June 2, 2025 • 38 mins
In this episode, I chat with Jen Lemberger, co-owner of Chaucer's Books.
Nestled in Santa Barbara's Loreto Plaza sits a literary institution fifty-one years in the making. Chaucer's Books, now under the stewardship of Jen Lemberger and Greg Feitt, stands as a testament to the enduring power of independent bookstores in our communities.
Jen's career started in health research and social epidemiology. She worked with organizations like Direct Relief before pursuing a master's in library science and eventually returning to Chaucer's, where she had once worked part-time alongside Greg. "I like to provide it as evidence for folks that you're not going to have one career," she reflects, offering hope to anyone questioning their professional journey.
The transition came as Mahri Kerley, who had owned Chaucer's since its founding in 1974, turned 80 the same year the bookstore celebrated its 50th anniversary. What makes Chaucer's special isn't just its impressive collection of over 100,000 titles, but the care taken in curating them. As a New York Times reporting bookstore with strong publisher relationships, they strike a balance between bestsellers and niche interests, ensuring depth across all sections. Their booksellers are strategically hired for their diverse reading specialties, creating a knowledge ecosystem where customers can always find someone who speaks their literary language.
Despite challenging retail trends, Chaucer's thrives as both a destination for bibliophiles and a beneficiary of its location near frequently visited establishments. Millennials, Jen notes, have become their fastest-growing demographic.
Whether you're a Santa Barbara local or just passing through, Chaucer's Books offers that irreplaceable feeling of discovery that only comes from wandering through shelves curated by passionate readers who know their community. As Jen's ever-growing "to be read" pile attests, the literary journey never ends—and Chaucer's Books ensures you'll never run out of new worlds to explore.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hi, my name is Mandy Jackson-Beverly and I'm a
bibliophile.
Welcome to the Bookshop Podcast.
Each week, I present interviewswith authors, independent
bookshop owners and booksellersfrom around the globe and
publishing professionals.
To help the show reach morepeople, please share episodes
with friends and family and onsocial media, and remember to
(00:33):
subscribe and leave a reviewwherever you listen to this
podcast.
You're listening to episode 292.
Chaucer's Books is a local womanand veteran-owned independent
bookstore in the Loretto Plazaon Upper State Street in Santa
Barbara, california.
(00:54):
Packed with over 150,000 titles, chaucer's has been a mainstay
for book lovers since 1974.
Alongside their excellentcustomer service, they are
committed to providing the SantaBarbara community with an
impressive depth and breadth ofbooks in any and all genres and
subjects.
(01:14):
Chaucer's Books also carries awide selection of cards, puzzles
, games, magazines and giftscurated to any age.
On a personal note, chaucer'sBooks is where I purchase books
for the Lunch with an Authorliterary series in Santa Barbara
.
Greg Fate and Jen Lembergertook over as co-owners in 2024,
(01:36):
and doing business with them isalways a pleasure.
The booksellers at Chaucer'shelp me find books and order
what I need if it's not in stock, and also carry them to my car,
which is a plus for me.
Chaucer's Books is a fabulousindie bookshop serving the Santa
Barbara reading community andsupporting local authors and the
wider global writing community.
(01:58):
I'm lucky today to have as myguest co-owner Jen Lamger.
Hi, jen, and welcome to theshow.
Good morning, how are you todayDoing?
All right, that's good.
Well, let's begin with learningabout you and your work in
health, research and analyticsand the Santa Barbara Library
before becoming the co-owner ofChaucer's Books with Greg Fade
(02:20):
in 2024.
The experience of working inresearch and analytics and at
the Santa Barbara Library musthave been helpful when you
started working at the bookshop.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Yeah, you know a wending way to where I am now
and it's a.
I like to provide it asevidence for folks that you know
you're not going to have onecareer.
You know and you can dodifferent things and and be in
different fields.
So when I graduated from UCSB,I came to Santa Barbara for
(02:52):
school and was very into youknow, medical, world, health
science, and was deciding thingssort of what I was going to do
next.
Next and ended up being reallyinterested in social
epidemiology so how diseasesspread based on social
(03:12):
interactions, on our builtenvironment and so that
interaction of you know, a virusand the world in which we live.
And so got my master in publichealth.
So worked in the public healthfield for over a decade, worked
in town with organizations likeDirect Relief, which is where I
(03:33):
was on the research andanalytics team.
So I was working with looking atwhere our partners were, the
conditions in which they wereexisting, what we were providing
to them, how much we wereproviding cost value type and,
as well, working with thenational federally qualified
(03:54):
health centers Santa BarbaraNeighborhood Clinics are an
example of an FQHC and justdoing a bunch of research
projects related to health andevaluation and ended up moving
from there.
A colleague who was at DirectRelief had gone and worked at
(04:15):
the Kellogg Foundation andrecruited me to come work with
him on implementing a newproject so still health and
social related and it wasworking on sort of an IT project
putting in an entirely new datacollection and evaluation
environment for the foundationand had been thinking of, you
(04:37):
know, sort of what my next stepswould be and what I wanted to
do.
And one of the projects thatthe Kellogg Foundation supports
is, in their truth, racialhealing and transformation work.
They have a grant to theAmerican Library Association and
so I was looking at the workthat they were doing and I had
always been a book reader.
You know I had previouslyworked at.
(04:58):
The one of my first part timejobs out of college was working
at the Montecito UnionElementary School and then also
at Chaucer's.
Those were, you know, sort ofthe before I went to grad school
and decided I needed anotherdegree.
I was looking at libraries.
I wouldn't have gotten anotherdegree if it wasn't required,
(05:19):
which is a lot, I would say.
A lot of people don't realizethat the vast majority of public
librarians, school librariansthat they encounter, are not
only college educated but have amaster's degree.
It's pretty much required forthe vast majority of positions.
And so I was looking at, youknow, a lot of libraries were
doing health outreach, doingsocial work, doing more
(05:43):
community engaged programming,and so all the jobs that I was
interested in it was, you know,must have to even apply.
And so I was like, well, okay,I guess this is what I'm doing
next.
And so I got my master inlibrary science and then, you
know, just happenstance, timingbeing great, ended up getting a
(06:05):
job back here in Santa Barbaraat the public library and worked
as an adult programminglibrarian for a number of years,
and then I actually the jobthat I had previous to getting
to be a co-owner is I wasworking for the state library,
the California State Library,the state library, the
(06:28):
California State Library and soI was working on programs, grant
programs that supportedlibraries across the state.
I was in charge of the ARPA,the COVID funding that went out
to the state so got to do, inpartnership with colleagues at
the state level, a number ofstatewide programs.
So helped instigate, with theurging of the state level, a
number of statewide programs.
So it helped instigate, withthe urging of the state
librarian Greg Lucas, and then,as well, working with co-worker
(06:52):
Chris, the totally free e-bookcollection that the state now
has for all residents was one ofthe things that I got to work
on, so it's really great to seethat still going.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Gosh, what a fabulous education you have, and life
experience too.
You mentioned that you wereworking part-time for Chaucer's,
what led you to get back toChaucer's full-time.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Well, greg's worked there, so my partner, he's
worked there ever since we met.
So you know our meet cute is wewere both working part-time at
Chaucer's and that was 2005,2006.
And so we stayed together eversince, but he continued to work
(07:35):
at Chaucer's while I went off topublic health school, came back
, went to Michigan, came back.
