THOMASVILLE- Words and books. Books and words. Annie Butterworth Jones has had plenty of both for most of her 38 years on this planet. The owner of Thomasville’s charming independent bookstore called “The Bookshelf,” Jones has had a fascination – you might call it a healthy obsession, really – with words and books ever since she was a youngster. The public just didn’t get to see that side of her.

“I’ve been a writer my whole life,” she said one morning, seated near the front of her bustling little bookstore, nestled in a chair surrounded by a big bunch of bookbags. “I’ve got a giant Rubbermaid box filled with journals and stories and poems. I used to do a family newsletter called “The Busy Bee” – my maiden name is Butterworth, I ran that newsletter for years.

“But I guess I was scared to call myself one. I think it was Flannery O’Connor who said something like she doesn’t know what she thinks or how she feels until she writes about it. Writing is how I processed the world.”

Until recently, most Bookshelf patrons have only had a chance to read Jones’ words on her carefully crafted store newsletters. But that is changing. For the past eleven years, she’s used her newly discovered entrepreneurial spirit to help “The Bookshelf” carve out a distinctive place in the Thomasville community. They’ve got a wonderful website, a podcast, a Children’s story time, book signings, community events, and presentations that has endeared the store and its employees to its patrons.

But now Jones’ lifelong love of books and words has borne fruit, one might say. She’s an author! She’ll have to make room on her store’s bookshelves for her own work when spring hits. Her thoughtful, distinctive collection of essays: “Ordinary Time” will be released on April 22, 2025.

“It’s Indy Bookstore Day!” she laughed.

And the extraordinary theme running through each of her essays is this: Staying put.

“It’s about rootedness and relationships,” she said. “There’s a real challenge to staying put and there’s a real gift in it. One of the chapters is about when you live near your hometown and the ghosts of your former self, they’re there when you drive down the road or you played on that playground. My parents showed me how to be rooted…there’s a real gift in that.”

In a society that seems to be ever-shifting, changing, moving, Jones is staying. In fact, when, after thinking about writing a collection of essays for a long time, she actually got her chance to talk to a book agent, (Jonathan Merritt), here was her pitch: “I really want to write about staying. Living an ordinary life.”

“That’s it!,” he told her immediately. “That’s your plug, your line. Staying put.”

A graduate of Tallahassee’s North Florida Christian School, Jones attended Faulkner University in Montgomery, Alabama, lured by their “Great Books” program. She met her future husband, Jordan, graduated with a degree in Journalism and held some different jobs, working for Florida Healthy Kids as a communication specialist, then at the Florida Bar for a while, writing a few profiles. But at 27, she started wondering if she might like to try something else.

As a youngster, Jones showed an entrepreneurial spirit, actually made brochures and ran “Annie’s Summer Camp” and made a little bit of money. Once she got a job working at Tallahassee’s version of “The Bookshelf,” all of a sudden, she could sense that was the direction she needed to go.

A few years later, when the opportunity came to buy the Thomasville store, Jones took it, and literally earned the job through her hard work.

“Sweat equity,” she explained, smiling, explaining that her work in the store got her the store. “I got a small stipend and put the rest back into the store.”

Though COVID, as with all small businesses, presented a challenge, Jones’ positivity found a way to persevere. As things picked up at “The Bookshelf,” Jones kept finding ways to engage and relate to the Thomasville community.

“When you are Southern,” she said, “I think you have an innate sense of place. When I pivoted to a flesh and blood bookstore, it worked. I want to run a bookstore here in my time in this place. We belong to each other. The reason it works is because it’s here.”

“The Bookshelf” has an inviting, welcoming vibe.

As things started cooking over the years at “The Bookshelf,” Jones kept learning, asking questions. “I’ve been fortunate the last few years,” she said. “I’ve had a business coach, Emily Freeman from North Carolina. And she kept pushing me to look beyond “The Bookshelf.” She taught me things, asking me what do you want for your life and career. And, well, writing came up frequently.”

So Jones’ future has two paths; One: Keeping “The Bookshelf” a welcoming, vibrant part of the Thomasville community and Two: Being an author!

“Running a bookstore is all about the in-person experience,” she said. “I’m so grateful for the staff I have here and the patrons… there are a lot of other places they can get their books. And you know, that’s why I sing the praises of a liberal arts education because it prepares you to ask questions and seek answers in unusual places. I do think my background prepared me for this.”