Oh, that’s no fun at all! I hope you feel better soon. I’m in Narni, Italy, staying in my new little stone house above the cellar with soaring ceilings I’m turning into a bookshop! So I’m hoping to soon be the bookshop in my area. I get so much inspiration from your posts. I can’t wait to be a fellow bookseller!
I live in Salida, a small, rough-around-the-edges town in central Colorado, between two mountain ranges. We have a tiny independent bookstore, Salida Books, but I use our Carnegie library as they have Random House Large Print books. I am 80 years old and have macular degeneration so the large print or books on Libby are best for me now.
I just picked up The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. Your recommendation of The Mission House is on my list. I’m also reading The Bee String by Paul Murray and Kristin Hannah’s The Women.
I enjoy the glimpses of your day very much. It brightens mine considerably, so thank you.
Hello Cheryl in Colorado! I'm so glad you enjoy my posts and that your library is well stocked with large print books. I'd like to get around to The Bee Sting - have really enjoyed Paul Murray previously. Haven't heard of The Frozen River - I'll look it up! Hope you enjoy The Mission House when you get to it.
So sorry your trip got derailed. I am reading A Grave in the Woods by Martin Walker. The latest--released and delivered to my audiobook app on Tuesday!--in the Bruno, Chief of Police mystery series.
Next up: Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson, the next book in the Jackson Brodie mystery series, which was also released on audio in the US on Tuesday.
Thanks Anne - I'll get over it (after a weekend of moping.) I like the way you know what you're going to read next - I spend ages dithering between books!
I usually dither as well, but three books that I wanted to listen to all came out on audio within a week of each other! The third being the new Richard Osman book, which is lower on my list than Bruno and Brodie.
Sorry you had to miss your trip, but I'm sure your daughter appreciates the extra snuggles from mummy this weekend ❤️
I live in Canada, specifically Dawson Creek, British Columbia. We don't have a indie shop that sells new books, we have a fabulous indie used book store called Faking Sanity and their catalogue of books is quite extensive. You don't very often find new releases there but anything that's been out for 6 months or more is a good possibility. They have an online catalogue so you can check in advance if they have what you want in stock and are super organized! It's one of my favourite shops in town. They also sell coffee and knitting supplies so it's a very popular spot.
I looooove Elliot Bay Books here in Seattle. It’s been our third space for the past 14 years and I have so many fond memories of our now bookworm teenager learning to walk up stairs to the second story. Any other Seattleites here?
I appreciate the implication that my first/second spaces would be exciting, but really it’s just home and workplace/school. We do love a bookstore. If ever in your town, you can bet I’ll be visiting Storytellers!
I'm reading Every time I go on Vacation Someone Dies by Catherine Mack (obviously because I wish I was on vacation) from Pennsylvania, USA. Sadly I have NO bookstores (indie or otherwise) in my entire county. But I visit my adult daughters and go to Aaron's Bookstore in Lititz, PA about 40 minutes away. They are lovely and Surprise! there's a tea shop just down the street.
I remember the days of willing myself not to get sick because I had three children at various stages of a stomach bug. Good luck to you and I hope it passes quickly.
Thank you Jodi, and I'm so sorry to hear you don't have a bookshop but glad that you have one near your daughter and yes - book shopping should always be followed by tea!
Hello Katie, I'm so sorry your weekend has been scuppered. I'm reading Substacks and writing to you from my desk in Presteigne, Wales, which doesn't exactly have a local bokshop, but does have several 'quite close' bookshops. 15 miles away there is Rossiter Books, in ancient Draper's Lane, Leominster, a very tidy and quite small branch of a small local Welsh borders chain run by a husband-and-wife team who used to work for Waterstones. Their other shops are in Ross-on-Wye, Cheltenham, Hereford, Malvern and I think maybe Monmouth. I'm very glad they exist and they are very efficient with friendly staff, but they are almost too tidy ... do you know what I mean? I'm always surprised by the number of new hardbacks they stock and I wonder who buys them. Slightly closer is wonderfully chaotic Aardvark in Brampton Bryan, lots of overflowing bookshelves spread out over several barns and sheds in a farmyard, with a coffee and cake café in the middle and a stove for winter days. Most of their stock is secondhand but they have a few new books by local authors and cards in their reception area. I love it but daren't go there very often. Last week I was in Belfast, where I greww up, and paid a flying visit to No Alibis in Botanic Avenue, which might be my favourite bookshop (although there are several contenders for that slot). It specialises in crime writing and Irish literature and I bought a stack of books and got them to send them home to me as it was too heavy for the plane. They arrived here the day after I got home and I've nearly finished the first one, The Slow Road North by Rosie Schaap, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55959403-the-slow-road-north. An absolute impulse purchase, I didn't know about it in advance, but it is really resonating with me. The author is a journalist, like me, but there the resemblance ends as she is Jewish and from New York but she has moved to a tiny village in Co Antrim, Northern Ireland, to be near a forest and the sea after the death of her husband when she was ridiculously young to be widowed. So it is about grief and displacement and communities and nature and trying to make what you really want to do work financially. I am loving it. I hope you don't have the full Exorcist experience and that you can reschedule your fun trip!
Thanks so much Clare, I am sure I will reschedule. So interesting and comforting to hear about how you feel about the Rossiter slick style because I always feel a bit ashamed of how untidy our shop is - and yes, I wonder that too about all other bookshops - how are they selling multiple HB copies?! It amazes me! Osman is almost the only time we experience this. Aadvark and No Alibis both sound brilliant and I love that you were tempted by an impulse buy - that's exclusively how I shop in bookshops that's aren't mine.
Were/are you at the ISM? I remember your name and think the photograph matches. I cancelled my membership when I 'retired' - although musicians never retire, I've realised!
So sorry to hear of derailed fun, hoping the bug doesn't hit you too hard, chicken broth with a splash of soy sauce helped me stay hydrated during a child shared bout of exorcism like ick last month. Best wishes!
I now live in Corbridge, Northumberland, where we have the fabulous Forum Books. When we came here on holiday about ten years ago, the independent bookshop was one of the reasons I thought it would be a great place to live - I was right! - and then when I arrived, in 2020 (yes, that year) was devastated to see that it was no longer there. Fortunately, I soon discovered that this was because it had moved to bigger premises across the square!
I love reading your letters from St Annes - I grew up 'down the road' (in Bispham) but left to go to university, probably before you were born! Don't remember any bookshops in those days but I grew up going to Anchorsholme library and even worked in Blackpool libraries in my summer vacations.
Ah Nicola, nice to hear from someone who knows the area. I have always wanted to visit Forum, Helen is so fabulous! I think you did right to swap Bispham for Corbridge but don't tell Bispham I said that.
Recently moved to Hastings and went to a glorious writing retreat week in a beautiful cabin in the woods near Battle - https://www.starcroftfarm.co.uk Part of the heavenly deal was a visit from a local masseuse, posh chocolate and cake, an hour with a writing coach AND a surprise book cherry picked by local bookseller Ian of Rother Books. His choice (without meeting me) was so spot on, it immediately became my favourite bookshop. Must jump on the bus for a visit soon!
oh my goodness this sounds divine (except the massage - don't touch me!). What was the book the bookseller selected for you!? I must know! I think a lot people here will be hitting the link for that retreat - thanks for sharing.
I am sure you could request extra cake instead of a massage! The book was Divine Might: Goddesses in Greek Myth - something I would never choose for myself, but I laughed out loud when I got to the bit when Natalie Haynes talks about Olivia Newton-John in the movie Xanadu. I thought AHA maybe this is why he thought I'd like it (I write about movie stars and what they liked to cook - ONJ wrote a whole cookbook! Very healthy recipes - not much cake) x
Rother books is also my local bookshop! I live in Battle and that writing retreat week sounds amazing!! Ian of Rother Books is so lovely - I adore going into his shop for a browse and to read his recommendations. ❤️
ah! love that you've got a bookseller in common and he will have no idea that you've had this conversation about how great he is. Maybe his ears will feel warm. WE ARE TALKING ABOUT YOU IAN. (I don't know him.)
If you ever have friends want to come and visit you and you don't want to put them up, send them to Starcroft!! It's HEAVENLY! I love all the bits of card in Ian's shop with his recommendations. I could spend hours in there.
Hello from Raleigh, North Carolina where I am a frequent patron of So & So Books and Quail Ridge Books! I so love reading your weekly receipts - thank you for sharing them. I hope you dodge that bug or at least recover quickly if it hits!
Sorry about the bug. Children have a fabulous sense of timing and always know when you are going away (although mine are now in their teens and I have sneaked away overnight tonight with seemingly no repercussions). Wishing you plenty of dettol. I live in Chester where we have No independent bookshops, just a smallish (but still adequate) Waterstones and a grotty Smiths and a couple of reasonable charity shops. What we do have though is the most glorious library/cinema/theatre combo https://www.storyhouse.com
Oh beautiful Chester, I can't believe there isn't an incredible indie there - it would do so well!!! That's the thing about Waterstones - even when they're small they're still entirely adequate and will always make a Smiths look grotty. I haven't been to Storyhouse but it looks magnificent.
Bristol UK and a couple of blocks not only from Storysmith (my next book is the indy We Solve Murders from them) but also Bookhaus. Both fabulous and I feel very lucky to have them.
Currently re-reading Rivals by Jilly Cooper in advance of the TV show on (whisper it) kindle (purchased 29/3/2011!). But only because my copy fell apart years ago with the wear and tear...
We are also in Bristol but closer to Gloucester Road Books, which is another good one. And part of the plan for today is to go and check out The Haunted Bookshop on Stokes Croft, which only opened yesterday.
Such a bummer to go from an outing to an inning! So sorry! Get well soon!
I am currently on a 2 week road trip down the California coast with my daughter to celebrate her 30th birthday. Part of the agenda is hitting as many independent bookstores on the way!
So far we loved The Pilgrim's Way in Carmel-by-the-Sea and the Henry Miller Memorial Library in Big Sur! Both absolute gems!
Oh, that’s no fun at all! I hope you feel better soon. I’m in Narni, Italy, staying in my new little stone house above the cellar with soaring ceilings I’m turning into a bookshop! So I’m hoping to soon be the bookshop in my area. I get so much inspiration from your posts. I can’t wait to be a fellow bookseller!
I'm already subscribed! Can't wait to see some pics of the bookshop when it's ready. Narni looks *beautiful*
Oh, I’m so honoured! Thank you for sharing the day-to-day. I SO enjoy reading every week.
Oh, I’m so honoured! Thank you for sharing the day-to-day. I SO enjoy reading every week.
Funny, i Just thought "im gonna be the only one from Italy" and HERe you are, first comment i read is from italy, too! 😁
Hello, neighbour! Where in Italy are you?
Whaaat! That sounds amazing! I'll follow if you create a newsletter... 😉😁
I have one, and I’m sharing the whole journey. https://open.substack.com/pub/escapetothebookshop
Fantastic! And a whole lot of posts for me to enjoy already! 😍
I live in Salida, a small, rough-around-the-edges town in central Colorado, between two mountain ranges. We have a tiny independent bookstore, Salida Books, but I use our Carnegie library as they have Random House Large Print books. I am 80 years old and have macular degeneration so the large print or books on Libby are best for me now.
I just picked up The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. Your recommendation of The Mission House is on my list. I’m also reading The Bee String by Paul Murray and Kristin Hannah’s The Women.
I enjoy the glimpses of your day very much. It brightens mine considerably, so thank you.
Hello Cheryl in Colorado! I'm so glad you enjoy my posts and that your library is well stocked with large print books. I'd like to get around to The Bee Sting - have really enjoyed Paul Murray previously. Haven't heard of The Frozen River - I'll look it up! Hope you enjoy The Mission House when you get to it.
This is what happened in the bookshop today…I built a Moomin house to add to the window display (but I don’t know if I can add a picture to show you).
I'll put one on Notes.
So sorry your trip got derailed. I am reading A Grave in the Woods by Martin Walker. The latest--released and delivered to my audiobook app on Tuesday!--in the Bruno, Chief of Police mystery series.
Next up: Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson, the next book in the Jackson Brodie mystery series, which was also released on audio in the US on Tuesday.
Thanks Anne - I'll get over it (after a weekend of moping.) I like the way you know what you're going to read next - I spend ages dithering between books!
I usually dither as well, but three books that I wanted to listen to all came out on audio within a week of each other! The third being the new Richard Osman book, which is lower on my list than Bruno and Brodie.
Sorry you had to miss your trip, but I'm sure your daughter appreciates the extra snuggles from mummy this weekend ❤️
I live in Canada, specifically Dawson Creek, British Columbia. We don't have a indie shop that sells new books, we have a fabulous indie used book store called Faking Sanity and their catalogue of books is quite extensive. You don't very often find new releases there but anything that's been out for 6 months or more is a good possibility. They have an online catalogue so you can check in advance if they have what you want in stock and are super organized! It's one of my favourite shops in town. They also sell coffee and knitting supplies so it's a very popular spot.
well this sounds fantastic!!
Oooh that sounds grand to me as a knitter reader!
