Could a bespoke book subscription service break you out of your reading rut or encourage you to explore new genres?Heywood Hill bookshop has stood on the same spot since 1936. It inhabits a Georgian townhouse at 10 Curzon Street in Mayfair, London, a blue plaque outside commemorating its most famous employee, Nancy Mitford. Behind its heavy wooden door, a customer explains that she is visiting the UK from Australia, and would like to speak to someone about the shop’s subscription service. The word has clearly travelled far.From chocolate to coffee to beer to grooming products, subscription boxes are big business, and books are no exception. There are countless online companies that ship out a monthly read, some adding artisan teas, hot chocolate, or an adaptation on DVD of the book. But Heywood Hill’s subscription is as bespoke as possible: each package is individually tailored to the reader’s tastes following a conversation between the subscriber and a bookseller. Camille Van de Velde, one of Heywood Hill’s five booksellers, takes me down a rickety staircase into the basement from where the scheme is run. Staff are at work in a series of pokey interlocking rooms, stacking titles on shelves, ready to be wrapped, packed and shipped. They won’t be specific about numbers, but each has hundreds of people to choose for each month, and it has, by all accounts, transformed the business.Suddenly I realise just how intimate a simple question like ‘What is your favourite book?’ can... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2020-02-13 11:00:00 UTC ]
The only store in Hay-on-Wye, Herefordshire, to exclusively sell new books will open on 26th October. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-21 06:24:17 UTC ]
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The head of Otava Publishing, one of Finland’s largest books beasts as well as an owner of its biggest bookshop chain, says the domestic market has been ‘bipolar’—but reckons new formats present a massive opportunity for brave publishers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-18 03:01:17 UTC ]
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Ahead of Bookshop Day, bookshop owner Sarah Dennis highlights what makes independent bookshops special. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-04 03:15:59 UTC ]
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Retailers are gearing up for a bumper Super Thursday ahead of this Saturday's Bookshop Day 2019 when events will be taking place up and down the country. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-03 08:58:18 UTC ]
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ONE DAY IN a Los Angeles bookshop in the mid-1970s, a thick City Lights softcover with a stark black-and-white spine magnetized a suburban adolescent’s eyeballs. “BUKOWSKI” the cover read at the top in big block letters, and at the bottom, in smaller letters: “Erections, Ejaculations,... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-10-01 17:00:44 UTC ]
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Jeffrey Archer, Marian Keyes and Stacey Halls were among the authors at this year's Bertrams Christmas conference which saw Abingdon indie Mostly Books win bookshop of the year. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-30 10:31:00 UTC ]
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Independent bookseller Topping & Co will open a new bookshop in central Edinburgh this weekend. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-25 21:51:55 UTC ]
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The Booker Prize has reassured readers the £50,000 literary award has “not yet been decided” – after a bookshop mistakenly branded copies of Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments with a “winner” sticker. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-17 10:52:14 UTC ]
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Quercus held a sales conference with a difference yesterday by sending out its teams to booksellers around the UK, Ireland, France and Belgium. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-12 08:22:12 UTC ]
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Travel book specialists Stanfords has opened a specialist food bookshop in a joint venture with street food pioneers KERB "to showcase London’s food and cultural history through literature". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-11 04:36:19 UTC ]
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Hachette UK and the Booksellers Association have launched a new £5,000 Sceptre Bookshop Award for stores that make an outstanding contribution to their community. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-09 10:33:41 UTC ]
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Notting Hill indie Lutyens & Rubinstein Bookshop will celebrate its 10th anniversary this autumn. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-29 17:39:42 UTC ]
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A new independent bookshop will open its doors to customers in Bourne, Lincolnshire this weekend. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-28 01:26:30 UTC ]
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Police are investigating after burglars broke into London's Housmans Bookshop and stole the store's cash drawer and charity box last week. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-27 10:02:54 UTC ]
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A Big Green Bookshop crowdfunder to get copy of climate activist Greta Thunberg's book into schools across the UK has raised more than £11,000 in a month, with Penguin Random House matching copies raised and creating an accompanying classroom pack. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-27 01:46:04 UTC ]
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Wood Green's co-operative bookshop, The All Good Bookshop, has secured temporary premises and plans to open this week. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-18 22:20:02 UTC ]
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Malorie Blackman laments the lack of BAME children’s characters. I know – it’s a real battle to get writers of colour publishedMy daughter, like me, is of mixed heritage. She has wildly curly hair, as have I. When she was born four years ago I was given five copies of the same kids’ picture book... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-08-17 07:00:41 UTC ]
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Tributes have been paid to Gay’s The Word bookshop co-founder Jonathan Cutbill, who has passed away aged 82 after a period of ill health. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-15 17:00:19 UTC ]
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A powerful new memoir refuses to turn a blind eye to sexual abuse and offers survivors a way forward. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-08-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Hatchards’ new bookshop at London’s St Pancras Station will be officially opened tomorrow by children's author and illustrator Benji Davies. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-07 09:17:40 UTC ]
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