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By LOU HATTER
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
When Vinnie Carney, Susan Parrish and Sharon Pierce decided to open a bookstore, they requested information from the national trade association about how to start.
The package they received from the American Booksellers Association, Mrs. Pierce said, “told us not to even open a store without at least 50,000 potential customers.”
But what the ABA’s figures did not include was a factor for the inter- ! est of the Rappahannock community, a county of barely 6,500 residents. “We’ve been surprised how much of the business is local,” Mrs. Parrish said. “We thought that we’d be more dependent on tourists — but thankfully it hasn’t turned out that way.”
The three women are ardent readers, and their interests span the bookstore’s shelves from history to mystery. “That’s our strongest point,” Mrs. Carney said. “You have to be knowledgeable about books, >
and we’re all knowledgeable about j different types.”
“We’re all kind of balanced in different directions,” Mrs. Pierce I added.
The tiny size of the Cabin Fever Store, located on Main Street in Washington just past the Washington House of Reproductions, makes buying decisions “a challenge,” according to Mrs. Pierce.
But packed into the small, twostory building (one of the three remaining log cabins in Little Washington) are hundreds of books, including a special section just for children — conveniently placed at just the right height to allow them to browse on their own.
Having nine children between the three partners, Mrs. Pierce' said, “has made a big difference in the selection for children. We picked their brains.”
And for adults, the section classifications aren’t what you’d find in the average chain bookstore, perhaps — “Psycho-babble” is the title on the psychology and self-help shelf — but that’s part of the charm of this independent bookstore.
When the three first contacted their wholesaler about ordering stock for the store, they were sent a list of 200 categories and asked how much they planned to spend on the inventory. The company returned a computer printout of the top books in each category “about this thick,” Mrs. Carney said, holding her hands about six inches apart.
“We went through the list book
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