So it's always been one ofthose things of you know you
have those conversations ofwouldn't it be cool if and so
(07:55):
the opportunity, one of thoseopportunities that happened
because of, or, you know,instigated in a way by COVID
that it wouldn't have beenotherwise, where previous owner
had had, you know, mentioned inother moments of like, oh,
retiring or moving on, um, butwhen covid happened, that was
such a wildly different, um, youknow, venue, uh, for trying to
(08:18):
work within, you know, and she,she could have retired even
before that it's the love of thebookstore, but finally was in
the like I don't need to do thisanymore, this can be somebody
else's problem and that was.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Mari Curley.
How long did she have the storefor?
Speaker 2 (08:38):
She was the only owner up until we bought it.
And so she turned 80.
The same year the bookstoreturned 50.
So she was the only owner upuntil that point, oh my goodness
.
And so we approached her withsaying hey, we're interested in
(09:04):
buying.
Um, it ended a bit of a process, but we are happy to be where
we are now.
So it was, I think, a long timethought, a long time dream that
right timing.
We were able to make it happen.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Yeah, I've seen this happening over the last few
years where one owner has owneda bookshop for maybe 20 to 50
years and then they've wanted toretire and they've kind of
passed the baton.
And it's quite often someonewho has been involved with the
store as a bookseller.
As you mentioned, mari was 80when the bookshop turned 50.
That's a great finale to what awonderful career she's built
(09:47):
for herself and a place for thereading community of Santa
Barbara.
What are some changes you andGreg want to bring into
Chaucer's books and what's yourvision for the future of the
store?
Speaker 2 (09:58):
There's not a lot that I would say has sort of
changed.
The bread and butter of thestore is selling the books.
It is known for the breadth ofbooks as well as the depth
within each section and that issomething that we are very
cognizant of and are looking tomake sure that we carry that
(10:19):
forward and have that available.
Some of the changes we're inthe fun process of looking at
new flooring and have thatavailable.
Some of the changes you knowlike we're in the fun process of
looking at new flooring andwhat that takes and updates to
things, new phone lines.
You know really excitingprojects that are.
You know.
I mean clearly people willrecognize when it gets to the
(10:41):
point of new flooring.
But there's a lot of thingsthat we will update that
customers will probably have noidea that is happening, but
hoping to make it morestreamlined, more efficient,
more helpful for our staff.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
So it's a lot of behind the scenes changes that
are significant, especiallycostly, I should imagine Floor
covering isn't cheap, right?
I mentioned earlier in yourintroduction that Chaucer's
Books is where I purchased thebooks for the Lunch with an
Author literary series in SantaBarbara.
One of the reasons is becauseit is a real draw when I can say
(11:15):
to PR people at publishingcompanies and to authors and
managers and marketing peoplethat I purchased the books
through Chaucer's Books, whichis a New York Times reporting
bookshop.
Can you explain to ourlisteners why this is important
and how you become a New YorkTimes reporting bookshop?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Yeah, it's actually a fairly simple process that just
has a waiting list.
There's truly like a form onthe New York Times website you
know to go into.
We, as most independentbookstores are, are members of
the American BooksellersAssociation, who are phenomenal
in supporting and helpingindependent bookstores, and so
(11:55):
they are, I would say, theresource that folks go to for
that process.
They have a you know sort ofgood one pager for folks and so
it is, you know, some simplethings of New York Times wants
the bookstore to have been inbusiness for a certain length of
time and that's justessentially for consistency.
(12:16):
They want to make sure thatthere are staff who can actually
run this report weekly.
Consistency they want to makesure that there are staff who
can actually run this reportweekly, which is a fairly simple
process, but it has toconsistently be done.
So we have a staff person whojust does that every Monday
morning and gets that in, andit's truly nothing fancy, it's
just, you know.
Part of it is also, hopefully,you have a point of sale system
(12:38):
that makes it easy to just, youknow, run a report, get the dump
from the last week of what wassold and then, truly, you know,
we report our sales in a lovelyold Excel CSV format, give it,
give it over to the New YorkTimes, and then I can only
imagine the sort of numbercrunching and matching that
(13:00):
happens on the back end at theNew York Times for the several
easily over a thousand folksthat turn this in.
And so it's, in terms ofprocess, an easy thing for us to
do.
It is great, like you said, forsort of having that, that it's
like on a checklist of thingsfor authors.
(13:23):
If you're in New York Timesreporting, folks of a certain
echelon definitely want to havetheir sales reported, and so
it's great.
But I would say, one of thethings, two parts.
I mentioned the AmericanBooksellers Association, the ABA
.
They also have the indiebestsellers weekly.
So that's another thing that'sactually really important for us
(13:44):
because we also get benefitsthrough that.
We get benefits through the NewYork Times bestseller list.
But perhaps the most importantthing in bringing in authors,
having relationships, receivingadvanced reader copies, getting
all of that is actually ourrelationships with our publisher
reps.
(14:04):
Those are phenomenallyimportant.
They are the folks who werethere in a wonderful way, the
middleman between us, thepublisher, and they're
recommending books and they'rehighlighting, making sure that
we're not missing things, and sothe better relationships we
have with our publisher reps.
(14:24):
They're the folks who are goingto connect us with publicists,
with editors, with other people,and so we love our reps.
And you know, it's a greatbenefit Greg and I got to buy a
store that's 50 years old.
Great benefit, greg and I gotto buy a store that's 50 years
old and a lot of you know, inthe book world there are a lot
(14:45):
of people who stay for a longtime.
They love their work, love whatthey're doing, and so there are
a number of reps that we've hadat the store for over a decade
and so we've got some reallystrong relationships there.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Yeah, you know that brings up something.
I remember speaking with a fewindependent bookshop owners who
aren't in big cities, who aren'teven in bigger towns.
They're in the smallercommunities and with budget cuts
, they're actually not gettingas many visits from their reps,
if any at all, and they'refinding that really sad because
(15:20):
they've spent years building upthese relationships.
As you said, you've got somereps there that have been coming
back and forth for 10 years andsuddenly not having that must
be really difficult.
Let's talk about small presses,who aren't often, you know,
repped by a big distributor.
I'm a fan of small and mediumpresses, especially in the UK,
(15:40):
Ireland, even in Santa Barbarayou have Gunpowder Press.
Do you carry many books fromsmall and medium presses
globally?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
So I would say we don't necessarily work directly
in that same way.
We definitely are getting theircatalogs and buying.
There are some small presseshere in Santa Barbara that we
absolutely have relationshipswith.
There are a number of reps whoalso carry the other smaller you
know, not the big five and sowe are absolutely looking
(16:14):
through those catalogs andbuying those and I actually buy
for the children's room, thekids' room side, children's room
, the kids' room side, and sothere are some amazing artists
and authors, illustrators,coming through the smaller
presses, books in translation aswell, that we aren't getting
from the big five necessarily,and so those are absolutely, you
(16:36):
know, and as I said before,it's the breadth and depth of
those medium and smallpublishers are important for
those factors and those gemsthat you might not find in other
places.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
I want to be greeted by booksellers.
If they know my name, that'seven better.
I rarely look through the NewYork Times bestseller list, even
though we've just been talkingabout that.
I don't need to see booksfront-facing.
I love a bookshop that hasnotes saying what the
booksellers in the store arerecommending and reading are
better.
I even love it when thebooksellers come up and talk to
me.
I love reading books that havebeen translated, but some of my
(17:23):
favorite books have been becauseI've had conversations with
booksellers.
They've asked me a whole lot ofquestions about what books I
read.
What do I like?
What am I in the mood for?
