A heart-warming love letter to books and bookshops, by an amenable fellow turned antisocial old misanthrope“I was in here two years ago and you had a book by Roger Penrose. Do you know what happened to it?” Shaun Bythell – owner of the Book Shop in Wigtown, Galloway – has 100,000 books in stock, sells 20,000 a year, and has handled nearly 1m second-hand books since he bought the shop in 2001. Unsurprisingly, the Roger Penrose volume had not stuck in his mind.Before he entered the book trade at the tender age of 31, he was “amenable and friendly”. Now, after many years of fielding bizarre questions, constant haggling over prices (why is it “acceptable to try to screw the profit out of struggling small businesses” but not supermarkets?), and struggling to survive despite Amazon’s “icy grip” on bookselling, he has been forced to embrace the stereotype of the “impatient, intolerant, antisocial proprietor”. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2019-08-24 10:58:38 UTC ]
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Doncaster campaigners are considering applying for judicial review over library closures,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 17/11/2011 - 10:01 Waterstone's m.d. James Daunt has said booksellers are facing the same crisis" as libraries as he called on the public to lobby politicians to protect the library service. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Kindle Fire is really a distant relation of the handheld portable TV that was popular about 20 years ago--you can consume lots of things fairly effortlessly on the Fire--movies, music, magazines, some kinds of apps, and, more importantly for us, books; but the Fire's real innovation is how... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-11-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Thu, 27/10/2011 - 14:15 Solaris Books has acquired the sequel to Helix by sci fi author Eric Brown. Editor-in-chief Jon Oliver acquired UK and US rights in Helix Wars in a deal with agent John Jarrold. The title will be delivered in spring 2012 with... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 26/10/2011 - 09:04 Publishers Association chief executive Richard Mollet will be among the panel giving evidence to the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee next week on the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 20/10/2011 - 08:30 Publishers and booksellers will soon be able to swap a working day in the life of each others businesses in a new joint initiative soon to be launched by the Booksellers Association and the Publisher Association. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Wed, 19/10/2011 - 15:01 Tim Godfray, chief executive of The Booksellers Association, has asked British Library c.e.o. Dame Lynne Brindley to review the Librarys relationship with Amazon as a matter of urgency, following the furore over links to... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Mon, 17/10/2011 - 14:00 Wednesday (17th October) is the last day for entries to The Bookseller's Reader Survey. The survey aims to discover what readers expect of The Bookseller's coverage of trade issues across news, features and profiles, both... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Mon, 17/10/2011 - 10:14 Camden library campaigners have become the latest group to apply for judicial review over library closures. The Camden Public Library User Group has instructed solicitors Bindmans to lodge an application for judicial review,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Wed, 21/09/2011 - 09:10 This years Bookseller Childrens Conference will focus on the range of digital opportunities now available to publishers for developing book brands into online spaces and for engaging with readers online. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Barbara Casassus Publication Date: Tue, 06/09/2011 - 08:55 Two French publishers have launched a public call to arms to defend independent booksellers, which continue to suffer from financial decline in the country. Le Seuil c.e.o. Oliver Bétourné wrote in Le Monde last week that... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Fri, 26/08/2011 - 07:13 A coalition of "left-leaning political bookshops" is to launch in October, creating a support network for independent booksellers. The Alliance of Radical Booksellers (ARB) will officially begin on 6th October and so far has... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Tue, 23/08/2011 - 15:00 Waterstones supply chain director Tim Owrid is leaving the company on Friday. Owrid joined Waterstones in April 2010 and will begin a new job as the head of logistics at SuperGroup Plc, the retail brand comprising Superdry,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Marcus Brauchli, executive editor of the Washington Post, sent a memo to his staff announcing, among other changes, that the book reviewers will now be report to the editors of the their respective sections. Brauchli told PW that these moves will not affect the paper's coverage of books. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-08-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Much has been made about the importance of bricks-and-mortar bookstores as showrooms, places that will help prevent the book business from going the way of the music industry as the sales of digital books grow. But hundreds of showrooms and thousands of square feet of book retail space are about... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-08-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 04/08/2011 - 09:12 The Authors' Licensing & Collecting Society has welcomed the government support for the Hargreaves Review into intellectual property and growth, though it expressed concern over the proposals to extend copyright... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Tue, 26/07/2011 - 17:11 Telegraph Media Group has been ordered to pay £65,000 in damages after losing a high court case for libel and malicious falsehood over a Lynn Barber book review published in the Telegraph. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Tue, 26/07/2011 - 16:29 The High Court has rejected an application by an Isle of Wight resident to bring a judicial review claim over the island's library closures. At a hearing in London today [26th July], His Honour Judge Pearl said the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Thu, 21/07/2011 - 09:18 Brent council's plan to close six of its 12 libraries was made "with great care and expressed attention to the 1964 Act" and other relevant legislation, the High Court heard yesterday (20th July). The council had faced... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Possibly the most famous book review, ever, was written by the young Irish wit and polemicist John Wilson Croker. Croker is still remembered, though obscurely, as a founder of modern political conservatism. What's more, according to some sources, John Wilson Croker invented the very term... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2011-07-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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