Super Thursday

Today has been dubbed 'Super Thursday' by the book world. This is the day that 800 hardback titles are due to be published, including all the potential Christmas Bestsellers. Peter Kay, Ant and Dec and my mate Jeremy Clarkson all have new books published today which are likely to be given away free with a bar of Yorkie in Asda at some point soon. It's quite encouraging that this seems to be something that some people, other than people in the book trade have actually heard of. Anything that gets people talking about books is good in my eyes (and ears).
It was however no surprise that it didn't produce an uplift in sales today. What produced an uplift in sales today was a class from a local school coming in with a fiver or so each and each of them buying a book. That was pretty super.
Of all the days this week that I would describe as truly Super, it would have to be Wednesday.
We did stuff on Wednesday.
We had a class in from a local school come in with a fiver or so each to buy books at 10am (a pattern begins to emerge), Tim then went off to another school to tell all the kids about the Big Green Bookshop in some assembly type thing. We then put together an order for another school and delivered it to them. Then I hopped onto a tube and went up to Middlesex University where I introduced myself to a lovely class of students who are doing a course on writing children's fiction. They have a rather marvellous list of books to read throughout the year, and we put together a special order form for them which will give them a cheeky little discount if they order them all in one go.
In the meantime Mark was holding the fort in the shop, which was rather busy actually, and also making it presentable for a book launch in the evening.
Not just any book launch though. We were extremely proud to be the hosts for the launch of the latest bestselling book by the charming, talented and wonderful Sarah Matthias, called Tom Fletcher and the Three Wise Men.
We like Sarah, because she produces some brilliant and engaging books that are accessible to boys and girls aged from 8-14 (and also big kids like me think they're great), and she's also a big fan of the shop. She came along to support us on our opening day, and has also done school visits and the like at the drop of a hat whenever we've asked her.
Her first book The Riddle of the Poisoned Monk is still one of my favourite reads. It was the first book that we chose for our kids reading group, and it was hugely popular. Her Tom Fletcher series (for this is the second of the Tom Fletcher books) is equally popular and I can't wait to get a chance to read the new one. I still have 3 Booker shortlisted books to read in 5 days.
Here are some lovely photosThe throng.

Sarah(l) and Andrea Reece(r), who is the wonderful Publishing Director for Catnip Publishing.

Tim (look at his beard) read an extract from the book. And he did it rather brilliantly actually.

The throng 2
The throng 3.

So all in all it was a super day.

we also organised an event on October 16th with Italian guerilla novelistsWu Ming 1 and 4 or Luther Blissett on October 16th and also a wine tasting and reading by the extremely entertaining wine adventurerFrancis Gimblett.

I wonder what we'll do tomorrow.