I looooove Elliot Bay Books here in Seattle. It’s been our third space for the past 14 years and I have so many fond memories of our now bookworm teenager learning to walk up stairs to the second story. Any other Seattleites here?
oh how gorgeous. Seattle is on my one-day-I-want-to-visit list. If the bookshop is your third space - what's your first/second?!
I appreciate the implication that my first/second spaces would be exciting, but really it’s just home and workplace/school. We do love a bookstore. If ever in your town, you can bet I’ll be visiting Storytellers!
I'm reading Every time I go on Vacation Someone Dies by Catherine Mack (obviously because I wish I was on vacation) from Pennsylvania, USA. Sadly I have NO bookstores (indie or otherwise) in my entire county. But I visit my adult daughters and go to Aaron's Bookstore in Lititz, PA about 40 minutes away. They are lovely and Surprise! there's a tea shop just down the street.
I remember the days of willing myself not to get sick because I had three children at various stages of a stomach bug. Good luck to you and I hope it passes quickly.
Thank you Jodi, and I'm so sorry to hear you don't have a bookshop but glad that you have one near your daughter and yes - book shopping should always be followed by tea!
Hello Katie, I'm so sorry your weekend has been scuppered. I'm reading Substacks and writing to you from my desk in Presteigne, Wales, which doesn't exactly have a local bokshop, but does have several 'quite close' bookshops. 15 miles away there is Rossiter Books, in ancient Draper's Lane, Leominster, a very tidy and quite small branch of a small local Welsh borders chain run by a husband-and-wife team who used to work for Waterstones. Their other shops are in Ross-on-Wye, Cheltenham, Hereford, Malvern and I think maybe Monmouth. I'm very glad they exist and they are very efficient with friendly staff, but they are almost too tidy ... do you know what I mean? I'm always surprised by the number of new hardbacks they stock and I wonder who buys them. Slightly closer is wonderfully chaotic Aardvark in Brampton Bryan, lots of overflowing bookshelves spread out over several barns and sheds in a farmyard, with a coffee and cake café in the middle and a stove for winter days. Most of their stock is secondhand but they have a few new books by local authors and cards in their reception area. I love it but daren't go there very often. Last week I was in Belfast, where I greww up, and paid a flying visit to No Alibis in Botanic Avenue, which might be my favourite bookshop (although there are several contenders for that slot). It specialises in crime writing and Irish literature and I bought a stack of books and got them to send them home to me as it was too heavy for the plane. They arrived here the day after I got home and I've nearly finished the first one, The Slow Road North by Rosie Schaap, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55959403-the-slow-road-north. An absolute impulse purchase, I didn't know about it in advance, but it is really resonating with me. The author is a journalist, like me, but there the resemblance ends as she is Jewish and from New York but she has moved to a tiny village in Co Antrim, Northern Ireland, to be near a forest and the sea after the death of her husband when she was ridiculously young to be widowed. So it is about grief and displacement and communities and nature and trying to make what you really want to do work financially. I am loving it. I hope you don't have the full Exorcist experience and that you can reschedule your fun trip!
Thanks so much Clare, I am sure I will reschedule. So interesting and comforting to hear about how you feel about the Rossiter slick style because I always feel a bit ashamed of how untidy our shop is - and yes, I wonder that too about all other bookshops - how are they selling multiple HB copies?! It amazes me! Osman is almost the only time we experience this. Aadvark and No Alibis both sound brilliant and I love that you were tempted by an impulse buy - that's exclusively how I shop in bookshops that's aren't mine.
Hello Clare,
Were/are you at the ISM? I remember your name and think the photograph matches. I cancelled my membership when I 'retired' - although musicians never retire, I've realised!
I remember No Alibis! I'm glad it's still going.
So sorry to hear of derailed fun, hoping the bug doesn't hit you too hard, chicken broth with a splash of soy sauce helped me stay hydrated during a child shared bout of exorcism like ick last month. Best wishes!
Thank you Shire, at the moment I appear to have dodged it. That soy chicken broth sounds quite tasty anyway though...
Hello Katie,
I now live in Corbridge, Northumberland, where we have the fabulous Forum Books. When we came here on holiday about ten years ago, the independent bookshop was one of the reasons I thought it would be a great place to live - I was right! - and then when I arrived, in 2020 (yes, that year) was devastated to see that it was no longer there. Fortunately, I soon discovered that this was because it had moved to bigger premises across the square!
