Pantomime misanthropy is tempered with bursts of sweetness in the secondhand bookseller’s latest dispatches from WigtownThere’s a moment in the first season of the short-lived but influential sitcom Black Books in which an elderly customer appears with a box of attractive old editions of classics to sell to Dylan Moran’s crosspatch bookseller Bernard. Barely looking at them, Bernard offers him £40. But they’re worth more than that, the man says. “I know, I know,” Bernard concedes. “But I don’t want them. I’ll have to price them, then, and put them up on the shelves, and store them, and people will come in and ask about them, and buy them, and read them, and come back and sell them and the whole hideous cycle will just go on and on and on ...” He gives the man £40 to take the books away.Shaun Bythell’s dispatches from the Wigtown Bookshop, which he has run for nearly 20 years, read like a knowing riff on the persona of Bernard Black. He started out grousing about his life, pillorying his eccentric staff and venting about his noisome customers on a Facebook page. Then he did the same in his hit Diary of a Bookseller, continued with Confessions of a Bookseller, and here he is – an actual franchise – with a slim little listicle-titled till-point follow-up for the Christmas market. His inner Bernard Black will be heaving a world-weary sigh. The more he parades his contemptus mundi, the more the world loves him.Much steam is enjoyably vented over customers who whistle... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2020-11-11 09:00:33 UTC ]
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Aperture, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to promoting photography, is gearing up for a big year in 2012. In addition to celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, it has teamed with Paris Photo, the annual French photography fair, to launch The PhotoBook Review, a new biannual publication on... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Over 90% of the e-readers bought over Christmas were Kindles, according to research released... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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An MP has joined the Bookseller Association's calls for the government to respond to the Mary... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Booksellers Association has welcomed Mary Portas report into the future of the high... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook will "imminently" launch a plugin for publishers and public figures to ask their readers to subscribe on Facebook directly from their own Web sites. Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2011-12-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Although the staff at Melville House originally envisioned David Graebers new book as a short work on the economy, it just kept growing until Debt: The First 5,000 Years, a now 550-page comprehensive work on the impact of financial issues on people, was eventually published this past summer.... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-12-02 00:00:00 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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Book publishers know that their business is changing, and quickly. Whether its online publishing through the Web, downloadable ebooks, or app development, digital content and the technology that supports it is the newest path to sales growth and customer satisfaction. In todays book content... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-11-25 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: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 15/11/2011 - 15:39 Angry Robot has books by two debut authors following its "Open Door Month", in which un-agented authors could submit their works directly to the publisher. Editor Lee Harris negotiated both deals, each for world rights... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 11/11/2011 - 07:35 The Booksellers Association is calling for the end of tax and business rate concessions for charity bookshops, saying that they represent "unfair competition" to high street booksellers. The call comes amid claims... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Fri, 11/11/2011 - 07:25 The former owner of Maher the Bookseller, which went out of business in June after 16 years trading, has opened another bookshop selling titles for up to 50% off r.r.p. Tony Maher, who used to own his former business in the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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THE ebook revolution has gathered pace with Sydney's independent bookstores introducing ebook kiosks from today and Dymocks announcing a partnership with Google to deliver ebooks online. Continue reading at The Sydney Morning Herald
[ The Sydney Morning Herald | 2011-11-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Quick Response, or QR, codes, those black-and-white pixel squares that function as super charged consumer bar codes, are on advertisements, Web sites, and anything else at which you can point a QR reader. While publishers have been putting QR codes on jacket covers for several years, they have... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-10-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 27/10/2011 - 14:20 Three bookshops were among the top 10 retailers to be recognised in the Parliamentary Small Shops Competition. Kemptown Bookshop in Brighton won a trophy for coming third in the competition, run by the Independent Retailers... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 26/10/2011 - 15:55 The Booksellers Association has said the Office of Fair Trading's decision to clear the merger between Amazon and The Book Depository will give Amazon more power to put its competitors out of business. The OFT announced today... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-26 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: Tue, 25/10/2011 - 09:00 The co-owner of the Big Green Bookshop has launched his own publishing company and is set to release his first book with author Greg Stekelman. Simon Key, co-owner of the independent bookshop based in Wood Green, London, has... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-25 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: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Tue, 18/10/2011 - 08:00 Fantasy childrens author Catherine Fisher will be officially named Wales first Young Peoples Poet Laureate later today (18th October). The Newport writer will be given the title by Literature Wales, which was established in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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