So let's talk about yourbooksellers.
Do you have specificbooksellers who love a certain
genre or nonfiction, fiction,classics and, as you said
earlier, you did the book buyingfor the children's section?
(17:44):
I would love to know more aboutyour booksellers.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, in interviews for hiring new folk we ask what
they read and what theirfavorite genres, areas are.
That is extremely important tous.
It is a factor we take intoaccount.
If we you know someone retires,someone moves and we're you
(18:08):
know hiring on, we're looking atwhat is that specialty that we
might be missing?
Are we missing someone whoknows history?
Are we missing someone whoknows manga and graphic novels?
So we definitely hire with thatin mind.
If we had everybody just readingliterary fiction, we would be
(18:38):
missing out in terms of thatservice factor at the store.
So everybody shelves differentareas of the store that they're
responsible for and for the mostpart everyone has at least one
section that is a desired youknow.
That is, you know theirs fortheir personal reasons, not just
because it was assigned to them.
And so we have.
You know, if you want poetry,we've got folks who can
(19:02):
recommend poetry.
The history aisle, the musicaisle, the films, graphic novels
, all of that niche that we goto.
It is quite often that someonewill come in with a question of
like I just read this and I'dreally like to read another.
(19:24):
You know a romanticist, or I'dlike to read another historical
fiction, depending upon who's onstaff that day.
Someone you know might try toanswer that, even if it's not
their specialty or they'll belike, oh, let me go get this
person, they'll be the perfectperson to answer that for you.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
And do your booksellers help with the
curation of their dedicatedlittle book area.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
No, that is, we have buyers.
We want our staff to have agood feeling of responsibility
and contribution and so ifthere's something that they saw,
you know, an article or thingsthat have come up and making
recommendations for, oh my gosh,this is absolutely something we
(20:11):
did on a shelf and we need tobuy this or recognizing, oh, I
think we sold out of this and wehaven't reordered it Like this
is absolutely something thatneeds to be on the shelf.
Those are things that happenall the time and we encourage
and we want folks to be doing,but we have currently three
buyers and so they're the folksthat are doing the front list,
(20:32):
buying, but then doing the dailybacklist as well of what's sold
, what needs to be put back onthe shelf.
But when you've got over100,000 titles in one place,
everybody's eyeballs on thingsis extremely important so that
things don't get missed and fallthrough the cracks again.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Yeah, I think for a bookseller, it's definitely
easier to sell books that you'veread, you love and possibly
reread, or perhaps you've readan author's entire collection.
I think it's easier to sellwhat you love and know.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, and that plays into for the booksellers.
It is the difference, or one ofthe differences for our buyers
and our booksellers is you knowthe people on the floor get to
do that.
They're the folks who are handselling their favorites, the
most recent.
And what is interesting for thebuyers is we're having to sort
(21:32):
of tamp down our personal youknow predilections and pay
attention to what is ourcommunity asking for, what is
selling to our community.
You know how many of these.
You know teen romance novels amI buying, even though I'm like,
okay, that's fine, um, or Iadore this children's picture
(21:55):
book, but I'm not going to buy20 copies of it, and so it is on
the buyer and having thatwherewithal of you know what is
in the New York Times, what ison the indie bestseller list,
what was in our recent weeklypaper, what is being talked
about, what was on the newsshows, what was on NPR, because
(22:17):
we do need to have those thingsthat people hear about and come
into the store for.
But then also knowing ourcommunity and being like, oh,
this nature book or this hikingbook, this biography, these are
things that you know maybe otherstores aren't buying in this
quantity, but for us, for ourfolks, our readers.
(22:40):
Those are things that wedefinitely need to have on the
shelf.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
You've brought up something interesting.
I'm a huge backlist reader.
If I find an author I love, Iwant to read their whole
collection and obviously smallerbookshops.
There's no way they can keepthe whole backlist of every
author on those shelves, but Ido enjoy seeing certain
backlists of authors onbookshelves next to their latest
(23:05):
book.
Are you a backlist reader?
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Oh, absolutely, I am someone who so.
Nk Jemisin is one of myabsolute favorite authors and I
wasn't introduced to her.
I didn't find her until herBroken Earth trilogy and she'd
written many books before thatand that was absolutely an
(23:29):
author where I read that trilogyand then immediately went back
and read her other series andthen have then kept following
her and she's released new books.
But I absolutely do that.
I think that is one of the bestthings about bookstores and
about reading is you know we are, and about reading is you know
(23:59):
we are lucky to have new releaseauthors and it's their first
book and that's amazing.
But then also having you know Ihad never read a Colm Toybain
book until and it's been one ofthose like, oh, I should read
Toybain, and you know it's.
You know there's so many ofthose authors that you have.
And he was in town and he cameinto the store and we knew he
was coming in and so we had.
(24:20):
We had like 80 books of his youknow vast backlist as well, as
you know Long Island, his mostrecent one for him to sign and
he was so delightful and just awonderful just chatting away
while he was signing his booksthat it then moved the like.
(24:41):
Okay, I'm now going to read aToy Bean book that's been
sitting on my TBR for a while,and then he's got this fast
backlist now that I can go inand read.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Yeah, once you get started on backlist reading,
it's kind of addictive.
Let's talk about beautifulSanta Barbara, because it is a
tourist destination.
I'm guessing, like most indiebookshops, you rely on your
loyal customer base.
Do you feel your customer baseis continually growing and, if
so, what age group of readershas shown the most growth?
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Yeah, we are here because of our community readers
.
There's no way that we could bethe size we are and the success
we are if we were more focusedor needed to rely on tourism for
our bottom line.
(25:35):
We are in Santa Barbara.
It is, you know, comparativelydefinitely.
You know the education level,the literacy level, and we
benefit from that absolutely.
So we're very thankful.
We've had great relationshipswith our schools for a long time
(26:00):
and so being able to hostschool book fairs at the store
is no small thing.
Of course we you know bothsides of it we love that we get
to provide money because it'sduring the book fairs.
25% of all sales goes back tothe school.
It's a fundraiser for them.
(26:20):
So being able to support ourschools is amazing, but it's
truly one of the best ways fornew folks to also get introduced
to the store.
So if you've moved to town, ifyou have, you know, just
recently had kids in ourelementary school.
Even if you've been around,maybe you haven't been reading
(26:41):
as much, and so having familiescome in for book fairs is like a
boon.
You know on both sides for that, and I think, the millennials I
am a Xenial, I'm on the youngend of Gen X, old end of
millennials, the Oregon Trailwindow and millennials get a lot
(27:09):
of flack these days, but Iwould say it is, you can see it
in the numbers and it is atlibraries, at bookstores.
They are the folks who arereading the most now, Whether
that is again, like I said, ifthey are, you know, new parents,
(27:31):
they're coming back with theirkids, they're coming in, or
millennials are also at thatstage where they are old enough
to have their kids go to collegeat this point and they have
time to read and are coming back, and that is definitely one of
the things we are seeing.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
One of the interesting things about
Chaucer's is that it is a driveto location.
It's actually a destinationbecause people want to come to
Chaucer's books and this isn'tunusual for bookshops, because
if you look at any main streetin any main city or larger town
or you can call them a highstreet in the UK and Ireland a
(28:13):
lot of the businesses have movedor they've closed.
I mean, you'd go down MainStreet Santa Barbara now and it
is not the bustling street thatit was 10, 5, gosh even 3 years
ago.
But one of the things I thinkwe're seeing is it's because of
the high rents and becausepeople love their indie
bookshops, they're prepared totravel to go and buy a book.
