One of the things they tell you when opening up a new business is to expect unexpected charges. So when planning Castle Books I carefully accounted for every possible business expense that could pop up. What I hadn't counted on, was a car accident several months in that totaled my car and bit into most of the savings I'd put aside for the business. As a result, my budget set aside for affording a brick'n'mortar location drastically decreased in size. That coupled with surprising lack of communication in the realty market when it comes to retail locations, has put a bit of a crimp in the plan to establish a physical location by the end of summer.

Condition is one of the most important things when collecting. It stands to reason that a 1937 first edition version of the Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien is going to be worth more if it's clean, with only a few small tears in the dust jacket than a version which is heavily water damaged and was half-chewed by the dog (or cat). I do my best to give a very thorough description of each book we sell. First I start off with the overall quality and then for most books, especially older ones, I'll describe in as much detail as I can any small or large defect. I'll talk about types of defects and what they mean later, for now I want to introduce you to a basic overview of condition terms. That way when you see a book you like in our catalogue, you'll know what kind of condition to expect it in!

What's the hardest part about owning a bookshop? When your keyboard starts to go and every time you hit the 'a' key you get double 'a's. Putting up inventory, posting to social media, typing blog posts becomes immeasurable more difficult when you need to triple check it to make sure there's not extra 'a's sneaaaking in there (I caught that, but wanted to demonstrate what it's like). Nonetheless it's given me quite the challenge to figure out how to write without resorting to words with certain vowels.

Here at Castle Books we specialize in, among other things, first editions. It sounds like a pretty simple thing, but it's surprisingly tricky. What's in a first edition? And how do you tell if something is in fact, a true first edition?

It's the question everyone has been asking. You're name is Castle Books and  Tea. We all see the books, but where exactly is the tea?Well tea tell the truth (and yes this post will contain a lot of tea puns, but I'll try not to go on Oolong about it). Okay, I have to stop the puns before it goes a bit too far. But consider it a teaser for things just around the bend. (Tea-ser?)

Stage One in the grand scheme of opening a used bookstore is mostly complete. I have filled out forms, found more forms to fill out, and followed it up with another form. You humans certainly like your paperwork! I've set up the business bank account and I've done some preliminary scouting for a potential place to set up shop in the real world. Right now it's calculate finances and find a proper supplier of tea.

Before anything, I just want to say that the amount of support I've had for this idea of Castle Books and Tea is astounding. Thank you everyone who reads this, who encourages me, whose already ordered from our online store.

Sometimes you think so hard about what to say, you don't actually come up with any good opening lines. So here we are and there's a lot to say. Castle Books is happening, evolving, mutating like some strange 1950s swamp creature hell-bent on upsetting man's views of the natural world order. So I'll keep this short.