Granfalloon Books

NEW OPENING AT 109 MAIN ST IN CHARDON

curmudgeon — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:49:31 +0000

It’’s taken awhile but the new store is up and open under Gallery One at 109 Main Street in Chardon.

Here's a front view of the counter

Granfalloon Books now features art from Gallery West on our walls. But the most important thing about our new store is

MORE SPACE FOR MORE BOOKS!

It goes back - wayyyyyy back!

A view of the seating area

Everything you loved about the old store is here as well:

Nicer seating area

Free coffee service

Full ordering service for books, music and movies

Buying books all the time

Mr. Boo!

Mr. Boo in his usual state

Much more room for meetings, book clubs, poetry and book readings! Call me if you have ideas.

Expanding sections, larger childrens book section.

A much nicer restroom

So stop by the new digs – you can enter through the gallery, or, if they are closed, through the back alley door (it’s colored in eggplant).

NEW HOURS: Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. through 5 p.m.

Meet (Mr.) Boo, the Granfalloon Bookstore Cat

curmudgeon — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:17:57 +0000

Here he is, the long awaited bookstore kitty:

Mr. Boo is looking for you!

Mr. Boo was adopted from the Geauga County Humane Society Rescue Village. Please consider adopting an animal from there, they are a first rate operation and so many cats, dogs and other critters need a home.

Mr. Boo is gentle and affectionate and loves being petted. So come and see him today!

Customer Service!

curmudgeon — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 18:33:25 +0000

I’m a small business guy in a world (bookselling) dominated by industry giants. So I know that to make a success in a small market, I need to offer well above and beyond the ordinary level of service.

This not only involves taking worldwide searches for obscure books as a personal challenge, but also to delivering, in person, when necessary, a customer’s book.

I will do anything and everything to get the right book into a customer’s hands – at at the best price and with a smile and some coffee and chocolate.

But there is one other aspect of service even little go-getters like me forget.

And thanks to a link from Deep Muck Big Rake, here it is:

A Deaf Mom Shares Her World: Steak N Shake Denies Service

There seems to be a happy ending here (but you should read all the posts and comments anyway – fascinating). The Steak N Shake corporate types met with the blogger who was denied service at the drive through window and are looking to make amends in making sure this never happens again.

The whole problem was that this lady cannot hear voices from the squakboxes these fast food places have in their drive through (heck, I have normal hearing and sometimes I can’t make out the mushmouth-like squakings that come out of them). So she went to the window to order and told the person there she was hard of hearing.

The clueless guy at the window (who apparently was/is a manager) stuck to policy and refused to take her order at the window – even after she showed him her hearing aids! He even threatened to call the police on her for blocking the drive through!

What I also found, and what you will find every time one of these stories are posted, the troglodyte ‘personal responsibility’ types that come out of the woodwork and post anonymous criticisms of the person wronged. In their perfect world, everyone who is treated rudely (and in this case against the ADA law) should just pick themselves up by their bootstraps and shake it off. These same people would never understand what it’s like to live in the world with a disability. If I had a dollar for every rude comment or look I’ve seen thrown at my autustic son over the years, I’d own Borders.

In any case, I have a story too and I need to remind myself of it every now and then just to be on my toes. And it’s probably a good one to pass along.

I have had customers come through my back door (three steps) and I have assisted them with walker and wheelchairs and will gladly do that all the time in the future. I’m in the first floor of a century home and its not the easiest walk-through for those with physical challenges.

But this one gentlemen was not blind, nor deaf but could not speak.

I will not use the old word to describe this condition. You know what it is. But he was a chipper guy and, Heaven and all the Goddesses help me, seemed like, well, like he was doing a mime. It took me a little while to catch on that he could not speak.

I bent over backwards to serve this person and felt horrible that I didn’t pick up on it immediately. I castigated myself for days. Even though he wasn’t offended and let me know he wasn’t, I was still offended at myself for being such a clueless oaf.

With the incident that happened with Deaf Mom, one of the excuses some of the letter writers alluded to was that the guy at the window may have felt she was putting him on. Well if you check out her site and see photos of this lady, its clear that she’s not a teenager looking to give some poor counter jockey a difficult time.

(A digression: I’ve seen this in action. Back in high school I was in a car with friends who went to the local McDonalds drive through and, the one guy, in his best Elwood Blues voice, ordered four pieces of dry white toast – it was 1980 and The Blues Brothers movie was the latest hit. The actually served us toasted buns. I felt very embarrassed to be with those guys).

