One of my first memories of emotion over a material possession was when I was seven years old. I was sitting at the breakfast table and realized with a horrifying jolt that I had left my copy of Make Way for Ducklings in my blue, vinyl backpack hanging in my favorite reading tree overnight...and it had rained. More than half of the pages were waterlogged, and I did my utmost to get each page to dry as crisply as possible, but from that day on, the pages were warped and wavy from the Oregon rain. I promised myself to treat my books with more care, but the reality of a reader is that when you bring a book everywhere you go, they are going to suffer some of the same accidents of life that our human bodies do. And now, I quite like that. 

My life has been punctuated with memories of popping into used bookstores after school with my mom and siblings, acting out the tales in our favorite books with my elementary school best friend during recess, and sneaking in pages wherever and however I can. I have held many jobs and studied a myriad of subjects, but valuing the profound impact that story has on the human soul has been a through line the whole way. 

My dreams for Banner Bookshop are pages long. Thank you for being with me as we start at the beginning.