(28:33):
Last year, in 2024, we hadGillian Flynn come out for the
Lunch with an Author series forSanta Barbara and I noticed she
went with her husband toChaucer's Books and she posted a
picture of herself holding somebooks right near the little
chalkboard outside the store.
I mean, you couldn't ask forbetter marketing than that,
(28:54):
right.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Yeah for sure.
So two things on that I myself,my husband and I, and then also
my friend Angelica and I, areexamples of when we go on trips.
We search out the bookstores,the libraries, the places, and
so they are to us destinationsand I think, as we said earlier,
like those are the touriststhat we see, are the, are the,
(29:18):
the book lovers, the bookreaders, um, who are coming in,
um, but we absolutely benefit interms of our community, um,
we're in laredo plaza.
It has been family owned forgenerations, um, they take care
of us.
They take care of you know thetenants that are there and so
(29:39):
you know we.
Greg, the other co-owner, hasthe story that many other kids
have.
Josh Brolin said he even had thesame thing when he was chatting
with us of you know we're rightnext to one of the grocery
stores, we're next with us.
Of you know we're.
We're right next to the one ofthe grocery stores, we're next
to Harry's.
You know we're by these otherplaces that people are going for
things the coffee shop, sohaving the, the oh, parent
(30:05):
caregiver, someone is going intoGelson's to go shopping and the
kid gets dropped off atChaucer's and the kid is hanging
out, you know, for 20 minutesjust looking at books reading,
and so that was one of thethings that we've heard for
generations of folks, and so weare lucky to have the reputation
(30:26):
and be sought out by folks whoare visiting in town.
But we also have the benefit ofbeing in a location where
people are going all the timefor various things.
Are they paying their Cox bill,are they going to the golf
store, are they going for theirmorning workout at Core Sport,
are they heading to Renault, arethey going to VMA, astra, and
(30:50):
we're just like right there, andso the foot traffic of just you
know.
Oh, reservation at Harry'sisn't for another 20 minutes,
we're just going to hop into thestore.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Yeah, the location works for you.
Santa Barbara is home to a fewliterary icons, but also to
budding writers and poets, whoare some of your favorite local
authors.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Who are some of your favorite local authors I right
now am obsessed with.
I think I have it actually here, Robin Yardy is a local
children's author and her recenther, I Know the Whale
illustrator, matt Hsu, is soSanta Barbara, so it's a
beautiful story anyway ofunderstanding death and the
(31:34):
beauty of natural things intheir states, even after they
are alive, but it is inspired bythe blue whale skeleton that's
at the Santa Barbara Museum ofNatural.
History, chad, and so she has alittle addendum at the end where
she talks about the skeletonand the inspiration of it and it
(31:59):
is beautifully illustrated andwonderfully told and has, like
that very specific Santa Barbaraconnection.
That I'm just.
You know we got to have a storytime with her but I am
recommending it to everybodybecause it's so beautiful with
her.
But I am recommending it toeverybody because it's so
beautiful um, so that's my mostrecent one, but you know we have
(32:20):
the so many folks um, you knowwe were blessed to be able to
have um sojourner kincaid rollum as one of our our poets and
our poet laureates in town.
Um Grafton's Indelible Mark, youknow, for Santa Barbara, tc
Boyle Samir Pandya just came outwith his most recent Our
(32:41):
Beautiful Boys Josh Brolin'smemoir.
We surprise people if theypicked it up.
We get to count him as a localauthor.
Now I also, as I said, I am azennial and so if anyone was
reading sort of the scary horrorbooks, rl Stine's had his
comeback.
But Christopher Pike, sandraBarbara read all the Christopher
(33:02):
Pike scary books.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Jen, I know you're constantly having events at the
bookshop.
Do you also hold writingclasses?
Speaker 2 (33:10):
So we don't have classes in a way that maybe,
hopefully, we will.
We don't have the space for it,and we were very lucky when we
did our 50th anniversary events.
We knew we wanted to dosomething big and special and
also knew we didn't have thespace to be holding workshops.
(33:33):
So we partnered with um, twodoors down from us, um, as
another women-owned business,core sport, and they let us use
their space when they weren'thaving class, um, and so we were
able to have a zine workshopand so we had local folks, um,
all leading those and so so youknow, there's the possibility
(33:56):
and I'd say we love doing thingsin partnership One.
There's always a million thingshappening in Santa Barbara, and
after everybody tried to dotheir own thing, we're all just
competing with each other in anot helpful way, and so working
with others, supporting otherevents, getting to be in other
(34:17):
places, partner on things, Ithink is something we absolutely
strive for, are looking tocontinue to do, because even if
we don't have the space, someoneelse might, might, and we get
to be part of that and work withanother community or business.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Yeah, there's nothing quite like building community
through community.
Let's talk books, Jen.
What are you currently reading?
Speaker 2 (34:46):
I have about 60 pages left.
Nnedi Okorafor's latest Deathof the author, um.
I am absolutely a sci-fifantasy reader, um, and she is
one of my favorites.
So her most recent release, um,came out at the beginning of
the month.
I want to say so I'm almostdone with that one.
(35:09):
Um.
Next on my list.
You know one of the lovelybenefits of being a bookseller
is our advanced reader copies.
So I actually have IsabelAllende's.
My Name is Emilia Del Valle.
That's like on the top of my tobe read list and then also
(35:29):
personally, I'm also reading andtaking it slow because it's one
of the books that's sort of.
It's kind of a workbook, notquite a workbook, but you have
to, you know, kind of sit with.
It is Adrienne Murray Brown'sEmergent Strategy.
So, as many readers, my to beread pile is falling over.
Yeah, and it was interesting thedifference between my pile
(35:55):
before so let's say May a yearago, may of last year, when I
was working at the state libraryI was, like you know, really
proud and I had gotten it downas like a manageable level.
There wasn't like a pile on thefloor, there was just the like
two shelves and the bookshelf ofneed to read, two shelves in
the bookshelf of Need to Readand that's all out the window
(36:15):
again.
I've got like two giant pileson the floor.
You know advanced reader copiesof books, you know that I'm
just dying to read.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Yeah, the to be read piles just keep growing.
It is crazy the list of bookswe need to read.
Jen, thank you so much forbeing on the show.
I wish you and Greg all thebest with Chaucer's books and
it's exciting.
I look forward to seeing whatyou both do with the shop.
And thank you also to Greg formaking sure my orders get in on
(36:44):
time.
I know sometimes it's a bit ofa rush, but I'm truly grateful.
Thank you, and I look forwardto seeing you next week when I
pop in to pick up boxes ofMartha Hawkelly's new book, the
Martha's Vineyard Beach and BookClub.
Martha is our guest at theLunch with an Author series at
the Santa Barbara Club in SantaBarbara on Thursday June 12th
(37:05):
and you can get your tickets atwwwmandyjacksonbevelycom forward
slash events.
And also she's going to becoming by Chaucer's Books to
Sign Books later that afternoon.
Thanks again, Jen, you takecare, yeah thank you Again.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
We couldn't be here without the folks in our
community and, as I said, youknow we love partnering and
being parts of events, and soyours is just an example of a
way of working together andgetting to reach folks and
supporting our of events, and soyours is just an example of a
way of working together andgetting to reach folks and
supporting our reading community.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
You've been listening to my conversation with Jen
Lemberger, co-owner of Chaucer'sBooks in Santa Barbara, with
Greg Fate.
To help the show reach morepeople, please share episodes
with friends and family and onsocial media, and remember to
subscribe and leave a reviewwherever you listen to this
podcast.
To find out more about theBookshop Podcast, go to
(38:01):
thebookshoppodcastcom and makesure to subscribe and leave a
review wherever you listen tothe show.
You can also follow me at MandyJackson Beverly on X, instagram
and Facebook and on YouTube atthe Bookshop Podcast.
If you have a favorite indiebookshop that you'd like to
suggest we have on the podcast,I'd love to hear from you via
(38:24):
the contact form atthebookshoppodcastcom.
The Bookshop Podcast is writtenand produced by me, mandy
Jackson Beverly, theme musicprovided by Brian Beverly,
executive assistant to Mandy,adrian Otterhan and graphic
design by Frances Farala.
Thanks for listening and I'llsee you next time.
Bye.
Hi, my name is Mandy Jackson-Beverly and I'm a
bibliophile.
Welcome to the Bookshop Podcast.
Each week, I present interviewswith authors, independent
bookshop owners and booksellersfrom around the globe and
publishing professionals.
To help the show reach morepeople, please share episodes
with friends and family and onsocial media, and remember to
(00:33):
subscribe and leave a reviewwherever you listen to this
podcast.
You're listening to episode 292.
Chaucer's Books is a local womanand veteran-owned independent
bookstore in the Loretto Plazaon Upper State Street in Santa
Barbara, california.
(00:54):
Packed with over 150,000 titles, chaucer's has been a mainstay
for book lovers since 1974.
Alongside their excellentcustomer service, they are
committed to providing the SantaBarbara community with an
impressive depth and breadth ofbooks in any and all genres and
subjects.
(01:14):
Chaucer's Books also carries awide selection of cards, puzzles
, games, magazines and giftscurated to any age.
On a personal note, chaucer'sBooks is where I purchase books
for the Lunch with an Authorliterary series in Santa Barbara
.
Greg Fate and Jen Lembergertook over as co-owners in 2024,
(01:36):
and doing business with them isalways a pleasure.
The booksellers at Chaucer'shelp me find books and order
what I need if it's not in stock, and also carry them to my car,
which is a plus for me.
Chaucer's Books is a fabulousindie bookshop serving the Santa
Barbara reading community andsupporting local authors and the
wider global writing community.
(01:58):
I'm lucky today to have as myguest co-owner Jen Lamger.
Hi, jen, and welcome to theshow.
Good morning, how are you todayDoing?
All right, that's good.
Well, let's begin with learningabout you and your work in
health, research and analyticsand the Santa Barbara Library
before becoming the co-owner ofChaucer's Books with Greg Fade
(02:20):
in 2024.
The experience of working inresearch and analytics and at
the Santa Barbara Library musthave been helpful when you
started working at the bookshop.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Yeah, you know a wending way to where I am now
and it's a.
I like to provide it asevidence for folks that you know
you're not going to have onecareer.
You know and you can dodifferent things and and be in
different fields.
So when I graduated from UCSB,I came to Santa Barbara for
(02:52):
school and was very into youknow, medical, world, health
science, and was deciding thingssort of what I was going to do
next.
Next and ended up being reallyinterested in social
epidemiology so how diseasesspread based on social
(03:12):
interactions, on our builtenvironment and so that
interaction of you know, a virusand the world in which we live.
And so got my master in publichealth.
So worked in the public healthfield for over a decade, worked
in town with organizations likeDirect Relief, which is where I
(03:33):
was on the research andanalytics team.
So I was working with looking atwhere our partners were, the
conditions in which they wereexisting, what we were providing
to them, how much we wereproviding cost value type and,
as well, working with thenational federally qualified
(03:54):
health centers Santa BarbaraNeighborhood Clinics are an
example of an FQHC and justdoing a bunch of research
projects related to health andevaluation and ended up moving
from there.
A colleague who was at DirectRelief had gone and worked at
(04:15):
the Kellogg Foundation andrecruited me to come work with
him on implementing a newproject so still health and
social related and it wasworking on sort of an IT project
putting in an entirely new datacollection and evaluation
environment for the foundationand had been thinking of, you
(04:37):
know, sort of what my next stepswould be and what I wanted to
do.
And one of the projects thatthe Kellogg Foundation supports
is, in their truth, racialhealing and transformation work.
They have a grant to theAmerican Library Association and
so I was looking at the workthat they were doing and I had
always been a book reader.
You know I had previouslyworked at.
(04:58):
The one of my first part timejobs out of college was working
at the Montecito UnionElementary School and then also
at Chaucer's.
Those were, you know, sort ofthe before I went to grad school
and decided I needed anotherdegree.
I was looking at libraries.
I wouldn't have gotten anotherdegree if it wasn't required,
(05:19):
which is a lot, I would say.
A lot of people don't realizethat the vast majority of public
librarians, school librariansthat they encounter, are not
only college educated but have amaster's degree.
It's pretty much required forthe vast majority of positions.
And so I was looking at, youknow, a lot of libraries were
doing health outreach, doingsocial work, doing more
(05:43):
community engaged programming,and so all the jobs that I was
interested in it was, you know,must have to even apply.
And so I was like, well, okay,I guess this is what I'm doing
next.
And so I got my master inlibrary science and then, you
know, just happenstance, timingbeing great, ended up getting a
(06:05):
job back here in Santa Barbaraat the public library and worked
as an adult programminglibrarian for a number of years,
and then I actually the jobthat I had previous to getting
to be a co-owner is I wasworking for the state library,
the California State Library,the state library, the
(06:28):
California State Library and soI was working on programs, grant
programs that supportedlibraries across the state.
I was in charge of the ARPA,the COVID funding that went out
to the state so got to do, inpartnership with colleagues at
the state level, a number ofstatewide programs.
So helped instigate, with theurging of the state level, a
number of statewide programs.
So it helped instigate, withthe urging of the state
librarian Greg Lucas, and then,as well, working with co-worker
(06:52):
Chris, the totally free e-bookcollection that the state now
has for all residents was one ofthe things that I got to work
on, so it's really great to seethat still going.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Gosh, what a fabulous education you have, and life
experience too.
You mentioned that you wereworking part-time for Chaucer's,
what led you to get back toChaucer's full-time.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Well, greg's worked there, so my partner, he's
worked there ever since we met.
So you know our meet cute is wewere both working part-time at
Chaucer's and that was 2005,2006.
And so we stayed together eversince, but he continued to work
(07:35):
at Chaucer's while I went off topublic health school, came back
, went to Michigan, came back.
So it's always been one ofthose things of you know you
have those conversations ofwouldn't it be cool if and so
(07:55):
the opportunity, one of thoseopportunities that happened
because of, or, you know,instigated in a way by COVID
that it wouldn't have beenotherwise, where previous owner
had had, you know, mentioned inother moments of like, oh,
retiring or moving on, um, butwhen covid happened, that was
such a wildly different, um, youknow, venue, uh, for trying to
(08:18):
work within, you know, and she,she could have retired even
before that it's the love of thebookstore, but finally was in
the like I don't need to do thisanymore, this can be somebody
else's problem and that was.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Mari Curley.
How long did she have the storefor?
Speaker 2 (08:38):
She was the only owner up until we bought it.
And so she turned 80.
The same year the bookstoreturned 50.
So she was the only owner upuntil that point, oh my goodness
.
And so we approached her withsaying hey, we're interested in
(09:04):
buying.
Um, it ended a bit of a process, but we are happy to be where
we are now.