The bottom line, is that, in the world of customer service, you will occasionally run into people who are just out to give you a hard time – that’s no excuse to ASSUME that an otherwise harmless customer is trying to make your life difficult.

It sounds corny and trite, but the Golden Rule is still the prime directive – treat others as you would wish to be treated. Again, trite and but true: follow the rule and you’ll never go wrong.

Dinousaur/Geological Fossils on Display!

curmudgeon — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 21:06:59 +0000

Granfalloon Books now has a wide ranging display of fossils from the age of the dinosaur and before! The collection is on loan from Chardon resident Tim Kempffer, who has been collecting geological fossils for many decades.

Please come in and see the three foot amethyst geode! Feel a real dinosaur tooth with serrated edges! This is the real deal, now on display for a limited time at Granfalloon Books, 104 Water Street, Chardon. Store hours are Mon-Fri from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Dinosaur footprints!

The Big Crystal Amethyst Geode!

Brutus next to some more examples of geodes and fossil remains from the Tim Kempffer collection.

Halloween

curmudgeon — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:13:35 +0000

Here’s how it looked last night:

Brutus the Ohio State Squarecrow(tm – the Chardon Square Association) was still out with my Jack O’Lantern that was probably carved one day too early – its dentures were falling on its gums by this time.

But we had a great group of trick or treaters and everyone thoroughly enjoyed Halloween on Chardon Square immediately following.

Next year I’ve got some plans to turn Granfalloon into the Haunted Bookstore. Until then. . .

Middlefield Author Launches “The Killian Star;” Available at Granfalloon Books

curmudgeon — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 18:46:57 +0000

Check back for future book signing event at Granfalloon Books!

The Killian Star

by Alyson E. Denny

347 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #07-1316; ISBN 1-4251-3430-0; US$22.99, C$26.44, EUR17.92, £11.88

A mysterious object of immense power… an old hermit and a horrible curse… can a young woman find the courage to fulfill her destiny, and help save the world? �

About the Book

It’s the year 777. A mysterious object falls from the sky at lightning speed and lands in Loch Tay, causing the earth to shake and souls to shiver. A priest finds it and discovers its awesome healing power; however, nefarious sources attempt to usurp it for their own selfish desires.

In 1714 an event causes the British Empire to want to acquire this legendary object to quell a rebellion. Before the king could acquire it, fate steps in causing it to be lost for centuries.

Over two hundred and fifty years later, an old hermit of the Cuillin Mountains discovers the legendary object and suddenly finds his life hanging in the balance.

In 1973, he not only stumbles across a child lost in the hills, but also learns of a special connection to her.

As time unfolds, and the child reaches adulthood, strange events start to occur. It is now that the old man must make sure the dangerous object never sees the light of day. But once again, history repeats itself, as he finds it has been taken.

Is it now her destiny to undo the hermit’s nightmare?

About the Author

Alyson E. Denny was born in London, England. She graduated from boarding school then went onto further education in Switzerland, Paris and Madrid. Shortly after she traveled the world as an air flight attendant for British Airways. Her next adventure led her to riding racehorses with a goal to racing as an amateur, but an accident brought that dream to an end.

She then moved to America in 1990, got married and had two children, Stephanie and Iain. She was a stay-at-home mother for the first six years of their lives. During that time, she started writing short stories, and stories for children’s picture books.

In 1997 she parted company with her husband and took on life as a struggling single mother, continuing to write children’s books and then a novel while working at various jobs.

As well as being a writer, Denny wrote and produced her own radio show in the Cleveland area (being Northeast Ohio’s first British female talk show host), and was a nominated finalist for best new talent in the market. (2001 Northeast Ohio A.I.R. Awards ®).

2004, she became an American citizen.

In 2006 Denny was asked to produce and become the managing editor for a local paper in her town. Once the paper was fully established, she returned to finishing her novel.

Elementary Art Exhibit at Granfalloon Books!

curmudgeon — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 23:55:57 +0000

“Where the Wild Things Are”

Newbury Elementary School Art Exhibit Running through Halloween

Come out to Granfalloon Books at 104 Water Street in Chardon and take a look at the artwork of over 40 Newbury Elementary School students of Mrs. Caryl Church. The kids illustrated their own “Wild Things” based on the classic children’s book by Maurice Sendak. The exhibit, which covers almost all the walls of the book store, will remain for public viewing until just after Halloween. After that, artwork from Chardon High School students and other interested local schools will be featured periodically throughout the school year.

Here are a fiew views of the art on the walls: