At Least One Bookstore Had a Merry Christmas

Book sellers may have faced challenges in recent years, but it was a very merry Christmas at one venerable New York City bookshop.

The Strand's vice president, Eddie Sutton, said Thursday the Manhattan shop had the best sales day in its 86-year history on Saturday, and then again on Monday.

He says Saturday's gross sales beat the previous record, set last year, by 12 percent. Monday's were a hair more. And Tuesday's sales were 25 percent bigger than the best previous Christmas Eve.

The Strand carries over 2.5 million used, new and rare books.

Sutton says one Christmastime customer came in looking to give his girlfriend a book about how to play the harmonica. Sutton says he worried the store might not have one — but it had a few.