picture of me mid-explanatory-gesture as well as the appearance of Bill, one of my favorite customers) which was also picked up by The Kennebec Journal--the paper I grew up with.Apparently the hello hello crowdsourcing/pledge drive story will be featured during the opening plenary session at the National Main Streets Conference this month!Bookseller nerd happiness ensues: I'm in 'Bookselling This Week'.Lucky enough to be welcomed by Edelweiss & Above the Treeline (via the estimable Joe Foster) in the Buyer Buzz feature here.
All over May's local roundup theSCENE--pgs 27, 30 and 36.
Like most indie booksellers, I love Shelf Awareness. Even on days when I'm not in it. This day, though, I was in it again. It was a good Tuesday.
Not a bad way to start a Tuesday: discovering that Publishers Weekly shared your story with their 140,000+ Twitter followers.
The rocking Emily Burnham interviewed me for The Bangor Daily News and the story has been posted. It's fantastic to have a Maine paper behind me!
The amazing women behind the George Lapinski podcast had me on as a guest to talk about contemporary poetry, books and my bookstore-buying pledge drive.
I made it into the MOBYLIVES Day in Review roundup here.
Rebecca, of the justly famed Book Lady's Blog, also donated referral fees!
The Reading Ape donated referral fees to my pledge drive!
Was geeked to be noted by Ken Baumann in HTMLGIANT.
I was danged happy to be included in the Notes roundup of Shelf Awareness just a few days after launching my campaign to raise funds to buy the bookstore.
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Photos
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we're on pinterest
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pledge drive archive
- In which I learned a great deal about the power of community bookstores and social media.My pledge drive ran from March 22nd-May 1st, 2011 and generated a lot of attention, for which I'll forever be thankful. Here are direct links to archived copies of my original post and the updates, all of which I've gathered for posterity on hello hello's tumblr site.First pledge drive letter.
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proudly indiebound.
For more information on IndieBound's organization and programs, click any of the above banners!
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direct links
- Head directly to ourTwitter stream (goes kind of hush in summer)Webstore (ever in progress)Pinterest (we'll try to update it more, swear!)
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shop hello hello online!
- We're currently revamping our online store--please check back in the future!
