Sometimes the customer is really right. A few weeks ago, a patron of Micawber's bookstore, St. Paul, Minn., asked co-owner Hans Weyandt for a list of his top 100 books. He thought she meant the shop's all-time bestselling titles, but she quickly said, "No, I mean your personal favorites." From that catalyst, a great idea was born. Weyandt has since contacted several other booksellers nationwide with the aim of getting top 50 lists from at least 20 different people or stores.
This week he posted his own selections on Mr. Micawber Enters the Internets blog and plans to add a new list each weekday. Thus far, he has received 20 lists (a total of 1,000 books) from booksellers in 17 states.
"Once I've posted all of the lists, I will compile the most frequently mentioned titles," he said. "What I told everyone was that I was looking for either a top 50 list or 50 favorite books to handsell. Some booksellers chose to add their own restrictions, such as fiction only, deceased authors only, etc."
