Open a Bookshop, what could possibly go wrong?

2012. The Year of 100 Events (well 402 actually)

2012-01-26T12:42:00.000Z

Oi. Hello.
That thing we posted last Friday about the ...ometer. Yes, that picture (it was a shoddy picture, I know) of a thermometer type thing.
Well, here's what the ....ometer is going to count..
We are going to try to put on 100 events this year.. 100. ONE HUNDRED.
Now look, this does not include our regular meet ups.
So it doesn't include;

Our stories and song for the under 5's every Monday, Wednesday and Friday (156 times a year)
Our Writers Group who meet every fortnight (26 times)
The Local Market which we hold on the third Sunday of each month (12 times).
Our knitting club that meets on the first Sunday of each month (12 times)
Our boardgames club that meet on the last Sunday of each month (12 times a year).
Our Book Group that meets on the second Tuesday of each month (12 times)
Our Kids book group that meets on the third Saturday of each month (12 times a year).
Our new Photography club that is meeting once a month too (12 times a year).
The Working Title Comedy Club, our monthly comedy night, 3rd Friday of each month (12 times)
Our once monthly Poetry Night. (12 times a month).
Our Monthly Quiz (12 times a year).
The Graphic Novel Book Group, first Thursday of month (12 times a year).

No, not those. Not those 302 events.

What we're talking about is the author events, the outside the shop stuff, the launches, the school studge. All that stuff.
The reason we're doing this is because we'd like to keep a record of what we've done. We love doing events and reckon this is a great way to keep track of what's been going on this year. The blog is good for this, as is Facebook, but it'd great for us (and you guys, I hope) to have some idea of what kind of events we do throughout the year.
We've done 5 so far (I think) which we'll fill in shortly.

We're hanging it up in the shop next week, and will keep updating it throughout the year.
This DOES NOT mean that the quality of our events programme will be in any way affected. We will continue to put on a varied and hopefully interesting selection of events which we hope will appeal to you (our customers). We'll just do more of them.
As always, we really do appreciate your feedback, so if you have any ideas or suggestions for things we could put on in the bookshop (or anywhere else for that matter), please please let us know.

Guess What This Is.

2012-01-20T13:32:00.001Z

This is a photograph of a thing we have made in the shop. It is about 4 foot tall and is at the moment, blank.

but what the hecking flip is it?

Yes, it's an 'ometer of some sort, but what sort? There will be a rather lovely book related prize for the best (not necessarily the correct) guess. We'll finish it over the weekend and announce what it is on Monday or Tuesday next week.

That's all.

London Tales. An update & some thoughts

2012-01-16T15:19:00.000Z

Two months ago, I published a book. It was called London Tales and the author/illustrator of the book was Greg Stekelman. Here is a link to a blog post I wrote about it.

And this is the book itself. Mmm, isn't it gorgeous?

Being in the book trade since 1984, you would have thought that the world of publishing would be something that I knew all about. However, much like the journey from bookseller to bookshop owner, it was a magical mystery tour. From sorting out contracts with authors/printers to the more technical side of things. I now know what Wibalin fine linen 570 is, I never thought I'd ever say that. Greg was incredibly supportive too and took up pretty much all of the workload when it came to formatting the book itself. The book was checked over 2 or 3 times by the most diligent of editors (who volunteered their time to do this). I also had some amazing help from Ali at Gallic Books (an excellent publishers if I may say so), whose advice throughout the whole process was vital. The finished product is truly a thing of beauty and I am very grateful for all the help I had and also very very proud of the book.

It's sold really well and of the Limited Edition of 250 that we printed, there are now less than 50 left. If you want one (of course you want one), here is a link.

This has also led to some other interesting opportunities. I was interviewed last week by a researcher at the Independent, who was running a story of bookshops who also publish books. I'm keeping an eye out for that in the near future I hope.

I've also been asked to talk at the London Book Fair this year about my experiences with this project.

So, as the new year slowly trudges it's way into view, I am beginning to tease with the idea of the next book to publish. I've sent out one or two feelers to people who I'd love to work with. The limited edition format that London Tales is published in seems to be the most effective and manageable way for me to work and I think this is the way I'd like to continue.

If you have any advice, suggestions, thoughts or money, please feel free to share them.

Kids Book Group

2012-01-14T11:15:00.002Z

One Saturday a month, we hold a Childrens Book Group. It's open to anyone who loves books and also loves talking about books. It's quite a new group, and so far books we've read have included Artemis Fowl, The Knife of Never Letting Go & Katherine Langrish's Troll Trilogy.
This month we are discussing is A Boy Called Mouse by Penny Dolan.
Here are the thoughts;

we liked the short chapters
it started slowly but really built into a great story.
we like the different points of view (each chapter is told by a different person)
we like the chocolate flapjacks.

Look, here they are.

