Joseph-Beth and Booksteve

Longtime readers will recall that I began working for Waldenbooks in 1982. More than a decade before that, my 6th Grade self became the youngest manager of the bookstore in my grade school. I was fired for giving out the wrong change too often. I became a recess cookieseller instead.

I worked for Waldenbooks in downtown Cincinnati for one year, then moved to the Waldenbooks in Crestview Hills, KY for four years. From there, I spent nine years at the Florence Mall Waldenbooks before being promoted to return to the Crestview Hills store as manager for five years. 

In 2000, I transferred to the Eastgate Mall Waldenbooks on the outskirts of Cincinnati for three tumultuous years before jumping ship to Barnes and Noble at Cincinnati's Hyde Park location.

The Hyde Park location was near Joseph-Beth Booksellers, a large but independent bookstore based  out of Lexington, KY. I got one of my better ex-employees hired on there for a while. My B&N, however, closed after just a year and a half, and a sojourn at the Public Library didn't quite last that long.

Soon enough, I found myself back at Waldenbooks--although called Borders--at the Cincinnati Airport store where I bypassed assistant manager and finished up my bookstore career as manager once again when the concourse closed, followed by Borders going away completely soon afterwards.

Did I say "finished" my bookstore career?

After spending the past six years working with Craig Yoe, Martin Grams, Kathy Coleman, Greg Theakston, Dee Sutter, Jon B. Cooke, Roy Thomas, Shaun Clancy, Michael Eury, and Bhob Stewart--among others--on various books and other print projects, as of today I find myself once again working in a bookstore!

While I have no intention of giving up the successful writing career I'd always wanted, today was my first day at Joseph-Beth Booksellers! Ironically, I'm once again located at Crestview Hills, KY, where they took over the abandoned Borders location which replaced my former Waldenbooks!

I'm only part-time. It's all I wanted. And for now, I'm working in the stock room, but it's extra money, a reason to get out of the house, and hopefully the beginning of getting me back in shape and out of the funk that I've been in for a while now. 

Bookselling isn't just a job. It's a calling. I've told that to hundreds of people over the years and now I have once again answered that call.

Booksteve is BACK!