Toure, the Grinch, and other events!

Tomorrow morning (Saturday December 19) at 10:30 AM, you can catch our last event before Christmas: Touré reading How The Grinch Stole Christmas!

Touré is a noted novelist, cultural and literary critic, and TV personality (Greenlight was honored to have him speak at our launch party in October).

He's also a local parent and a Greenlight customer, and a great fan of the work of Dr. Seuss, including his essential story of Christmas humbuggery redeemed.

Join Story Time at Greenlight as Touré reads How The Grinch Stole Christmas!, and a cornucopia of other Seuss favorites. We'll have lots of Seuss classics on hand (they're great gifts for all kinds of folks), and everyone is welcome to enjoy the story of the heart that grew two sizes down in Whoville!

After Story Time, it's a great time to do a little shopping at Greenlight. We've got a storeful of beautiful books for everyone on your list, and our talented and bookish staff will be on hand to help you find the perfect book for everyone.

In the meantime, we've uploaded our January events to our Facebook page. Click here to see the great stuff we've got scheduled for the first month of 2010, from world-class novelists to hugely talented graffiti artists.

See you in the bookstore!

Make the Most of the Holidays at Greenlight!

A bookstore is a warm and bustling place in the month of December. Booksellers rush around carrying stacks of books, pausing to help customers pick out just the right title for a nephew, sister, partner, or best friend. Customers mull over their lists, exclaim over old favorites and new discoveries, and find room in the stack for a little something just for themselves. Wrapping paper rustles, the cash register chings, and everything seems rather twinkly and full of good cheer.

We're bursting with excitement for our first ever holiday season at Greenlight Bookstore, and our excitement overflowed recently in an email to our customers with lots of ideas for how to make the most of the bookstore this season. So we're reproducing it here for you blog readers.

* Shop Brooklyn 2009!
Greenlight is a proud participant in this year's Shop Brooklyn initiative, which encourages re-discovering the riches of Brooklyn by shopping at independent, locally owned merchants -- something we strongly believe in! As part of the initiative, we're offering our own Brooklyn Bonus:
On Mondays between Thanksgiving and Christmas, every purchase at Greenlight Bookstore enters you in a weekly raffle with the chance to win FREE BOOKS!
Winners will be contacted on Wednesdays and Fridays. Make sure to check out the Shop Brooklyn partners in your neighborhood for other great Brooklyn Bonuses!
Greenlight also offers customers a great bonus every day of the year: our Friends of Greenlight frequent buyer program. It's free to sign up; just give your name at the cash register and we'll track your spending at the store. Every time you reach $250 we will give you a present (a book or other item) from our selection of Greenlight Gifts!

* Make a Wish List! Book lovers can be hard to buy for. Luckily, there's an easy way to make an online wish list -- and direct would-be book buyers to Greenlight for their purchase!
Just visit the IndieBound.com website, a project by and for independent booksellers. In addition to helping you discover bookstores and other independent businesses near you, IndieBound lets you create a user profile which you can use to pick your favorite bookstores, meet other book people, and make lists of books you've read or books you want. There's a great short video on making a wishlist here. You can even email your whole list to anyone you'd like. While you're on IndieBound, you can make Greenlight one of your favorite stores, so everyone will know you want your books from Fort Greene/Clinton Hill's own indie bookstore. Happy listing!

* More Than Just Books!
Books make great gifts, of course (stay tuned in the days ahead for a postwith our book picks of the season). But in case you're curious, here are a few of the other potential gifts you'll find now available at Greenlight.

* Music CDs from NPR's Discover Songs series
* Cards for any occasion, including boxed holiday cards
* Maps of Brooklyn and surrounding areas
* Puzzles, games, stickers, activity books, craft kits, and paper dolls for kids
* Blank books and journals, including Moleskines
* Annual calendars and planners

* And We Also Offer...
* Gift Cards: Need a gift for a special book lover? Greenlight Bookstore now has gift cards, available in any amount. Perfect for stockings, inexpensive to mail (a hint to out of town relatives!), and ideal for the friend or loved one who just needs to pick out their own gift.
* Free Gift Wrapping: We're happy to wrap your books in our distinctive Greenlight style, so you can take one more thing off of your to-do list.
* Shipping: We ship via UPS Ground to anywhere in the U.S. We'll carefully wrap and pack up your books to send.
* Special Orders: If we don't have the book you are looking for in stock, we're happy to try to order it for you. We can get nearly any book in print, sometimes as quickly as a few days after you place your order. You can place your order by phone or email as well.


Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, or just a Happy New Year, we'd love to welcome you into our glowing little corner of the world, and help you find the best present for everyone on your list. After all, there's no gift like a book.