So it was, I think, a long timethought, a long time dream that
right timing.
We were able to make it happen.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Yeah, I've seen this happening over the last few
years where one owner has owneda bookshop for maybe 20 to 50
years and then they've wanted toretire and they've kind of
passed the baton.
And it's quite often someonewho has been involved with the
store as a bookseller.
As you mentioned, mari was 80when the bookshop turned 50.
That's a great finale to what awonderful career she's built
(09:47):
for herself and a place for thereading community of Santa
Barbara.
What are some changes you andGreg want to bring into
Chaucer's books and what's yourvision for the future of the
store?
Speaker 2 (09:58):
There's not a lot that I would say has sort of
changed.
The bread and butter of thestore is selling the books.
It is known for the breadth ofbooks as well as the depth
within each section and that issomething that we are very
cognizant of and are looking tomake sure that we carry that
(10:19):
forward and have that available.
Some of the changes we're inthe fun process of looking at
new flooring and have thatavailable.
Some of the changes you knowlike we're in the fun process of
looking at new flooring andwhat that takes and updates to
things, new phone lines.
You know really excitingprojects that are.
You know.
I mean clearly people willrecognize when it gets to the
(10:41):
point of new flooring.
But there's a lot of thingsthat we will update that
customers will probably have noidea that is happening, but
hoping to make it morestreamlined, more efficient,
more helpful for our staff.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
So it's a lot of behind the scenes changes that
are significant, especiallycostly, I should imagine Floor
covering isn't cheap, right?
I mentioned earlier in yourintroduction that Chaucer's
Books is where I purchased thebooks for the Lunch with an
Author literary series in SantaBarbara.
One of the reasons is becauseit is a real draw when I can say
(11:15):
to PR people at publishingcompanies and to authors and
managers and marketing peoplethat I purchased the books
through Chaucer's Books, whichis a New York Times reporting
bookshop.
Can you explain to ourlisteners why this is important
and how you become a New YorkTimes reporting bookshop?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Yeah, it's actually a fairly simple process that just
has a waiting list.
There's truly like a form onthe New York Times website you
know to go into.
We, as most independentbookstores are, are members of
the American BooksellersAssociation, who are phenomenal
in supporting and helpingindependent bookstores, and so
(11:55):
they are, I would say, theresource that folks go to for
that process.
They have a you know sort ofgood one pager for folks and so
it is, you know, some simplethings of New York Times wants
the bookstore to have been inbusiness for a certain length of
time and that's justessentially for consistency.
(12:16):
They want to make sure thatthere are staff who can actually
run this report weekly.
Consistency they want to makesure that there are staff who
can actually run this reportweekly, which is a fairly simple
process, but it has toconsistently be done.
So we have a staff person whojust does that every Monday
morning and gets that in, andit's truly nothing fancy, it's
just, you know.
Part of it is also, hopefully,you have a point of sale system
(12:38):
that makes it easy to just, youknow, run a report, get the dump
from the last week of what wassold and then, truly, you know,
we report our sales in a lovelyold Excel CSV format, give it,
give it over to the New YorkTimes, and then I can only
imagine the sort of numbercrunching and matching that
(13:00):
happens on the back end at theNew York Times for the several
easily over a thousand folksthat turn this in.
And so it's, in terms ofprocess, an easy thing for us to
do.
It is great, like you said, forsort of having that, that it's
like on a checklist of thingsfor authors.
(13:23):
If you're in New York Timesreporting, folks of a certain
echelon definitely want to havetheir sales reported, and so
it's great.
But I would say, one of thethings, two parts.
I mentioned the AmericanBooksellers Association, the ABA
.
They also have the indiebestsellers weekly.
So that's another thing that'sactually really important for us
(13:44):
because we also get benefitsthrough that.
We get benefits through the NewYork Times bestseller list.
But perhaps the most importantthing in bringing in authors,
having relationships, receivingadvanced reader copies, getting
all of that is actually ourrelationships with our publisher
reps.
(14:04):
Those are phenomenallyimportant.
They are the folks who werethere in a wonderful way, the
middleman between us, thepublisher, and they're
recommending books and they'rehighlighting, making sure that
we're not missing things, and sothe better relationships we
have with our publisher reps.
(14:24):
They're the folks who are goingto connect us with publicists,
with editors, with other people,and so we love our reps.
And you know, it's a greatbenefit Greg and I got to buy a
store that's 50 years old.
Great benefit, greg and I gotto buy a store that's 50 years
old and a lot of you know, inthe book world there are a lot
(14:45):
of people who stay for a longtime.
They love their work, love whatthey're doing, and so there are
a number of reps that we've hadat the store for over a decade
and so we've got some reallystrong relationships there.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Yeah, you know that brings up something.
I remember speaking with a fewindependent bookshop owners who
aren't in big cities, who aren'teven in bigger towns.
They're in the smallercommunities and with budget cuts
, they're actually not gettingas many visits from their reps,
if any at all, and they'refinding that really sad because
(15:20):
they've spent years building upthese relationships.
As you said, you've got somereps there that have been coming
back and forth for 10 years andsuddenly not having that must
be really difficult.
Let's talk about small presses,who aren't often, you know,
repped by a big distributor.
I'm a fan of small and mediumpresses, especially in the UK,
(15:40):
Ireland, even in Santa Barbarayou have Gunpowder Press.
Do you carry many books fromsmall and medium presses
globally?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
So I would say we don't necessarily work directly
in that same way.
We definitely are getting theircatalogs and buying.
There are some small presseshere in Santa Barbara that we
absolutely have relationshipswith.
There are a number of reps whoalso carry the other smaller you
know, not the big five and sowe are absolutely looking
(16:14):
through those catalogs andbuying those and I actually buy
for the children's room, thekids' room side, children's room
, the kids' room side, and sothere are some amazing artists
and authors, illustrators,coming through the smaller
presses, books in translation aswell, that we aren't getting
from the big five necessarily,and so those are absolutely, you
(16:36):
know, and as I said before,it's the breadth and depth of
those medium and smallpublishers are important for
those factors and those gemsthat you might not find in other
places.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
I want to be greeted by booksellers.
If they know my name, that'seven better.
I rarely look through the NewYork Times bestseller list, even
though we've just been talkingabout that.
I don't need to see booksfront-facing.
I love a bookshop that hasnotes saying what the
booksellers in the store arerecommending and reading are
better.
I even love it when thebooksellers come up and talk to
me.
I love reading books that havebeen translated, but some of my
(17:23):
favorite books have been becauseI've had conversations with
booksellers.
They've asked me a whole lot ofquestions about what books I
read.
What do I like?
What am I in the mood for?
So let's talk about yourbooksellers.
Do you have specificbooksellers who love a certain
genre or nonfiction, fiction,classics and, as you said
earlier, you did the book buyingfor the children's section?
(17:44):
I would love to know more aboutyour booksellers.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, in interviews for hiring new folk we ask what
they read and what theirfavorite genres, areas are.
That is extremely important tous.
It is a factor we take intoaccount.
If we you know someone retires,someone moves and we're you
(18:08):
know hiring on, we're looking atwhat is that specialty that we
might be missing?
Are we missing someone whoknows history?
Are we missing someone whoknows manga and graphic novels?
So we definitely hire with thatin mind.
If we had everybody just readingliterary fiction, we would be
(18:38):
missing out in terms of thatservice factor at the store.
So everybody shelves differentareas of the store that they're
responsible for and for the mostpart everyone has at least one
section that is a desired youknow.
