Vt.'s Bartleby's Books: Five Years 'After Hell & High Water'

In a piece headlined "Turning a new page after hell and high water," VTDigger revisited Vermont bookseller Lisa Sullivan, who, in 2011 lost her shop the Book Cellar in Brattleboro to fire and, four months later, in August, had her other shop, Bartleby's Books in Wilmington, flooded by Tropical Storm Irene.

"We had water coming in waves, and then we smelled propane," she recalled.

In the face of adversity, Sullivan "mobilized," VTDigger wrote. "Losing her leased space in Brattleboro, she repaired the storefront she owns in Wilmington in time to reopen for the Christmas 2011 shopping season." Bartleby's reopened on Black Friday in November, "when more than two dozen shoppers--some waiting outside in lawn chairs--streamed in to see neatly shelved books amid new plasterboard walls and cement floors."

"In some ways, it was a beginning," Sullivan said, adding: "Only a few other places reopened when we did. There was a long stretch of time we felt we were going it alone."

Sullivan is reluctant to mark Irene's anniversary this month: "In some ways I don't want to think about it, but in others I think we've come a long way. We don't talk about the flood on a daily basis or use terms like 'the new normal' anymore."

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