Howdy Partners!
It’s Friday and that can only mean one thing - it’s time for an update from your favourite independent bookshop that you’ve never actually been to! I’ve been down to The Big Smoke this week for the London Book Fair so I’m feeling a little bookier than usual. I was speaking on a panel with the Booksellers Association about what it’s like to be a jaded bookseller from the days of yore and how we as a business have weathered the relentless storms of the trade including the collapse of our high street, supermarkets consistently undercutting us and Online Retail (hello - click here!) I’ll be sending out my Receipt from the Book Fair next week, but today I’m back in the bookshop and ready to tell you all about what’s happening in the here and now.
*tumbleweeds* (how the heck did they get in here? the door is closed.)
The post man arrives with a sack full of gifts for me. He is scrambling through his bag to see if there are any more in there. I haven’t met this postman before. “If it’s book-shaped, it’s probably for me.” I offer, helpfully.
“Yeah, there’s a lot of people who get books around here.” he says.
(What? I’m furious.)
I’m sorry, I’m your worst customer today
- a lady, exchanging a world book day token for a free book
At school we used to say, “first the worst, second the best, third the one with the hairy chest” and actually, this turns out to be true because the second customer buys two hardbacks and pays cash! I can’t verify the hairy chest for the third customer, but I feel pretty confident that it was there.
Me: Blimey is it actually going to stay dry today??
Customer: According to the weather forecast… no. But, at least I’ve got something to read!
Business Mum is texting me from the church coffee morning - she’s only gone and won the pirze draw again! I’m playing from next month. Let’s hope luck runs in the family.
I haven’t been in for a while so I didn’t know who would be here but I thought if it was your mum I’d stay and have a natter and if it was just you I’d just say Hello.
Bad luck for this customer, it was me and I demanded a natter anyway!
Some nice POS arrives for our book of the month - Moral Injuries by Christie Watson. This is our book club choice for March and we’re excited to be hosting an event with the author on the 25th. I’ve opened the online discussion thread for this book now, so if you want to read along and discuss this book with me remotely you can do that here!
A very apologetic man comes in to ask if I can help him find a Catholic priest. I point him in the direction of the nearest Catholic church and he says that he tried that one but that the priest there was on a Zoom call (?!). The man said he had a very urgent but temporary problem and he really needed a Catholic priest to help him! He was quite upset about it. I tried to quickly Google the next nearest Catholic church but the man was already away down the street so I guess that’s a mystery that I’ll think about forever?
Tiny little kid comes to the desk.
We’re looking for books.
I notice a voicemail on my phone and spend the next 3 minutes listening to a muffled conversation between my Grandma and BM who has obviously pocket-dialled me. It was very boring and pockety so I didn’t wait to see if they said anything juicy.
Always a Great Dane Day when my favourite four-legged customer comes to visit - Tony, the dog as big as a horse!
Apologies to my readers now because I’m about to show off some incredible proofs that are definitely going to make you insanely jealous. I’m sorry. Remember it’s my job to get these so that I can get you hyped to read these books and there’s nothing better for the book industry than a pre-order. Without further ado…
I’VE GOT THE NEW DAVID NICHOLLS. I’VE GOT THE NEW JULIA ARMFIELD. I’VE GOT THE NEW EMILY HENRY. I’VE GOT THEM IN THE WRONG ORDER ON THE PHOTO AGAIN.
You Are Here by David Nicholls (Sceptre, April) - I mean, this is going to be great, isn’t it? When has David Nicholls been anything other than completely charming, moving, funny, delightful and devastating? I cannot wait to be obsessed with this. I almost feel like I should save it, as some sort of reward to myself when I really need it, but perhaps I’ll just eat it up this weekend like an Easter Egg, devoured before it’s expected date, too delicious to ignore.
Private Rites from Julia Armfield (4th Estate, June) also making a strong case for completely monopolising my weekend - this is one of my most anticipated books of the year. I loved her short story collection Salt Slow and her debut novel Our Wives Under the Sea was one of my favourite books that year, so I can’t wait to see what she’s been working on since.
Funny Story by Emily Henry (Penguin, April) Probably quite annoying for all those die-hard Emily Henry fans that I, a person who has never read a book by Emily Henry, has a proof of her next highly anticipated novel. I’m told that she’s the elite in the Romance genre and even as a person who is unfairly frustrated by tropes, there’s a good chance I’d still really enjoy her books. I’m game! Let’s do it, Emily, let’s fall in love.
A couple as they walk past -
Him: anywhere you want to go?
Her: Don’t put me in a bookshop or you’ll never get me out!
(Me: weird verb choice.)
Phonecall: Hello, I’m wondering if you sell Kaleidoscopes? (me, jazzed that I spelled that right on my first attempt).
A lady brings the latest Galbraith HB to the till and asks when it had come out.
Last September, I said, so a while yet until the paperback.
And what about Richard Osman’s last one? Also September last year.
And Peter James? Well, you see, it was just last September.
That’s some very clever walking (a lady talking to a little dog)
Author in the bookshop alert - a surprise visit from children’s author Susan Brownrigg who writes the Gracie Fairshaw mysteries, which are set just down the road from us in historic Blackpool! Perfect for fans of Katherine Woodfine - I love that some of Blackpool’s most beautiful buildings are being celebrated in this series for young detectives.
Books, though? I don’t read ‘em, do you?
(yep!)
The crying man who needed a priest breezes past the bookshop with his lady and a beer, so it really was temporary! Thank God.
I keep hearing about Helen Garner - do you? The Australian author of This House of Grief and The Children’s Bach. W&N have re-issued her novels in these striking editions and I’ll be damned if I’m not having one, or both, of them.
They also have books in WHSmith
Sad but true.
Ok, here’s the last mystery of the day - an envelope has arrived from Japan, addressed to the bookshop with many beautiful stamps on it. Inside the envelope is a photocopy of a short-hand drawn book, and there’s a letter in Japanese, scored through in pencil, re-addressed to us with some English written underneath. It says ‘I should be grateful if you would look through this sample copy. I’m so sorry for not sending by e-mail. I haven’t got any internet devices.’ There’s also a short description of the book. The book itself is some black ink drawings, of a man meditating for nine years. How has this artist has decided that we are the right people to send his work to? If he hasn’t got the internet - how did he even hear of us - a small bookshop in St Annes on Sea?! How did he find our address? And what does he want us to do with it? I’m at a complete loss! His handwriting is so elegant and he’s made a really lovely job of taping the photocopy together with some pretty metallic tape. I can’t even email to explain that we’re not publishers, or printers, or whatever he thinks we might be! I am wondering if there’s any chance this has come to us through Substack, though again, without the internet I can’t understand how it could… ? It really is the most mysterious mystery of all!
Actually not too terrible a day sales-wise! Thanks for keeping me company. If you’ve enjoyed reading today’s Receipt from the Bookshop please do share, restack and recommend, or if you’re feeling really supportive consider upgrading your subscription to access my additional posts. Thank you so much! Same time next week? I’ll be back.
pls get to the bottom of that package from Japan! I'm invested
Thanks for this - I "lol"ed several times while reading and hope that I did not improperly disturb my partner next to me on his zoom meetings (no, he isn't a zoom priest) (if I did, it was worth it).
Those Helen Garner covers are so lovely!