That is, you know theirs fortheir personal reasons, not just
because it was assigned to them.
And so we have.
You know, if you want poetry,we've got folks who can
(19:02):
recommend poetry.
The history aisle, the musicaisle, the films, graphic novels
, all of that niche that we goto.
It is quite often that someonewill come in with a question of
like I just read this and I'dreally like to read another.
(19:24):
You know a romanticist, or I'dlike to read another historical
fiction, depending upon who's onstaff that day.
Someone you know might try toanswer that, even if it's not
their specialty or they'll belike, oh, let me go get this
person, they'll be the perfectperson to answer that for you.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
And do your booksellers help with the
curation of their dedicatedlittle book area.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
No, that is, we have buyers.
We want our staff to have agood feeling of responsibility
and contribution and so ifthere's something that they saw,
you know, an article or thingsthat have come up and making
recommendations for, oh my gosh,this is absolutely something we
(20:11):
did on a shelf and we need tobuy this or recognizing, oh, I
think we sold out of this and wehaven't reordered it Like this
is absolutely something thatneeds to be on the shelf.
Those are things that happenall the time and we encourage
and we want folks to be doing,but we have currently three
buyers and so they're the folksthat are doing the front list,
(20:32):
buying, but then doing the dailybacklist as well of what's sold
, what needs to be put back onthe shelf.
But when you've got over100,000 titles in one place,
everybody's eyeballs on thingsis extremely important so that
things don't get missed and fallthrough the cracks again.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Yeah, I think for a bookseller, it's definitely
easier to sell books that you'veread, you love and possibly
reread, or perhaps you've readan author's entire collection.
I think it's easier to sellwhat you love and know.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, and that plays into for the booksellers.
It is the difference, or one ofthe differences for our buyers
and our booksellers is you knowthe people on the floor get to
do that.
They're the folks who are handselling their favorites, the
most recent.
And what is interesting for thebuyers is we're having to sort
(21:32):
of tamp down our personal youknow predilections and pay
attention to what is ourcommunity asking for, what is
selling to our community.
You know how many of these.
You know teen romance novels amI buying, even though I'm like,
okay, that's fine, um, or Iadore this children's picture
(21:55):
book, but I'm not going to buy20 copies of it, and so it is on
the buyer and having thatwherewithal of you know what is
in the New York Times, what ison the indie bestseller list,
what was in our recent weeklypaper, what is being talked
about, what was on the newsshows, what was on NPR, because
(22:17):
we do need to have those thingsthat people hear about and come
into the store for.
But then also knowing ourcommunity and being like, oh,
this nature book or this hikingbook, this biography, these are
things that you know maybe otherstores aren't buying in this
quantity, but for us, for ourfolks, our readers.
(22:40):
Those are things that wedefinitely need to have on the
shelf.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
You've brought up something interesting.
I'm a huge backlist reader.
If I find an author I love, Iwant to read their whole
collection and obviously smallerbookshops.
There's no way they can keepthe whole backlist of every
author on those shelves, but Ido enjoy seeing certain
backlists of authors onbookshelves next to their latest
(23:05):
book.
Are you a backlist reader?
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Oh, absolutely, I am someone who so.
Nk Jemisin is one of myabsolute favorite authors and I
wasn't introduced to her.
I didn't find her until herBroken Earth trilogy and she'd
written many books before thatand that was absolutely an
(23:29):
author where I read that trilogyand then immediately went back
and read her other series andthen have then kept following
her and she's released new books.
But I absolutely do that.
I think that is one of the bestthings about bookstores and
about reading is you know we are, and about reading is you know
(23:59):
we are lucky to have new releaseauthors and it's their first
book and that's amazing.
But then also having you know Ihad never read a Colm Toybain
book until and it's been one ofthose like, oh, I should read
Toybain, and you know it's.
You know there's so many ofthose authors that you have.
And he was in town and he cameinto the store and we knew he
was coming in and so we had.
(24:20):
We had like 80 books of his youknow vast backlist as well, as
you know Long Island, his mostrecent one for him to sign and
he was so delightful and just awonderful just chatting away
while he was signing his booksthat it then moved the like.
(24:41):
Okay, I'm now going to read aToy Bean book that's been
sitting on my TBR for a while,and then he's got this fast
backlist now that I can go inand read.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Yeah, once you get started on backlist reading,
it's kind of addictive.
Let's talk about beautifulSanta Barbara, because it is a
tourist destination.
I'm guessing, like most indiebookshops, you rely on your
loyal customer base.
Do you feel your customer baseis continually growing and, if
so, what age group of readershas shown the most growth?
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Yeah, we are here because of our community readers
.
There's no way that we could bethe size we are and the success
we are if we were more focusedor needed to rely on tourism for
our bottom line.
(25:35):
We are in Santa Barbara.
It is, you know, comparativelydefinitely.
You know the education level,the literacy level, and we
benefit from that absolutely.
So we're very thankful.
We've had great relationshipswith our schools for a long time
(26:00):
and so being able to hostschool book fairs at the store
is no small thing.
Of course we you know bothsides of it we love that we get
to provide money because it'sduring the book fairs.
25% of all sales goes back tothe school.
It's a fundraiser for them.
(26:20):
So being able to support ourschools is amazing, but it's
truly one of the best ways fornew folks to also get introduced
to the store.
So if you've moved to town, ifyou have, you know, just
recently had kids in ourelementary school.
Even if you've been around,maybe you haven't been reading
(26:41):
as much, and so having familiescome in for book fairs is like a
boon.
You know on both sides for that, and I think, the millennials I
am a Xenial, I'm on the youngend of Gen X, old end of
millennials, the Oregon Trailwindow and millennials get a lot
(27:09):
of flack these days, but Iwould say it is, you can see it
in the numbers and it is atlibraries, at bookstores.
They are the folks who arereading the most now, Whether
that is again, like I said, ifthey are, you know, new parents,
(27:31):
they're coming back with theirkids, they're coming in, or
millennials are also at thatstage where they are old enough
to have their kids go to collegeat this point and they have
time to read and are coming back, and that is definitely one of
the things we are seeing.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
One of the interesting things about
Chaucer's is that it is a driveto location.
It's actually a destinationbecause people want to come to
Chaucer's books and this isn'tunusual for bookshops, because
if you look at any main streetin any main city or larger town
or you can call them a highstreet in the UK and Ireland a
(28:13):
lot of the businesses have movedor they've closed.
I mean, you'd go down MainStreet Santa Barbara now and it
is not the bustling street thatit was 10, 5, gosh even 3 years
ago.
But one of the things I thinkwe're seeing is it's because of
the high rents and becausepeople love their indie
bookshops, they're prepared totravel to go and buy a book.
(28:33):
Last year, in 2024, we hadGillian Flynn come out for the
Lunch with an Author series forSanta Barbara and I noticed she
went with her husband toChaucer's Books and she posted a
picture of herself holding somebooks right near the little
chalkboard outside the store.
I mean, you couldn't ask forbetter marketing than that,
(28:54):
right.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Yeah for sure.
So two things on that I myself,my husband and I, and then also
my friend Angelica and I, areexamples of when we go on trips.
We search out the bookstores,the libraries, the places, and
so they are to us destinationsand I think, as we said earlier,
like those are the touriststhat we see, are the, are the,
(29:18):
the book lovers, the bookreaders, um, who are coming in,
um, but we absolutely benefit interms of our community, um,
we're in laredo plaza.
It has been family owned forgenerations, um, they take care
of us.
