Four Questions for Howling Basset Books

On my way home from the NAIBA staff retreat I stopped in to see the new space Howling Basset Books has in Lambertville, NJ, and wow – what a sweet space in a foot-traffic heavy, quaint tourist town on the Delaware River!

Lisa Lynch and Zohar Kfir first opened their store in Oldwick, NJ, in 2022.  They loved the space they found (the shop was located in a beautiful old Victorian house) but eventually decided they wanted to move the store to a place which better reflected their own interests as a queer, activist couple. Lambertville has been a  delightfully new experience – they now live across the street from the store in a liberal, inclusive city full of artists, shops, and restaurants.  Now Lisa reports, the store has evolved to reflect their own interests, with many quirky titles, more literature in translation, and a well-curated selection of queer titles and adult graphic novels.

After falling in love instantly with Fern, THE howling basset, I sat down with Lisa to talk about the store, their events program, and to ask my Four Questions about the store.

First Question – What’s working well for you right now?

Lisa: In our old location we really had to think about what the people who lived there needed and wanted to buy.  This meant shopping outside of our comfort zone - we had a lot of fishing books, for example.  Here in Lambertville, we’re able to really focus on what we know, and we’ve been pleasantly surprised at how well our selections resonate with this community. The books we can sell now are very esoteric, very quirky, more our personality. I don’t think there is any one strategy for a successful store but finding the right place is so important.

Second Question – What is one thing about how the industry is interacting with bookstores that you would love to fix or to improve?

 Lisa: We opened in 2022 and immediately I was shocked at how clunky bookstore POS software was. Now I feel like there are some really interesting fixes- but some days I wish there were not so many new options! For example, I’m not sure the Ingram/Edelweiss competition (both now featuring catalogs/ARCS) is not going to do anyone any good as far as I can tell. None of us know where that is going. We use Square at the store and have been onboarding on to Omnibus, albeit very slowly. I wish that process were faster but we’ve made the commitment. 

Another thing is pricing. I’ve begun to hesitate on certain books or to be more cautious about ordering titles because books are so expensive and the prices just keep increasing. We have to be really careful when we’re putting stuff in the system to make sure we record all the increases.  Harper books seem to jump in price every few weeks now!  

Third Question – Is there something that keeps you up at night?

Lisa: Besides the the constant price increases? I worry about how bookstores will keep going with the latest range of challenges.  In particular, I’m worried about younger readers.   YA and mid grade books are just sitting there on the shelves — last week I heard a woman say she’d taken her son’s IPAD away so that he would read, but (not surprisingly) that wasn’t working very well.

Fourth Question – What events/programs are working well for you?

Lisa: We have four book clubs now. We have a queer book club, Reading Between the Lines, that is co-hosted by Gay Social, which is a statewide nonprofit that helps organize social activities for LGBTQ folks.   People come from all over New Jersey for this club: it can be a pretty big group, and a number of close friendships have grown out of it. We also have a literary fiction book club that we started in our first location; some of our original members still drive down to Lambertville to participate. (it’s a 40 minute drive). We have a club we call “Hope in Dark Times” which is looking at books that have something to say about how to handle living in this moment in history.   Finally, we have a new club in collaboration with Odd Bird, a local brewery. Every six weeks we choose a book that has some craft element or representation, and a local artist leads us through that craft  - we drink beer, do crafts, and talk about the book. We just read “The Binding” by Bridget Collins, a fantasy novel about book binding, and made hand-marbled journals. Next I think we’ll be doing “Stitched” by Eli McCann, a new novel about quilting.

We usually have a pretty robust schedule of readings and artist’s talks through the winter and spring, though we are space-limited and need to plan carefully.  This year we’re trying to focus on bringing in some more well-known authors and partnering with a local venue for bigger readings.  It’s a work in process, and I’m looking forward to the publicity speed-dating session next spring so that I can hone my store pitch!

Howling Basset Books is at 45 North Main Street in Lambertville, NJ. They are open Thursday – Sunday, 11 am to 6 pm. Lambertville goes ALL OUT for Halloween, so if you love the Gothic and the spooky, visit in October.