April 11, One of the most interesting bookstores. It's the only store I see where I have to go to a security office to have a background check befor e I can see the store buyer every visit. That's why it's so important not to have a police record if you want to be a publishers representative!
Once, with my escort Katherine Wakefield, the store's assistant manager, I even went outside the concourse to where the planes were parked to get to another door and get back into the terminal. It was quite the adventure! One of the things that is so impressive about BookLink is the inventory. Most bookstores in airports usually just sell best sellers, candy and magazines and th e employees have little or no say about what is stocked, rarely knowing anything about books anyway.
BookLink is different. Not only do they look like a real bookstore, they have a staff that really knows books and an authentic book buyer that buys from publishers. BookLink is owned by the NewsLink Group , an airport concessionaire company that owns many kinds of stores in 6 airports across the eastern US. Romero Britto , the Brazilian artist, is hugely popular in Miami. The airport even has a whole store that just sells his art and design.
Not to be out done though, BookLink has its own selection of his work. Obviously, having a location in the international concourse at MIA, the store sells a huge amount of tourist-oriented books and paraphernalia. You can see here why I am so impressed with their selection. Books are the number one item for sale here and no one forgets it. James and Katherine are long time Waldenbook and Borders employees. Ja mes managed Walde n books and Borders for more than 20 years before taking over at BookLink, hence his great knowledge of books.
In answer to my on going "back in time" question she replies: I would most want to go to Weimar during the last decade of the 18th century and meet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The romantic in me would want to discuss the ideals which inspired him to write The Sorrows of Young Werther.
