维吉尼亚书店找到成功的秘诀

Virginia Bookstore Finds the Secret to Success 维吉尼亚书店找到成功的秘诀

A large bookstore in a small U.S. town has succeeded for many years by giving people a chance to buy a lot of books for a low price.

The large and simple bookstore is in the small eastern town of Mount¹ Crawford, Virginia.

The Green Valley Book Fair is made up of two large storage buildings totaling 2,300 square meters.

Some customers like Zoe Dellinger have been buying books at the store for many years.

“I was coming here since I was in my early 20s. The thrill of finding a new book is very serendipitous² here because you can’t come and say ‘I’m buying the new Nicholas Sparks book today.’ That’s not what this place is about -- this place is about finding wonderful treasures.”

And those treasures are not costly³.

“I found a wonderful book that I wanted. It was very expensive at the time -- 25, 26 dollars was expensive for me to purchase a new book. I found the book here for five dollars. I was so excited, so that has kept me coming back just to see what treasures I'll find.”

The Green Valley Book Fair has 500,000 new and old books about politics, religion, science, travel, cooking and many other subjects.

Michele Branner is the manager of the store.

“My parents actually started this bookstore about 46 years ago. My dad collected old books and then decided⁴ that he wanted to sell some of them. And it went so well it’s just kind of evolved to what it is today.”

The bookstore is only open six times a year for three weeks. About 25,000 people visit during each period. The store sells about $2 million worth of books every year.

“We buy our books at a fraction of retail⁵ and we can sell them for the prices that we do and keep our overhead low. That’s why we, we don’t have any fancy buildings or anything like that.”

People have visited the store from many American states and from Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Russia.

Tom Whitton is from the eastern city of Bristol, Connecticut.

“We have our whole family with us this time. So we said ‘Oh you gotta see this book fair,’ and so we brought 'em all here today. It meets every family’s need that likes to read.”

Words in This Story

thrill – n. a feeling of great excitement or happiness; a very exciting or enjoyable event or experience

serendipitous – adj. luck that takes the form of finding valuable or pleasant things that are not looked for

treasure – n. something that is very special, important or valuable

expensive - adj. costing a lot of money?

evolve – v. to change or develop slowly often into a better, more complex or more advanced state; to develop by a process of evolution

fraction – n. a small part or amount of something

overhead - n. costs for rent, heat, electricity, etc., that a business must pay and that are not related to what the business sells

fancy – adj. not plain or ordinary

1 mount   

n.山峰，乘用马，框，衬纸；vi.增长，骑上（马）；vt.提升，爬上，装备

参考例句：

• Their debts continued to mount up.他们的债务不断增加。
• She is the first woman who steps on the top of Mount Jolmo Lungma.她是第一个登上珠穆朗玛峰的女人。

2 serendipitous   

adj.偶然发现的

参考例句：

• There was a serendipitous second advantage working with a library of equations. 利用方程库有个意外收获的附带好处。 来自互联网
• Strategic networking prepares us for serendipitous moments. 战略性人际交往让我们为不时之需做好准备。 来自互联网

3 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。