And I want to start with speaking of what is the history of this amazing building obviously it's a historic building it's part of the historic corral village a hidden gem here but uh what do you know about the history of the building and and your journey to stepping into the role of owning this bookstore

okay well um the former owner was kind of in on the planning of creating this building because he had a vision he moved to the outer banks in the early 90s from chicago he had been in the publishing business for 25 years at that point and had been the president of the American Booksellers Association for two different terms.

He was the CEO of a large, I think it was a 13 store chain in Chicago.

And they had developed a model for an urban bookstore, what it should look like, what it should feel like, the kinds of books that you should have.

And he brought that vision with him when he moved to the Outer Banks.

And he selected the Outer Banks because he knew that you could have a year-round bookstore in a resort area if you did it right.

Like if you catered to the local clientele but made a lot of your choices differently to accommodate the guests that come in the summertime.

What is it about the resilience of independent bookstores in particular