Will browsing be allowed, or will we have to judge a book by its cover? With Waterstones and some indie shops set to open on 15 June, Alison Flood finds out what the plan isMelissa Davies had planned to fulfil a lifelong dream and open her independent bookshop, Pigeon Books, in Southsea, at the beginning of April. Those plans were put on hold by the coronavirus pandemic, but with a relaxation of lockdown rules from next week, bookshops will be able to open to customers – for the first time in over two months. Davies and her husband are now preparing for a very different sort of opening. “We had to quickly rethink our entire business plan and how we could operate, and now we’re gearing up to open our doors for the first time under really different circumstances,” she says. The tiny Pigeon Books will ask its browsing customers to use hand sanitiser, or wear gloves, before and after touching books, and will restrict the number of customers in the shop to two at a time.“We’re excited about opening but also worried about how we’re going to make it work and how we can keep ourselves and our customers safe,” Davies says. She continues to work full time in customer service, and to write (her first poetry collection, Pineapples in the Pool, was published by Unbound in 2018). “We’ll be opening with reduced hours for a few weeks to see how things go. We’re so nervous about it though. Who opens a bookshop in a pandemic?” Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2020-06-12 06:00:14 UTC ]
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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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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Michael Lewis has written a “stunning” book on a group of people who predicted the coronavirus pandemic, to be rushed out by Allen Lane. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-28 20:37:13 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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Bookshop and Libro.fm, which help independent booksellers sell online, reported huge gains in 2020. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-01-08 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The number of independent bookshops in the UK and Ireland has grown for the fourth consecutive year, the Booksellers Association has confirmed. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-08 03:46:57 UTC ]
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Hachette UK's parent company Lagardère has taken a €465m government-backed loan to help it cope with the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-04 09:13:16 UTC ]
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Aged 15 I got a Christmas job at my local bookshop in Battersea so I could save to go interrailing. My parents’ bookshelves were brimming with mostly Black writers: Chinua Achebe, Buchi Emecheta, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Chester Himes, Terry McMillan, and I was surrounded by ‘consciousness’... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-30 21:25:59 UTC ]
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A committee made up of booksellers and non-managerial staff at Bookshop Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz, Calif., has sent a letter to store owner Casey Coonerty Protti asking her to voluntarily recognize their joining with the Communication Workers of America Local 9423. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-12-11 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The poet, whose acceptance speech will also be released on Monday, will publish Winter Recipes from the Collective in 2021Nobel laureate Louise Glück is set to publish her first poetry collection in seven years in 2021 – her first since becoming the 16th female winner of the literature... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-12-07 11:00:36 UTC ]
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Nigel Jones, formerly of Ottakar's and the Totnes Bookshop, and his wife Claire Jones, a former W H Smith children's buyer, are to open their own independent bookshop in Totnes, two weeks before Christmas. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-30 12:29:44 UTC ]
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Publishers Nosy Crow and Pan Macmillan have been named winners of the FutureBooks Awards: Best of Lockdown, after the week-long virtual conference which culminated in the awards ceremony. The pair won alongside Bath-based bookshop Mr B’s Emporium, the Cheltenham Literature Festival, and academic... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-20 02:37:06 UTC ]
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Italy's annual book-donation program for school libraries is back this year, despite the constraints of the coronavirus pandemic. The post Italy’s ‘Why I Read’ Campaign Flies Again appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-11-18 17:11:45 UTC ]
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Achins Book Shop and Coffee Shop, thought to be the UK's most remote book retailer, has been sold to new owners six years after appearing on the market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-18 05:13:31 UTC ]
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New retail website Bookshop.org has been hailed as a “game-changer” by Booksellers Association m.d. Meryl Halls while its founder has said more features are on the way. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-17 09:40:54 UTC ]
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Graphic novel publisher SelfMadeHero is launching a social media campaign calling for artists to support bookshops with a drawing of their favourite store. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-17 06:10:11 UTC ]
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Bath bookshop Toppings & Company is to move to a listed Georgian building, and will begin expansion building works next year. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-08 18:39:07 UTC ]
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Portfolio buys a business book from a fashion brand founder, Paul Tran pens a poetry collection for Penguin, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-11-06 05:00:00 UTC ]
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As I wrote back in March, the enforced closing of bookshop doors is a terrible story for the editor of The Bookseller to report: it’s a gut-punch, and if you were on social media last Saturday at around 6.30 p.m.—when the Prime Minister announced the decision to shut non-essential retail in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-05 23:57:12 UTC ]
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