Available only in bookshops – a magical voyage of discovery

As the curtain raises on Independent Bookshop Week, Helen Dunmore argues that, despite the convenience of shopping online, readers need to browse real shelves packed with real booksThe 10 best independent bookshops in the world – our readers recommendWe read not only with our eyes, but with our hearts. Every sense is in play. We shiver with fear, weep, laugh aloud, blaze with anger, are seduced, aroused, enchanted. We read with our senses of taste and smell, with skin and brain and intuition. We read intellectually, emotionally, erotically. We read in order to understand our lives, to become what we are not and through this to question what we are. For a few hours we enter the minds and bodies of lovers, criminals, artists. We are insiders, present as latitude is defined or Anne Boleyn murdered. We enter the minds of explorers and scientists, even though we may not be able to do the maths. Ages fly before us, and we step on to other continents. Our identity shifts. We understand other languages, even if we do not speak them. We live in 16th-century London, or Hogwarts. We run on the moors with Cathy and Heathcliff. We are watched by Big Brother, and sense our own weakness in the face of implacable totalitarianism. Related: David Nicholls: Browsing bookshops then buying online is a 'genteel form of shoplifting' Related: Weird and wonderful bookshops worldwide – in pictures Related: A life in writing: Helen Dunmore I can give you no conception of my welcome here. There... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2015-06-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #big brother #david nicholls #buying online #genteel form #helen dunmore

Other Publishing stories related to: 'Available only in bookshops – a magical voyage of discovery'


Discovery get experimental with virtual reality

Virtual reality may still be closer to science fiction for most people, but don't tell that to Discovery. The company's new eight-person virtual reality unit has gone deep on the tech with videos that show people what it's like to surf, swim with sharks and survive in the wild. Fusion has also... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2015-08-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #show people #virtual reality #science fiction #early days


Saltaire Bookshop to close after takings drop to £2 a day

Saltaire Bookshop will close in six months unless local customers rally to support it, its owner has said. The independent, based in the World Heritage site of Saltaire in West Yorkshire, tweeted last week: “Six month countdown begins today - unless we start getting more customers x.” Owner... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #west yorkshire


Bookshop footfall gets a 'Watchman' boost

Booksellers say they are enjoying a “bumper summer”, with the release of Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman encouraging people to “re-engage with books and bookshops again.” James Daunt, m.d of Waterstones, said the release of the William Heinnemann title last month had injected life into the... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #harper lee #james daunt #book sales


Bookshops and libraries join forces

Bookshops and libraries may seem, to some, unlikely allies. One is in the business of selling books while the other lends them out for free. But we know they can and do work together successfully, but by local arrangement rather than national policy. That is set to change. The Booksellers’... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #selling books #national policy #chief librarians


US bookshop offering refunds for Go Set a Watchman

Brilliant Books in Michigan says customers are owed apologies for portrayal of Harper Lee’s long-lost manuscript as a ‘nice summer novel’ rather than an academic curiosityA US independent bookshop is offering refunds to its Go Set a Watchman customers, claiming that the work should be viewed as... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-08-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #brilliant books #harper lee #independent bookshop #offering refunds


Bookshop events: no 'wow'

Mentioning no names, but aren't some bookshop events in London - and increasingly elsewhere - succumbing to the over-heated London price overdrive, leaving many of us reeling as it separates the rich from the poorer? £8? £10? £15? Why even stop there if the market can take it? Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'The Little Paris Bookshop' is a summer read rich in easy pleasures

Nina George's international bestseller features good food, talk of love, and picturesque scenes of rural France. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-07-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #paris bookshop #nina george


Photo highlights of Independent Bookshop Week

The annual extravaganza of indie booksellers returned last week with a barrage of book-centric events, readings, publicity and costumes. Lisa Campbell documents the highlights of the action-packed seven days David Headley from Goldsboro Books and Sheila O’Reilly right from Dulwich Books with... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #photo highlights #david headley #goldsboro books #dulwich books


Employing Localized Data for Global Book Discovery

Jim Bryant draws examples from Trajectory.com bookselling partners in China to argue that superior, localized metadata increases book sales — everywhere. The post Employing Localized Data for Global Book Discovery appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-06-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Elegy for a Lost French Bookshop…and Freedom

At the New Yorker, Adam Gopnik laments the closing of a bookshop in Paris, ultimately tying it to a loss of a kind of personal freedom. The post Elegy for a Lost French Bookshop…and Freedom appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #freedom appeared


Bookshop proposal for literature lovers

The Falmouth Bookseller was at the heart of a romance story recently, when book-lover Jason Sandeman-Allen staged a surprise proposal to his girlfriend Stephanie Ashton in the indie bookshop. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #literature lovers #indie bookshop


Syrians Open New Arabic and Multilingual Bookshop in Istanbul

The displaced owners of Syria's Bright Fingers Publishing House are opening Pages, a new Arabic and multilingual bookstore in Istanbul, this week. The post Syrians Open New Arabic and Multilingual Bookshop in Istanbul appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-06-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #istanbul appeared #opening pages


New app compares Amazon price with indie bookshops

Entrepreneur Will Cookson has developed an app which sends people to independent bookshops when they browse on the Amazon website. Cookson, who describes himself as an entrepreneur and creative director, has invented Bookindy, an extension for the Google Chrome browser which, when downloaded,... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #amazon price #indie bookshops #independent bookshops #creative director #hive website #local bookshop


New Bookindy app helps bookshops fight back against Amazon

Type in a book you’d like to read, and the app will compare the Amazon price with nearby independent book shops – in the hope you’ll go and buy thereIndependent booksellers have launched a new weapon in their two-pronged offensive against online retailers such as Amazon and the supermarket... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-06-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #amazon price #online retailers #supermarket chains


Twenty-Five Years Of Discovery

On May 12, nearly 300 people gathered at the Standard Hotel in New York City’s Meatpacking District to celebrate 25 years of Barnes & Noble’s Discover Great New Writers Program. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #barnes noble


Bury This Book In The Ground And It Will Magically Come Back As A Tree

This children's book not only teaches about ecology, it practices it.Despite the rise of ebooks, most children's books are still made from trees. One new picture book is designed as a simple reminder of that fact: When kids finish reading a story about an adventure in the rainforest, they can... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2015-05-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #picture book


BEA 2015: Launching Voyagers

In the Voyagers novels, there aren’t any Klingons to be found: it’s kids who are boldly going forth and discovering strange new worlds—and readers can come along. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Where’s Waldo the Reader? Book Discovery Tactics from IDPF

Executives from Goodreads, HarperCollins, and Penguin Random House shared book discovery tactics in the age of overload at BEA's IDPF conference on Tuesday. The post Where’s Waldo the Reader? Book Discovery Tactics from IDPF appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-05-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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BEA 2015: Discovery Expansions

Discovery Communications’ publishing program is set to expand with an array of new titles from Time Inc. Books, Parragon, and other licensees. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Larkin poem discovery discredited

A leading literary magazine that claimed to have found an unpublished poem by Philip Larkin admits that it was the work of a different writer. Continue reading at BBC News

[ BBC News | 2015-05-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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