In 2009, two bookshops a week were closing in the UK and the days of physical books seemed numbered. Now, indie stores are booming. What explains the turnaround – and can it be sustained?When Sarah Mullen was asked to set up a children’s book festival in a leafy suburb of Birmingham in 2012, she couldn’t find an independent bookseller to run the bookstall. “So we all rolled up our sleeves and did it ourselves,” she says. Pregnant with her third child, she had recently given up her job as a solicitor to work for the Bournville Village Trust. Mullen’s task was to set up the Bournville BookFest, which ran for 10 years before being brought to a halt by the Covid pandemic. But far from accepting defeat, she rolled up her sleeves once again and “pivoted the whole thing into a bookshop”. Two years on, the Bookshop on the Green is thriving – a living rebuttal to the once widely held idea that the digital era meant certain death for the neighbourhood bookstore.When I visit early on a Friday morning, a turquoise vintage Smith Corona typewriter holds centre stage in the Bookshop on the Green. Beside it stands Bradley Taylor, a poet whose job is to write poems on demand for anyone who asks. He has composed a lot of Batman and football poems for the children who pile in on Saturdays, he says, before sitting down to tap one out for me about the joy of bookshops. In the multitasking tradition of small retailers, Taylor also works in the shop. He made his cosplay debut last month as the... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2023-07-27 09:00:32 UTC ]
One evening in early March of last year, Alexis C. Madrigal and Robinson Meyer, colleagues at The Atlantic, set out to answer a simple question: how many people had been tested for the coronavirus in the US so far? The answer, it turned out, was actually quite complicated: in the absence of data... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2021-03-17 12:29:53 UTC ]
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The UK arm of Bookshop.org, the online retailer that partners with indie bookstores, has a new initiative on the way: it’s launching a series of online events for its customers as well as customers of unaffiliated indies. For the first event on March 23rd, Bookshop is partnering with Faber to... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-03-11 19:42:27 UTC ]
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The familiar Amazonian preview called 'Look Inside' gets a storefront cousin in Jellybooks' new 'Discovery,' using QR codes to offer samples. The post UK: Jellybooks Pilots Bookshop ‘Peek Inside’ Capacity at Blackwell’s appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-03-11 16:45:04 UTC ]
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Back in 2018, an advert for what seemed like the perfect job for book lovers went viral after Sonu Shivdasani, founder of Soneva luxury holiday resorts, and Philip Blackwell, c.e.o. of Ultimate Library—a company that creates bespoke book collections for hotels and private clients—came up with... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-25 23:24:10 UTC ]
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Onto March, and with any luck, you'll soon be able to find some of the covers in our monthly round-up on the shelves of your local bookshop before too long. A fine treat it will be too, as there are plenty of lively illustrated children's jackets here, as well as a handful of lovely treatments... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-25 12:50:29 UTC ]
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Poet and countercultural pioneer put on trial for publishing Allen Ginsberg’s Howl went on to become a beloved icon of San FranciscoLawrence Ferlinghetti, the poet, publisher, painter and political activist who co-founded the famous City Lights bookshop in San Francisco and became an icon of the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-02-23 19:42:46 UTC ]
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Housmans Bookshop is to release a free playback of two online events featuring actors Christopher Eccleston and Maxine Peake reading stories published by Comma Press. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-23 18:18:14 UTC ]
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Current Events On a visit to an Oklahoma City bookstore, Alex Crayon finds more than books. When I pulled into the snow-covered parking lot of Nappy Roots Books in northeast Oklahoma City, the first thing I noticed were the posters. Handwritten signs... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-02-22 21:59:22 UTC ]
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I don’t know what’s wrong with me or what year I think it is, but it’s just now come to my attention that Ryan Gosling has a big ol’ tattoo on his arm commemorating the most disturbing and perverse children’s book of all time. That’s right, I am talking about The Giving Tree. (Okay, Love […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-22 17:49:35 UTC ]
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In the early 1930s, a bookshop window would have displayed the pretty, pictorial dust jackets of the latest bestsellers, say Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon and Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth. A compact wooden bookshelf stuffed with colorful paperbacks might also have commanded space and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-22 09:49:47 UTC ]
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Some welcome news for those of you with little ones running and/or crawling around your ankles right now: Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o’s bestselling 2019 children’s book Sulwe is getting a small screen musical adaptation. Netflix announced earlier today that Sulwe will join a roster of upcoming... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-18 18:28:11 UTC ]
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My sister always goes to the same bookshop in Oxfordshire, where she lives. There she seeks out a young bookseller with a shock of black hair from within the stacks. He once recommended her a list of books, and she loved every single one; she’s been returning to him ever since. During lockdown,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-08 09:49:32 UTC ]
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Many of us have fond memories of Harold and the Purple Crayon—Crockett Johnson’s beloved children’s book about a four-year-old boy exploring the contours of his imagination through drawing. Yesterday afternoon, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Zachary Levi will be starring in Sony... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-02 17:11:35 UTC ]
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Yesterday—after a decade of democratic transition, five years of elected government, and several days of threats, apparent walkbacks, and rumors—Myanmar’s military executed a coup and returned to power. Myawaddy TV, a station owned by the military, announced that Min Aung Hlaing—the army’s... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2021-02-02 13:37:45 UTC ]
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The children’s book has influence out of proportion with its 24 pages and its cardboard cover devoid of medallions. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-01-27 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Children’s book podcast and radio show "Down the Rabbit Hole" is starting 2021 with a new presenting and production team, including author Sam Sedgman, Scholastic's Hannah Love, Little Tiger's Charlie Morris and The Bookseller's Caroline Carpenter. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-26 02:08:20 UTC ]
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It’s rare to see Raven Leilani’s Luster next to Doctor De Soto, William Steig’s children’s book about a mouse that performs dental surgery—but this is par for the course at Oh Hello Again, Seattle’s newest bookshop. Oh Hello Again, rather than shelving books by genre and author, categorizes... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-22 16:19:24 UTC ]
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The late Umberto Eco—professor, novelist, children’s book author—was a man of many talents. One of which, as seen in a video clip posted on Twitter by writer Ted Gioia, was quickly finding books in his famously massive personal library. I once got to meet Umberto Eco—who was very memorable. But... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-21 20:36:32 UTC ]
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“As a graphic designer, we can play a role in standing up for something.” During the protests for racial justice this past summer and over the past few years, Black Lives Matter became a movement and rallying cry, a message of optimism and hope, and a simple statement of affirmation: the lives... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2021-01-19 08:00:06 UTC ]
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Flipped eye publishing is marking its 20th anniversary this year with a digital bookshop tour, a nationwide hunt for a young editor and a 2021 list including work from Warsan Shire and José Eduardo Agualusa. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-19 07:31:59 UTC ]
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