A real page-turner

  • By Melissa Santos / Herald Writer
  • Sunday, August 6, 2006 9:00pm
  • Business

NormaJean Layer loves books and people. As the corporate sales representative for Borders Books at the Everett Mall, she gets plenty of time to interact with both.

She spends her day handling large orders for schools and corporate customers.

When teachers approach her looking for books to use in their classes, she helps them locate the best materials. She also helps businesses find training resources.

“I’m like a personal shopper for businesses and teachers,” she said. “I can save people a lot of time. Especially if it’s a small business where they can’t necessarily close up the business and go shopping, I bring the bookstore to them.”

During the day she spends time researching books, locating what customers want and delivering orders to their offices.

Researching different titles helps her advise customers which books would meet their needs while letting her indulge her lifelong love of reading, she said.

“I’ve always liked books,” Layer said. “Before I got this job, I always thought it was a dream job to work here just as a bookseller.”

Hours: 40 hours a week, with varying shifts.

Pay range: Base salary is $25,000, plus sales bonuses and benefits.

Three things she loves about her job:

* The variety. She spends about half her day in the Borders store and the other half meeting with customers, she said.

“No two days are the same,” she said. “I look forward to going to work every day.”

* The books. “I read about a novel a night,” she said. “We always had a bookcase by my bed in my room, ever since I was old enough to start reading when I was like, 3.”

* Having a niche. “Amazon doesn’t have a person that can tell you about the book,” she said. “I just take care of people.”

Career path: Worked for 20 years as a social worker before finding a part-time job as a bookseller at B. Dalton and then being hired at Borders.

“The stress from being a social worker was destroying my health,” she said. “My doctor said, ‘I can keep prescribing more medications and you can keep killing yourself slowly, or you can find your passion.’”

Since switching jobs, her health has improved dramatically, she said.

Where she’ll go from here: “I’m staying here in this position until I retire.”

Education: Earned an associate degree in social services and a bachelor’s degree in Native American studies.

Family: Married with two grown children and four dogs. “We actually bought a minivan after the kids moved out so we could haul the pooches, because they go everywhere with us,” she said.

Guilty pleasure: “I like reading those trashy little beach novels.”

Favorite saying: She referred to an Erasmus quote written on the ceiling of the bookstore: “I buy books, and if I have a little money left over, I buy food.”

“That’s me,” she said. “Just ask my husband and my bank.”

Who plays you in the movie of your life: “Maybe Jennifer Aniston, because sometimes I can be so gullible and other times so organized and bright, and she really comes across that way. She also seems very loyal to her friends, which is something I relate to.”

Reporter Melissa Santos: msantos@heraldnet.com.

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