Owner of Jinx Books looks to sell store, cat

Jinx Books owner Kathryn Wade, left, and employee Laura Scott. Wade has put Fulton's book store of 12 years up for sale in order to retire.
Jinx Books owner Kathryn Wade, left, and employee Laura Scott. Wade has put Fulton's book store of 12 years up for sale in order to retire.

Kathryn Wade is selling a cat for $25,000.

A cat, and a book store.

After owning Jinx Books in downtown Fulton for four and a half years - and working there for nine - Wade said she is ready to retire.

"It's been good, it's been fun, we've enjoyed it, but I'm tired," Wade said. "It's fun to say I own a book store ... but I have other things I want to do."

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Employee and longtime coworker Laura Scott also is getting ready to move on - she has a new grandchild on the way soon and plans to become a full-time baby-sitter.

Jinx Books - formerly Book Express - has been serving the needs of local book lovers for 12 years, and both women said they want the store to keep going. The sale includes the store inventory - which includes more than 1,000 books listed on Amazon for prices starting at $6 - and J.J. (Jinx Jr.), the famous book store cat. The two-story storefront itself is rented.

"Before we started talking about selling the store, I starting telling people the cat was for sale for $25,000," Wade joked. "I really, really hope we can get a buyer for it. If we don't have a buyer by Labor Day we'll start doing the clearance sale."

She said owning the book store for the past four years has been fun.

"We have a base of regular customers, and we know them well and they know us," Wade said. "We have some services people like - we can get any book, new or used, and they can usually get it from us for less than Barnes and Noble."

To help the tornado-stricken people of Dumas and surroundings, donations can be made to the Delta Area Disaster Relief Fund, care of the Delta Area Community Foundation, P.O. Box 894, Dumas, AR, 71639, or through the Arkansas Community Foundation, 700 S. Rock St., Little Rock, AR, 72202.