By the time we got to Woodstock….

Oblong Kids’ Books, Millerton, NY. The sky really was that blue.

Day five of the Indie Book Store Road Trip was memorable for several reasons. For one, I was wandering all over the Hudson River Valley in upstate New York on a September day so crisp and clear you could bite into it. For two, I kept meeting booksellers with the best names I have ever heard in my life. For three, I had bacon with breakfast (and waffles) AND bacon with lunch (BLT), as well as the best dark chocolate almond bark I’ve ever tasted. This is all my definition of a very good day.

I started out at The Book Cove in Pawling, which sells antiques as well as books and is the kind of place you could happily spend an entire day perusing everything. Tara, the manager, just finished reading Wilson, by A. Scott Berg, which is selling like crazy for them while Louise, who’s been a bookseller there for 16 years, recommends Love, Life, and Elephants, by Dame Daphne Sheldrick. It’s a terrific true story, and Dame Daphne managed to dress in lovely frocks and pearls even in the midst of raising elephants in Africa . Check it out.

Castle, bookseller extraordinaire at Oblong Books in Millerton, NY

Millerton, NY, was next. The bookseller at Oblong Books & Music there is named Castle. Really. Her parents both dreamed that one day they would have a daughter named Castle, and here she is. She’s a poet, writer, and graduate student who just glows when she talks about books and writing. And I’d tell you what she’s reading but I lost my little notepad where I was writing everything down. But go see Castle for yourself. She’s a delight.

In Rhinebeck, I talked to a beautiful bookseller at the OTHER Oblong Books & Music. Of course I can’t remember her name because it wasn’t “Castle” (and I lost my little notepad). But, oh, was she interesting to talk to. She suggested a book with a title I love so much I may have to get it on that basis alone, St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, by Karen Russell. She’s also a writer. And she’s lovely.

The last stop of the day was Woodstock. Is it too cliche to say I saw more tie dyed t-shirts wandering around Woodstock than I’ve ever seen in one place before? But it’s true. The bookseller at the wonderful Golden Notebook is named Desiree O’Clare, which is such a great name I may have to use it in a novel one day. Desiree recently read and loved Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple, and some other titles I wish I could remember.

Desiree and Dante, The Golden Notebook, Woodstock, NY

Her assistant Dante, a local high school student, set out months ago to read everything John Green has ever written and accomplished his mission last week when he finished Will Grayson, Will Grayson. Go to Woodstock sometime and say hi.