About The Bookstore

The following is an original page from very early on in this site’s history.    The fact that I have completely switched over from promoting public libraries and books they offer to promoting only #indie books which I believe offer readers true value,   makes much of the following largely inapplicable.    I’ve buried the link a bit,   but can’t quite bring myself to delete this page.    These days,  all links are to affiliate Amazon sales pages,  but NOT to the Amazon bookstore that I’ve largely abandoned.   (Alan Jobe– February 2013)

My name is Alan and I’m a book-a-holic.   I have loved books my entire life.   Before I could learn to read my mother used to read to me from a Richard Scarry story book and I loved that book so much that I literally Knew by heart exactly all of the words and played at reading even before I could read.    My first job as an adult was working as bookseller for a large national chain of bookstores that then had a branch on Canal Street,  at the corner of Bourbon Street in New Orleans where the business district meets the French Quarter.    And after a long career in retail, the Internet industry and a large public library system,  I am now retired on disability  and with the launch of this store, return to my first passion for selling and sharing all of the wonderful books I just happen to know about,  both from a lifetime of reading and a retirement filled with trips to the all of the libraries in my area where I continue to be immersed in the world of books.

The first thing you will notice about the book store is that it is powered by Amazon and is in fact an Amazon affiliate store.    My good friends who have known me for some time will no doubt be a bit shocked.    When Amazon first started and I was working at Sprynet   (check the Way Back Machine) I just Loved to order books from them.   It was so neat and their warehouse and customer service people were right here in my home town.    But then they fired err laid off all their Seattle customer service and support staff and moved all of those jobs to a low wage, “right-to-work (for much less)” state and I never forgave them for it and never bought another book from them.    As you may know,  Powell’s Books in Portland Oregon is one of the largest privately owned, locally operated book stores in the world.   Located in Portland’s Rose district the warehouse sized store occupies an entire city block and is a great place to spend a day just looking at an extraordinary and huge selection of new and used books.    I have been proud to be a Powell’s affiliate.

But much as I enjoy supporting local businesses,  even if they are not actually in My city,  the visitors to my site are very much International.  This site receives search visitors via Google and other search engines from every continent (except so far as I know Antarctica) in cities and towns all over the world.    And the fact is for these visitors,  Amazon is a much more attractive choice.   They have truly become a global company and even my friends in Europe, Asia and Africa will consider ordering from Amazon where they just would not likely every consider buying from Powell’s given the higher shipping costs and the lack of personal familiarity,  which to a large extent they already have acheived with Amazon.    In my heart,  I would love to have had a Powell’s affiliate store,  and I certainly could have made one.   But I decided that I would have more success selling through Amazon given their much greater ubiquity and familiarity and their generally lower prices and lower shipping costs,  particularly for customers outside the US and Canada.

I respectfully ask that if you enjoy reading my book reviews and find them helpful that you consider purchasing just an occasional one of your books from me.   My store will carry every book I have written about,  as well as some books that I will be writing about in the future and a carefully chosen by me assortment of other titles I think will be of interest to my visitors and readers.   By supporting Your internet bookseller you are helping to keep book review and resource sites like this available and are supporting the people who bring value to Your internet communities.    If you have any questions or concerns regarding the shop,  just e-mail drone AT libdrone DOT info