Hello! Is is I, your perennial millennial independent bookseller and this is the next installment live from the bookshop. I’ve had a swarm of new subscribers since I changed the name of the publication to… Receipt from the Bookshop so welcome, welcome, keep your shoes on, feel free to browse, ideally buy everything, etc.
Business Mum says this week has been absolutely dreadful, book-shop wise, with takings for this April barely half of April last year. I blame the weather, which is still just January? No wonder no one feels like flinging themselves into Spring spending - it’s so bloody cold. Today I am wearing no less than FOUR layers on my core (vest, t-shirt, sweater vest, shacket), and I still put a coat on top when I went outside. Am I a bookseller or a sandwich?
Always a bit of a panic when I realise I’ve been in the shop for some time and haven’t opened the draft to write this post. Things can happen and if I don’t document almost instantly they lose their sparkle. Trying to recall them, even just ten minutes later, suddenly makes this whole thing seem so ridiculous I have to talk myself out of ghosting you all and pretending this never happened. It’s now 10.21 and here are the things that have already happened;
the ‘open’ sign fell off the door twice (a sign that I should just go home now?).
The delivery guy came unexpectedly early and brought three boxes on a trolley (ffs, loads of unpacking and folding packing paper pour moi.).
A man fell off his bike right opposite the shop but did a sort of James Bond roll and jumped straight back onto his bike so I did the decent thing and pretended I hadn’t seen it happen.
A beloved and loyal customer came to collect her
MikeDavid Nicholls book and next month’s book club title.An extremely tall customer came and loomed over me to attempt to see-through the parcel on my desk to see if it contained the book he’d ordered, moments after the postman handed it to me. It wasn’t his book. He left and says he’s coming back tomorrow to speak to The Other Lady about his order, presumably in the hope that she *can* turn books that aren’t his into ones that are…
A family darken the doorway and just as one member has a foot raised to cross the threshold someone in the group mutters something and the attempt to enter the bookshop is abandoned en mass. Wish I could tell you what was said in hushed tones but I didn’t hear it. Feel free to speculate in the comments.
Sometimes I feel like browsers are having these performative conversations for my benefit, particularly when it’s about how many books they’ve read, how many books they own, how much they love bookshops, how they have to stop themselves from buying everything. Nine times of ten, they leave the shop empty handed and then I’m left wondering if I’ve been flash-mobbed in a very small and particular way.
Two proofs in the post this week to show you:
Pity Party from
’Hilarious, heartbreaking and honest, this is a story about learning how to stop playing it safe in a world that feels so dangerous - and showing up to the party, even when it feels impossible.’
I’m a big fan of Daisy’s down to earth writing in her warm and generous Substack; The Creative Confidence Clinic. This novel sounds wonderful - here’s the opener:
‘It’s not over yet. It could still a good day. Everything depends on the Banana of Portent.’
Also in the post was this was Colour-Me-In proof of Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody by Patrick Ness. Do I need to explain why it’s exciting that Patrick Ness is writing middle-grade fiction now? Probably, I don’t.
Unpack the boxes, do the phone calls, do the texts, msg BM to say ‘who’s this for?’, squirrel the ones away that are actually for me, you know, usual bookshop stuff.
A customer calls to place an order and we end up whinging about Sainsbury’s - our local store has drastically expanded their book offering to include new literary HB fiction as well as the usual supermarket stuff, meaning we could just go and buy our stock at the same time as our groceries and it would cost less than buying it from our usual trade channels. But we don’t because I like to actually sleep at night. The customer on the phone feels very strongly that independent bookshops should be supported to the point that she also actually refuses to shop in Waterstones, which is actually even more admirable than me, because I will literally buy a book wherever I see it and I am not immune to a browse around a big chain bookshop sometimes. I just love to see all the books!
Couple of things in the order I feel I should point out for your attention. The first one being Canine Detective Chris - The Shiba Inu Detective Tracks Down the Stolen Jewels! I don’t think I need to explain that any further, so I won’t.
Also in this order is the new novel from Scarlett Thomas - The Sleepwalkers I’ve enjoyed many of Scarlett’s books before and I might have to buy this one today because if there’s a “darker, funnier, The White Lotus” then I need to check it out.
Also in the order is the *excellently titled* Young Hag by Isabel Greenberg, a mythological graphic novel from the creator of Glass Town and The One Hundred Nights of Hero.