I love reading your letters from St Annes - I grew up 'down the road' (in Bispham) but left to go to university, probably before you were born! Don't remember any bookshops in those days but I grew up going to Anchorsholme library and even worked in Blackpool libraries in my summer vacations.
Ah Nicola, nice to hear from someone who knows the area. I have always wanted to visit Forum, Helen is so fabulous! I think you did right to swap Bispham for Corbridge but don't tell Bispham I said that.
Recently moved to Hastings and went to a glorious writing retreat week in a beautiful cabin in the woods near Battle - https://www.starcroftfarm.co.uk Part of the heavenly deal was a visit from a local masseuse, posh chocolate and cake, an hour with a writing coach AND a surprise book cherry picked by local bookseller Ian of Rother Books. His choice (without meeting me) was so spot on, it immediately became my favourite bookshop. Must jump on the bus for a visit soon!
oh my goodness this sounds divine (except the massage - don't touch me!). What was the book the bookseller selected for you!? I must know! I think a lot people here will be hitting the link for that retreat - thanks for sharing.
I am sure you could request extra cake instead of a massage! The book was Divine Might: Goddesses in Greek Myth - something I would never choose for myself, but I laughed out loud when I got to the bit when Natalie Haynes talks about Olivia Newton-John in the movie Xanadu. I thought AHA maybe this is why he thought I'd like it (I write about movie stars and what they liked to cook - ONJ wrote a whole cookbook! Very healthy recipes - not much cake) x
Rother books is also my local bookshop! I live in Battle and that writing retreat week sounds amazing!! Ian of Rother Books is so lovely - I adore going into his shop for a browse and to read his recommendations. ❤️
ah! love that you've got a bookseller in common and he will have no idea that you've had this conversation about how great he is. Maybe his ears will feel warm. WE ARE TALKING ABOUT YOU IAN. (I don't know him.)
You would hit it off I am sure x
If you ever have friends want to come and visit you and you don't want to put them up, send them to Starcroft!! It's HEAVENLY! I love all the bits of card in Ian's shop with his recommendations. I could spend hours in there.
Hello from Raleigh, North Carolina where I am a frequent patron of So & So Books and Quail Ridge Books! I so love reading your weekly receipts - thank you for sharing them. I hope you dodge that bug or at least recover quickly if it hits!
I think I've dodged it, thank you! Oh, So & So books is a GREAT name for a shop, I love that.
Sorry about the bug. Children have a fabulous sense of timing and always know when you are going away (although mine are now in their teens and I have sneaked away overnight tonight with seemingly no repercussions). Wishing you plenty of dettol. I live in Chester where we have No independent bookshops, just a smallish (but still adequate) Waterstones and a grotty Smiths and a couple of reasonable charity shops. What we do have though is the most glorious library/cinema/theatre combo https://www.storyhouse.com
Oh beautiful Chester, I can't believe there isn't an incredible indie there - it would do so well!!! That's the thing about Waterstones - even when they're small they're still entirely adequate and will always make a Smiths look grotty. I haven't been to Storyhouse but it looks magnificent.
Bristol UK and a couple of blocks not only from Storysmith (my next book is the indy We Solve Murders from them) but also Bookhaus. Both fabulous and I feel very lucky to have them.
Currently re-reading Rivals by Jilly Cooper in advance of the TV show on (whisper it) kindle (purchased 29/3/2011!). But only because my copy fell apart years ago with the wear and tear...
How fabulous!
We are also in Bristol but closer to Gloucester Road Books, which is another good one. And part of the plan for today is to go and check out The Haunted Bookshop on Stokes Croft, which only opened yesterday.
Haunted Bookshop another great name!!
Oh, and currently reading Orbital, which is an absolute gem so far.
loved it!
Hello from central Texas, where I have access to multiple local bookstores! I live in Georgetown, which has Lark & Owl (https://larkandowlbooksellers.com) and work in Austin, which has Book People (https://www.bookpeople.com) 📚📚
Wonderful!! What a treat to have both!
Such a bummer to go from an outing to an inning! So sorry! Get well soon!
I am currently on a 2 week road trip down the California coast with my daughter to celebrate her 30th birthday. Part of the agenda is hitting as many independent bookstores on the way!
So far we loved The Pilgrim's Way in Carmel-by-the-Sea and the Henry Miller Memorial Library in Big Sur! Both absolute gems!
Oh this sounds amazing!!! You've made me excited for my daughter's 30th (she's just turned seven.)