Retired educator and Morgan Hill’s “bookseller extraordinaire” Ellyn Gaich was one of 300 independent booksellers nationwide to win James Patterson’s coveted “Holiday Bonus,” according to the owners of BookSmart, where Gaich works.
The honor was announced by international best-selling author and philanthropist of the arts James Patterson, who teamed up with the American Booksellers Association to award the prestigious honors, which came with holiday bonuses for the designated top booksellers.
BookSmart co-owner Brad Jones said the Patterson Holiday Bonus is “given to only those booksellers who go above and beyond the call of duty.” BookSmart nominated Gaich for the award because of her longtime service to the reading community.
Patterson’s prestigious honor came with a cash holiday bonus. Gaich didn’t disclose the amount of the bonus, but she told BookSmart co-owner Brad Jones it was “more than a couple tanks of gas, and less than a trip to Maui.” In total, Patterson and the ABA awarded the Holiday Bonus recipients nationwide a total of $350,000 in bonus money.
Gaich, 62, has worked part-time at BookSmart, located at 1295 E. Dunne Ave., for about seven years. She is retired from Morgan Hill Unified School District, where she worked at Nordstrom Elementary School’s library.
“I like being around books. It’s a comfort to me,” Gaich said. “The retail side was more of a learning curve. It’s a little bit different, but fun.”
Gaich, a longtime Morgan Hill resident, has been a customer of BookSmart’s for much longer than she has worked there. She used to stop into the store at its former downtown location while walking through the neighborhood with her two children, who are now adults.
“It’s such an institution in the community,” Gaich said of BookSmart. “Every town needs a bookstore.”
She also likes how BookSmart is more than just a bookstore. She enjoys the “variety” of people and activities she gets to encounter at the store, which hosts art lessons, poetry readings, drama performances and other artistic programs. The front of the store doubles as a café, which is often a hive of family gatherings, business meetings and friendly socializing.
Gaich and her co-workers, along with BookSmart owners Jones and his wife Cinda Meister, share a “team approach” to selling books. “Everybody here reads,” Gaich said.
Currently, among Gaich’s favorite books for sale at BookSmart are those in the “Merle, the Freethinking Dog” series, as well as science-fiction novel “Ready Player One.”
“We have several really top notch booksellers who always try very hard to find just the right book for each and every client and Ellyn is one of the best!” Jones said.
Patterson is a prolific novelist who has donated more than $1.5 million to holiday bonuses and grants for independent booksellers and bookstore employees since 2014. Over the past decade, he has given away more than $1 million books to students, and visited hundreds of schools in an effort to promote youth literacy.
