Oooh check us out, we’re thirty, flirty and thriving - as a newsletter feature, not as a business, of course. We’re actually thirteen, a bit mean and dying. I’m joking! It’s fine! It’s the worst January we’ve ever had but isn’t everyone’s? Don’t answer that.
The sun is shining here on the Fylde Coast and there’s a delivery on the way, which means if nothing else, I’ll have some stock to unpack for you and some paper to fold. As always, any books you buy through the links below directly supports my bricks-and-mortar independent bookshop, and upgrading your subscription to this newsletter is a great to support my bricks-and-mortar independent self.
Come on Friday, let’s make some magic!
First thing I noticed this morning was a new self-published book on the shelves. I spotted it a mile away because even though the author has spent a lot of money on this production, it is still an unusual size for general fiction and has a shiny finish that traditional published books just don’t have. Ever. We get sent a lot of self-published books in the post and/or delivered in person and it’s a tricky one to navigate. We won’t turn away a single copy from a local writer - definitely not a customer and ideally it’s someone who knows the shop before they’re asking for favours - but the fact is we mostly stock single copies, and we don’t read everything we stock. So the customer has to choose from what’s available on the shelf and the odds are stacked against a book that appears to have a cheaper production than the rest of the stock, while somehow costing the customer more. (It cost the author a LOT more). This particular one sounds quite unusual and has a fun cover so perhaps it’ll get lucky. Good luck, that book!
Someone asked me about my Storytellers, Inc. branded tea cup last week. Actually, they asked where they could get one and the answer is that you can’t. My husband had these cups made for us for the 10th anniversary of the bookshop, which is why there is a little 10 balloon in the window of the illustration. He went the extra mile by making sure that the cups were Clapham-Specific by ensuring they were both proper china tea cups but also giant mugs that could hold a huge quantity of tea, i.e. the perfect vessel. It’s very hard to find a Mug who does both. Ahahaha, sorry I can’t even let that joke lie, he’s not a mug! He’s literally the best husband anyone ever had, even though he doesn’t read this newsletter and will never know that I said this!
First sale of the day at 10.20 and it’s nearly £40! Fantastic, we’ve already beaten Monday’s total. A gentleman who always wears extremely smart clothes bought this and a paperback that I’ve already forgotten the title of. It was another British history non-fiction book and the cover was blue. Apologies to that author! I got caught up in a conversation about zippers and poppers on coats. The gentleman’s coat had some tricky fastenings, but he got there in the end. The coat was also blue. This customer pays cash and was happy to report that his change was “nearly enough for a pint.”
Post! Here’s something I am immediately interested in: Poverty Creek Journal: On Life and Running by Thomas Gardner because it is about poetry (I’m an ex-poet, ex-student of poetry) running (I’m an ex-runner) and it’s a diary/vignette format (I’m an ex-lover of long, normal books). I’m kidding, but also I’m not. One the things I like best about reading is how it inspires me to write (because I’m self-centered). Formally inventive writing always presents new ideas to me on how I might house my own words, how a structure might suggest a story. Anyway, this is a very short book that I am very much looking forward to reading. Thank you Marigold at Daunt for sending.
Me (hopefully): Your dog can come in, you know!
Her (grimacing): He’s okay outside… he’s a bit of a tiddler.
The dog: Actually, I am coming in.
Me (now grimacing): Oh… great.
Friend of Retirement Gran pops in on the way back from her church coffee morning to say hello and deliver me a tinfoil parcel of what turns out to be shortbread. Amen.
Absolutely cracking selection of books for a regular customer who orders a little stack of really varied fiction every month or so. Today he’s taking home some Javier Marías, Colin Barrett, Val McDermid, Andrew O’Hagan and JM Dalgliesh. We have a nice chat about how I read The Infatuations ten years ago and remember absolutely nothing about it, and how learning your facts from fiction is dangerous! He says ‘The Crown’ is not to be trusted.
A customer comes into enquire about some Jon Fosse but I do not have any in stock and she needs it for Sunday. I am ashamed on behalf of the bookshop. Always quite torturous to not have something cool in stock when someone directly asks for it, even though you know it’s the sort of thing that might sit on the shelves for years without being bought. That one single customer, who would have been delighted on the day to get it, has now gone, and the opportunity to sell a Nobel Prize winning author, in translation, in a Fitzcarraldo edition no less, in this seaside bookshop, gone with it.
Do you want to go in the bookshop so they don’t feel left out?
I unpack today’s delivery and text Business Mum to ask her to message all the customers that she hasn’t written phone numbers down for (her mates). As well as customer orders it looks like BM has decided to restock sticker books generally, which is not ideal on the day that my daughter comes to the bookshop after school. I’m definitely getting hounded to buy about three of these later.
Sell a few books and bits like a proper bookshop. Hoo-hah!
Here’s some more post: I’ve been sent a reading copy of The Actor by Chris MacDonald - this sounds like a lot of fun.
At long last, Adam Sealey has an Oscar within reach. Working with his controversial former mentor, Jonathan, he's given the performance of a lifetime, and he almost believes it might be worth the cost.
Because Adam subscribes to "the method". It's the secret that the world's greatest actors swear by - digging into their darkest, most personal traumas to bring a role to life.
And Adam's greatest trauma is worse than most. Losing his mother when he was just a boy. A forced choice between the success he craved and the girl he loved. And that night back in drama school, the night of Adam's darkest secret, when everyone knows about the dead body, but nobody suspects the truth.
And then he gets a message: someone knows. And if they tell, everything Adam's worked for will come crashing down.
OoOoooOoooh. Thanks to Joel at Michael Joseph for sending it.
Oh My GoDDdd Heartstopperrr… As if it’s an actual book!??!
Let’s look at a new picture book while the temperature plummets. It’s Dim Sum Palace by X. Fang This is such a beautifully simple tale, told with love and affection for the excellent event that it is eating at Dim Sum restaurant. Liddy is too excited to sleep, because tomorrow she’s going to the Dim Sum Palace with her family. Will it really be a palace? And will she meet an Empress? With shades of Maurice Sendak and the inviting flavours of a Chinese banquet, this dreamy picture book is a feast for the senses. If you get a copy - be sure to peek under the dust jacket!
It’s all gone quiet so I’m going to wrap this up now instead of actually at 5pm when I’m also trying to cash up and wash up at the same time. Today’s takings aren’t quite as terrible as I expected, but January is still an absolute embarrassment to bookshops and small businesses everywhere. I don’t see how it can catch up in the next few days, but we do have book clubs in on Monday where we should get a good day of sales to boost the month. Hope everyone has a great weekend, I’ll be sharing Weekend Reads in the Chat thread, and opening the book club discussion for The New Life next week.
EDITED: Christ, you send the newsletter out a few minutes early for once and then a man comes into the shop at 5 pm inviting you to join a game of ‘Werewolves!’ He gave me a poster to put up. There’s a QR code for local…werewolves. So that’s a thing?! Apparently it’s something to do with The Traitors (never seen it) and also, there’s a game book about The Traitors I should know about. Arrooooooo!!!
We played the ‘one night’ version of Werewolf in my apartment building’s board game group (yes, it IS very Thursday Murder Club) on Wednesday night. Great fun, but I can’t handle the suspense!
What, if any, is the significance of the charmingly aloof partying pigeon on the reverse of the mug? If private/personal reference between you and your husband, please forgive and ignore nosiness. Thanks for another topnotch slice of bookshop life.