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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In the first step of a two-phase launch, the long-awaited Los Angeles Review of Books has debuted its preview site at lareviewofbooks.org with essays and reviews by Ben Ehrenreich, Geoff Nicholson, Jane Smiley, Jefferson Hunter, and Richard Prince. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-04-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Tue, 12/04/2011 - 08:30 Penguin is topping the table with an industry-leading six nominations in the 2011 Bookseller Industry Awards. Following closely behind in the nomination league tables are HarperCollins and Hodder & Stoughton, both listed... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Mon, 11/04/2011 - 09:06 The publisher behind The Bookseller is launching an ambitious new quarterly consumer book magazine and website this June, We Love This Book. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The breakaway group of Angus & Robertson franchisees say they're surprised by legal action from the group's administrators. Continue reading at The Sydney Morning Herald
[ The Sydney Morning Herald | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 30/03/2011 - 07:28 Illustrator and author Shaun Tan has won the largest prize for children's and YA literature. Tan will receive the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2011, for SEK 5m (£500,000), at a presentation at the Stockholm Concert Hall... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Mon, 21/03/2011 - 15:45 Waterstone's has called for academic publishers to "significantly" increase their support for the chain, warning bricks and mortar academic bookselling could vanish from the high street within a few years. The retailer's m.d.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Tue, 15/03/2011 - 09:58 Price and range have been highlighted as the most important factors in buying habits of online book buyers, with recommendation and review less crucial. In a survey of 91,500 customers worldwide on the Book Depository's... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 08/03/2011 - 13:45 Transworld is to publish the autobiography of Happy Mondays star Shaun Ryder. Editorial director Sarah Emsley acquired UK and Commonwealth rights through Matthew Hamilton at Aitken Alexander Associates. Emsley said:... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Fri, 04/03/2011 - 09:12 National Reading Group Day is among the new features designed to boost the importance of indie retailers during this years Independent Booksellers Week. The Booksellers Association has just announced that the annual IBW will... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Wed, 02/03/2011 - 08:44 HMV Group has "substantially" backed a social networking site called aNobii, which aims to help readers find buy and share books. The website, www.anobii.com, has existed since 2006 but was bought recently by internet... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Thu, 17/02/2011 - 09:34 The Australian book trade has been hit by the surprise collapse of REDgroup, which owns the country's largest bookshop chain Angus & Robertson, as well as Borders and the Whitcoulls chain of newsagencies in New Zealand. It... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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By Tim Conneally, Betanews Amazon on Monday pre-released a software update for Kindle e-readers running the 3.0 software which updates the interface for magazines and newspapers, adds a quick review section at the end of each book, and adds page numbers that match Kindle books with their print... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2011-02-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams The Publishers Association [PA] has attacked the culture secretary's decision to allow communications watchdog Ofcom to "delay" the Digital Economy Act. Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced yesterday [1st February] that Ofcom is to assess whether the Act's... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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