This past weekend the beating heart of Waterloo briefly stopped. I’m exaggerating, of course. Words Worth Books is only a bookstore. It may also organize numerous author events, host book clubs, and provide knowledgeable advice on books that will dazzle and delight. It may be packed with friendly staff. And, oh yeah, it is most certainly an independent local business. But maybe it’s just me that thinks of it like the beating heart of Waterloo. If you do think this way, then it’s a momentous event when the doors close for good.
Don’t panic! A new set of doors opened almost immediately just down the street. In less than two days Words Worth Books shifted all of its stock and displays to a new location only a couple of steps from the old one. How is that possible?
I don’t know the details. But there must have been some serious planning and preparation by the staff. Let’s just say a lot of things happened behind the scenes. And then, early Sunday morning, like the crocuses and tulips that are bursting out all over what with our early spring weather, people, by which I mean volunteers, started showing up at the ‘old’ store. In what seemed like no time at all books were boxed, shelves were dismantled, shelves were remantled (?) at the ‘new’ store, and books were unboxed. I’m compressing things a bit. I was only there for the first couple of hours. I departed once I was secure in the knowledge that the fiction books, at least, were safely in place in the new locale. It looked to me like an unbelievable amount of work remained. Reader, it got done!
I dropped by the all-new Words Worth Books today and it looks fabulous. Congratulations to all involved. Long may this beating heart keep on pounding.
The new location of Words Worth Books is 96 King Street South, Waterloo, Ontario.