I met a lot of amazing people on the book tour – Kathleen Dunn of Wisconsin Public Radio comes to mind – but few were as inspiring as Lisa Sullivan of Wilmington, Vt., former owner of the Book Cellar (Brattleboro, Vt.) which burned down last year, and Bartleby’s Books, which was destroyed by Hurricane Irene, along with the rest of the business district in this small tourist town.

If there was an award given for the most worthy bookstore owner in America, it ought to to go Lisa, because she is a remarkable human being, and I promise you her bookstore – set to re-open by Thanksgiving – will not be one of those that slips away because of Amazon. Lisa is not only working to rebuild her store, she is working to help other businesses in Wilmington re-open. She not only has a passion for books, she is enthusiastic, creative and forward looking. Her store’s website is selling a lot of books while she rebuilds, and she does not complain about fires, floods, Amazon, e-books or the many other challenges she faces as an independent bookstore owner. Quite the opposite. She is chock full of ideas for drawing in younger readers, using more video, personalizing her blog, expanding her digital sales,  drawing e-book readers into the orb of her store.

It was a pleasure just to meet and talk with her. Like Connie Brooks of Battenkill Books,(now taking Paypal) she is leading a new generation enthusiastically into the evolving world of bookstores. She, likes me, sees technology as opening up all kinds of new readers to books and story-telling, many of them young. She is impressive – agile,  open to the future, willing to change, and she is piling all of her energy into creativity, new ideas and her love of books and the people who buy them rather than into laments about the Kindle.  Maria and I just said “wow” when we left. Anybody running a bookstore would do well to talk to her.

I had a wonderful reading at the Deerfield Elementary School and we raised hundreds of dollars for Vermont Flood relief. Great crowd – nearly 50 – great questions, a great way to wrap up the main part of the book tour. I have some appearances to make around Christmas, and one in Saratoga next Saturday afternoon at Barnes & Noble, but I’m not traveling anywhere for a good while.

This was a memorable evening for me, affirming as a writer, (many blog followers) as a storyteller, as someone who loves bookstores. I was tired this week, but not tonight. Charged me right up and thanks to Random House and Ashley Gratz-Collier for supporting the Vermont leg of the book tour. I hope Bartleby’s invites me back. I’d be happy to come and I might just drive back down her to see the new store open at Thanksgiving.