Dear Folks,

     Cynthia and I just came back from a grand 3 day escape. We met my sister and her family and we rented a cabin at Jane's Island State Park on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and we had a great time. Lots of talking eating, drinking, and playing games - till 2 a.m. on Saturday night ! Fortunately, there was also lots of napping, reading and hiking. One highlight was sitting by the water and hearing two great horned owls calling back and forth as they hunted at dusk. Another was an extraordinarily fine meal at the Watermen's Inn in Crisfield, Maryland. I am not a gourment but I do know extraordinary cooking when I come across it and this was splendid. We both loved our meal and our bill was very affordable. If you are in the area I would highly recommend it.

    Another highlight was on the way home. We were driving along a major highway coming out of Pocamoke and I saw a couple of very large birds with white heads hopping in a field and I quickly turned the car around and came back around just in time to see the birds flapping huge wings and slowly getting enough altitude to land in a tree. We got out our binoculars and saw somewhere between 10 and 15 bald eagles, many of them the majestic adults that we saw in the field but also several very well camouflaged juveniles who are almost as huge but don't have any white on them until their second year. We sat by the side of the road and ogled for a good long time and then let them go back to eating the dead deer in the field where they were when we first drove by. We didn't have a camera good enough for a picture like this but this does represent what we saw.

     I also wanted to invite you to join a growing group of people who are working on exploring the idea of transforming Walk a Crooked Mile Books into a cooperatively owned bookstore in larger quarters somewhere in the area. This is far from a done deal but we are growing more serious as we find more enthusiasm for it. If it were to happen we would be in a location that is larger and that would allow for more community events, including winter music events, perhaps a small cinema viewing room, and other businesses or not for profits that share our values of promoting community, literacy and the arts. This arrangement would not only give us room for more books and more community events, but by being publically owned, it increases the chances that the bookstore will survive and remain a community asset once we are ready to retire. If you want to find out more come chat with me or send us an email. If you want to be involved, come to an open organizing meeting tonight, January 10, from 7-9 p.m. at the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields on Willow Grove at St. Martin's Lane or send me an email and we'll add you to the email list for the book coop. Tonight we will be voting on a vision statement and starting committee work to take us to the next level but have much to do in the months ahead and would love more help. .

    In a final piece of news, we will be offering a great discount through Living Social.com. You can buy a coupon for $10 that will be worth $25 in books in a shopping trip here between now and June 12, 2012. We are offering this deal to attract new customers to the store and build our customer base. But we also want to make the deal available to you, our loyal customers. Whether or not you are interested in buying the deal, which is only available through Living Social, we hope you will visit them at and pass on the deal to any of your friends who may not know about us. Word of mouth has always been our best way of getting new customers but this deal may encourage people to take the time and come and visit. Thanks for your help in promoting us.Once I have the link, tomorrow morning, I will send out a brief email so you can check it out and send it on to friends. The deal is available tomorrow, Wednesday, January 11 through Friday January 13.

     By the way, since we were closed on Monday we will be open on Wednesday this week. We will return to our regular schedule next week and will, in fact, also be open on Monday, the Martin Luther King day of service for many folk.

Take care

Greg and Cynthia