They take care of you know thetenants that are there and so
(29:39):
you know we.
Greg, the other co-owner, hasthe story that many other kids
have.
Josh Brolin said he even had thesame thing when he was chatting
with us of you know we're rightnext to one of the grocery
stores, we're next with us.
Of you know we're.
We're right next to the one ofthe grocery stores, we're next
to Harry's.
You know we're by these otherplaces that people are going for
things the coffee shop, sohaving the, the oh, parent
(30:05):
caregiver, someone is going intoGelson's to go shopping and the
kid gets dropped off atChaucer's and the kid is hanging
out, you know, for 20 minutesjust looking at books reading,
and so that was one of thethings that we've heard for
generations of folks, and so weare lucky to have the reputation
(30:26):
and be sought out by folks whoare visiting in town.
But we also have the benefit ofbeing in a location where
people are going all the timefor various things.
Are they paying their Cox bill,are they going to the golf
store, are they going for theirmorning workout at Core Sport,
are they heading to Renault, arethey going to VMA, astra, and
(30:50):
we're just like right there, andso the foot traffic of just you
know.
Oh, reservation at Harry'sisn't for another 20 minutes,
we're just going to hop into thestore.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Yeah, the location works for you.
Santa Barbara is home to a fewliterary icons, but also to
budding writers and poets, whoare some of your favorite local
authors.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Who are some of your favorite local authors I right
now am obsessed with.
I think I have it actually here, Robin Yardy is a local
children's author and her recenther, I Know the Whale
illustrator, matt Hsu, is soSanta Barbara, so it's a
beautiful story anyway ofunderstanding death and the
(31:34):
beauty of natural things intheir states, even after they
are alive, but it is inspired bythe blue whale skeleton that's
at the Santa Barbara Museum ofNatural.
History, chad, and so she has alittle addendum at the end where
she talks about the skeletonand the inspiration of it and it
(31:59):
is beautifully illustrated andwonderfully told and has, like
that very specific Santa Barbaraconnection.
That I'm just.
You know we got to have a storytime with her but I am
recommending it to everybodybecause it's so beautiful with
her.
But I am recommending it toeverybody because it's so
beautiful um, so that's my mostrecent one, but you know we have
(32:20):
the so many folks um, you knowwe were blessed to be able to
have um sojourner kincaid rollum as one of our our poets and
our poet laureates in town.
Um Grafton's Indelible Mark, youknow, for Santa Barbara, tc
Boyle Samir Pandya just came outwith his most recent Our
(32:41):
Beautiful Boys Josh Brolin'smemoir.
We surprise people if theypicked it up.
We get to count him as a localauthor.
Now I also, as I said, I am azennial and so if anyone was
reading sort of the scary horrorbooks, rl Stine's had his
comeback.
But Christopher Pike, sandraBarbara read all the Christopher
(33:02):
Pike scary books.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Jen, I know you're constantly having events at the
bookshop.
Do you also hold writingclasses?
Speaker 2 (33:10):
So we don't have classes in a way that maybe,
hopefully, we will.
We don't have the space for it,and we were very lucky when we
did our 50th anniversary events.
We knew we wanted to dosomething big and special and
also knew we didn't have thespace to be holding workshops.
(33:33):
So we partnered with um, twodoors down from us, um, as
another women-owned business,core sport, and they let us use
their space when they weren'thaving class, um, and so we were
able to have a zine workshopand so we had local folks, um,
all leading those and so so youknow, there's the possibility
(33:56):
and I'd say we love doing thingsin partnership One.
There's always a million thingshappening in Santa Barbara, and
after everybody tried to dotheir own thing, we're all just
competing with each other in anot helpful way, and so working
with others, supporting otherevents, getting to be in other
(34:17):
places, partner on things, Ithink is something we absolutely
strive for, are looking tocontinue to do, because even if
we don't have the space, someoneelse might, might, and we get
to be part of that and work withanother community or business.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Yeah, there's nothing quite like building community
through community.
Let's talk books, Jen.
What are you currently reading?
Speaker 2 (34:46):
I have about 60 pages left.
Nnedi Okorafor's latest Deathof the author, um.
I am absolutely a sci-fifantasy reader, um, and she is
one of my favorites.
So her most recent release, um,came out at the beginning of
the month.
I want to say so I'm almostdone with that one.
(35:09):
Um.
Next on my list.
You know one of the lovelybenefits of being a bookseller
is our advanced reader copies.
So I actually have IsabelAllende's.
My Name is Emilia Del Valle.
That's like on the top of my tobe read list and then also
(35:29):
personally, I'm also reading andtaking it slow because it's one
of the books that's sort of.
It's kind of a workbook, notquite a workbook, but you have
to, you know, kind of sit with.
It is Adrienne Murray Brown'sEmergent Strategy.
So, as many readers, my to beread pile is falling over.
Yeah, and it was interesting thedifference between my pile
(35:55):
before so let's say May a yearago, may of last year, when I
was working at the state libraryI was, like you know, really
proud and I had gotten it downas like a manageable level.
There wasn't like a pile on thefloor, there was just the like
two shelves and the bookshelf ofneed to read, two shelves in
the bookshelf of Need to Readand that's all out the window
(36:15):
again.
I've got like two giant pileson the floor.
You know advanced reader copiesof books, you know that I'm
just dying to read.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Yeah, the to be read piles just keep growing.
It is crazy the list of bookswe need to read.
Jen, thank you so much forbeing on the show.
I wish you and Greg all thebest with Chaucer's books and
it's exciting.
I look forward to seeing whatyou both do with the shop.
And thank you also to Greg formaking sure my orders get in on
(36:44):
time.
I know sometimes it's a bit ofa rush, but I'm truly grateful.
Thank you, and I look forwardto seeing you next week when I
pop in to pick up boxes ofMartha Hawkelly's new book, the
Martha's Vineyard Beach and BookClub.
Martha is our guest at theLunch with an Author series at
the Santa Barbara Club in SantaBarbara on Thursday June 12th
(37:05):
and you can get your tickets atwwwmandyjacksonbevelycom forward
slash events.
And also she's going to becoming by Chaucer's Books to
Sign Books later that afternoon.
Thanks again, Jen, you takecare, yeah thank you Again.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
We couldn't be here without the folks in our
community and, as I said, youknow we love partnering and
being parts of events, and soyours is just an example of a
way of working together andgetting to reach folks and
supporting our of events, and soyours is just an example of a
way of working together andgetting to reach folks and
supporting our reading community.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
You've been listening to my conversation with Jen
Lemberger, co-owner of Chaucer'sBooks in Santa Barbara, with
Greg Fate.
To help the show reach morepeople, please share episodes
with friends and family and onsocial media, and remember to
subscribe and leave a reviewwherever you listen to this
podcast.
To find out more about theBookshop Podcast, go to
(38:01):
thebookshoppodcastcom and makesure to subscribe and leave a
review wherever you listen tothe show.
You can also follow me at MandyJackson Beverly on X, instagram
and Facebook and on YouTube atthe Bookshop Podcast.
If you have a favorite indiebookshop that you'd like to
suggest we have on the podcast,I'd love to hear from you via
(38:24):
the contact form atthebookshoppodcastcom.
The Bookshop Podcast is writtenand produced by me, mandy
Jackson Beverly, theme musicprovided by Brian Beverly,
executive assistant to Mandy,adrian Otterhan and graphic
design by Frances Farala.
Thanks for listening and I'llsee you next time.
Bye.
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