I sneak into the back to have a bite of my lunch and immediately hear purposeful strides across the shop floor. I step back out to see a young guy in a red puffer jacket wearing a branded backpack. It says something -Evolve. “Hi” I say, “Hi” he says, as he does a quick turn around the children’s books. I follow him back into the main shop (he seems more authoritative than me already) “I assume you’re the business owner” he says, with his back still to me. There’s another man also in a red puffer jacket with a branded backpack in the shop. Is this another flash mob? “No, I’m not” I say, (I am, I can be, but sometimes I don’t want to be) “Ok” he says, and leaves the bookshop without missing a beat. I wonder if he’s wearing a pedometer and just likes to keep moving. I wonder what was in those backpacks. I wonder what he was about to try and sell me, though I’m sure I didn’t want it. I think it was something to do with Energy, which I’d have more of if I could eat my lunch…
You know, this is really out of our way.
(Lady talking to a small dog on a lead)
A lady comes to the till with a wooden camel. “I don’t have my glasses, how much is he?” He’s £3. “I love your shop.” she says, and puts Camel into her bag. There’s something about buying a small wooden animal for coins that is very pleasing to me. Like, if you found some golden coins in your pocket, what could be a nicer exchange??
A tiny girl comes in to ask for a book “about a crocodile who bites a unicorn’s foot” I mean, I don’t think we have it but it sounds good? She buys a jigsaw and then shows me her baby brother in the pram “we’ve got a baby!” she says. The baby is lovely, and so is she. The pram has an extra step so she can stand on it while the pram is travelling “look at us move!” she says. I look at them moving. Absolutely fantastic.
A nice Granddad comes in for some books to read to his baby grandson, who is one. We look through lots of board books and decide on a selection of three. The Granddad explains there’s a routine and a way that baby likes to be on the bed when the books are read, so it helps to have the ones with the big clear writing so he (Granddad) doesn’t need to wear his glasses. Squishy storytimes are the best. I’m so happy for this lucky baby getting these lovely new books and has a Granddad who is prepared to lie in an uncomfortable position to read them to him.
Can’t feel my feet. Time for tea.
Exciting book trade bickering on Substack (and beyond!) this week: there was a widely circulated article called ‘No One Buys Books’ and then some people wrote some great responses that were like ‘We So Do Buy Books!’ and it’s all very Books, Actually. What was quite amazing to me (nerd) was that this article genuinely escaped the Substack bubble and appeared on my Xwitter and in my Whatsapp groups! Almost in The Real World! Wow, it really made people angry. Anyway, I’m delighted to report from the front line that rumours about the death of books are greatly exaggerated.
Obviously there was some Patricia Highsmith in today’s delivery - are we all watching ‘Ripley’? Yes, yes of course we are (I’ve got two episodes left - I love the elegant inspector.) Anyway, we’ve restocked The Talented Mr Ripley (Even though I like the TV show, I refuse to stock the TV tie-in editions) but I’ve also ordered in Highsmith’s writing book; Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction which I am absolutely going to buy straight away, so don’t come and try to buy this one in the bookshop tomorrow because it won’t be here, and neither will I, because I’ll be at home reading it.
The method of killing a terrapin was to boil it alive. The word killing was not used, and did not have to be, for what could survive boiling water?
Patricia Highsmith, Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction
A dog called Rupert tries to enter the shop, his owner pulls him back out saying “Come on, Son.”
The fire alarm test man comes in and asks we happen to have a small screwdriver he could borrow. I glance at the pen pot, which of course has a small screwdriver in it. What a great bookshop this is.
Daughter has requested I buy this book today: The Spider in the Well by Jess Hannigan. She read it when she was in the shop on Tuesday and now keeps asking if I’ve brought it home, even thought I haven’t been here since we were here together on Tuesday when she watched me not buy it. Anyway, it’s gorgeous and I want to own it too, so that’s that.
Ok, I need to whittle down my wish-list to a pile of purchases I can actually afford today and in the meantime I’ll remind you that all the links on this newsletter go to our Bookshop.Org page which directly supports our bricks and mortar bookshop. If would like to support me as a writer (I love you) then the best way to do that is to upgrade your subscription to this newsletter; a paid subscription puts books in my bag, coffee in my cup and a spring in my step. See you next week!
Hey, I just realised no one said anything good outside the shop today! And I had the door open all day, which is why I can’t bend my fingers anymore. I’m mad about it, I know you lot love to hear the gossip about how much everyone doesn’t want to come into the bookshop. Anyway, apologies for the lack of overheards today, everyone was obviously keeping their opinions to themselves??
I love that Granddad so much! His read-to-kid-in-bed conundrum is also why I dislike big anthologies of children's books. They are heavy and hard to hold up while snuggling.
Thanks for posting this at 4:56, just two minutes after my train left Waterloo. Perfect train reading 🧡