Jeff Kinney (Wimpy Kid author) to Open Bookstore in Hometown

The Wimpy Kid

There was a nice story in the Boston Globe Magazine this weekend about Jeff Kinney who is best known for all of his Diary of a Wimpy Kid books (favorites of a grandson of mine).  It seems that Kinney has taken it into his own hands to build a new bookstore in the little town he lives in, Plainville, Massachusetts.  

Kinney makes it clear that this is not some kind of "vanity project" and that he is not interested in creating  a "Wimpy World" with which to promote himself.  Rather, he is opening a bookstore to serve a community that is very short on bookstores (Plainville has only 8,000 residents and is, I suspect, at least 45 minutes from Boston on a good driving day.)

The author also gives us his take on tree-books vs. e-books, especially when it comes to children.  And, I love this, his take on working in the bookstore when he can:

I do plan to be an occasional part of it, but if this is about me, then it’s not going to succeed, or if it depends on my presence, it’s not going to succeed. I want it to succeed on its own merits. I think that I’ll make appearances, do things like teach a cartooning class or maybe down the line a screenwriting class. I am actually eager to work as a staffer there. I’d like to receive books and shelve books and maybe do some book talking of my own. That’s something that I’m actually looking forward to, maybe working the cafe occasionally. I never got to do that kind of a thing, and I think it would be fun.

Again, here's the link to the complete magazine article: Boston Globe Magazine