Yes, there are snacks too. The next meeting will be on Saturday February 25th at 10.30am and we will be discussing Skellig by David Almond. Please feel free to come along and join the discussion. It is ace.

Bookshop in a Bookshop

2012-01-12T20:51:00.000Z

Tonight we are selling books at the launch party of Jubilee, a new novel by Shelley Harris. We do lots of launch parties, but you may be interested to learn that this one is being held at the Champagne Bar at Waterstone'''s in Piccadilly.

Look, here is Tim (he has a very impressive beard, doesn't he?), with Shelley (on the right) and Kirsty Dunseath, the editor of Shelley's book.

It's all a bit odd, selling books in another bookshop, but a combination of factors, the most important one being Shelley wanting us to do it, means that here we are. We really appreciate this kind of support and we will hopefully sell loads of copies of her book and help to make it a memorable night for her. Because that's what launch parties are all about. The author. In many cases, it is years and years of hard work, finally acknowledged by an agent and then a publisher, who backs up your talent by publishing your book. A book launch is like a christening, where the parent (author) invites all their friends to celebrate the birth of their book.

Thankfully, we didn't need to build a trojan horse to penetrate the walls of Waterstone'''s in Piccadilly and they have been most accommodating.

We've done lots of launches and events away from glorious Wood Green. On a boat, in a synagogue, in a park, in a theatre. Have books, will travel. So if you're looking for a roving bookshop to help you make your book dreams come true, you know where to come.

Imposterophe

2012-01-12T14:55:00.001Z

Look what I found hiding on our window earlier this morning.

It obviously saw the 'S' and thought that if it snuggled up behind it nobody would notice. We feel a bit sorry for the apostrophe, so we're going to look after it for a while. If anyone's missing one, please get in touch.

Bookselling stuff.

2012-01-09T13:03:00.000Z

It's always a bit strange in the bookshop in January. After the buzz of Christmas, where you're sometimes so busy you don't get time to think about stuff, the New Year offers a slightly different challenge.
In most cases in the shop, the stuff we buy in December has to be paid for by the end of January. Obviously we buy a lot in December, both to fill the shelves with joy and wonder for our customers, but also to get in the books that we don't have that our customers ask for. Most of those we can get with 1-2 days.
So at the end of December our bills are big. Ideally, we'd like to minimise these bills, so it is traditional that January is a good month to do returns. Returning books that haven't sold, is something I don't enjoy doing. It is, in a sense, an admission that the books that you chose to sell in the shop were the wrong ones. Obviously you can't get it right all the time, but it still makes me sad. I think that we had a pretty good range of titles this year & were able to pick up on titles that we'd originally missed very quickly. Probably better than the last couple of years, if i'm honest. However, we still have lots of books to send back, so for the next week or two we'll be clearing the shelves of slow selling titles.
January is also the month, where for no other reason than the fact that it is a new year, people traditionally make resolutions. We do this for the shop too. One of these is that I will do more blogposts. Sadly for you, this means that there may be lots of dull posts like this one. But you never know, I might occasionally do something relatively interesting. Who knows.
I plan on doing book reviews, getting guest bloggers, talking about the everyday business of running the bookshop and also announcing new stuff that we have planned. But what else do you want to see on here?
If there's something about books or small businesses or the local community that you'd like to see more of, let us know.

2011. It happened.

2012-01-02T22:41:00.001Z

It is hard to sum up how incredible 2011 has been for us. But I am going to try. Many things happened and I can't list them all (I could, but it would take a very long time and I need to sleep), but I hope this gives you some idea of why we love what we do.
Let's go.....

This time last year, we realised that we were in a little bit of trouble

'Please Help'

Remember the Strugglometer?

We started a monthly Comedy Night this year in the bookshop. I think it was February that the first one happened and it has grown and grown since then. It is awesome, and this is mainly down to Chris and Ben, two of our friends who have taken it upon themselves to organise it all for us. This is such a great thing to be happening in Wood Green and we are now regulalrly getting standing room only audiences, such is the talent of the acts who perform here. (next night is on Friday January 20th at 8pm)

We also started a Monthly Poetry Night which with the help of Eliza will hopefully be as big as the comedy night soon.

In July, I cycled 120 miles overnight, from Hackney to Dunwich on the Suffolk coast. I wasn't by myself, or else I would have got lost many many times. Luckily there were about 1,500 other cyclists who turned up too. It is a thing called the Dunwich Dynamo and here is why I did it. It was amazing and I loved it. It is a truly incredible feeling cycling down a hill in pitch blackness following the red back light of a bicycle 50 metres ahead of you. It is also a truly incredible feeling watching the Sun come up after cycling 100 miles. I would recommend it (if you like cycling a lot).

This is me and my magnificent bicycle after 120 miles. Seconds after this photo was taken I was asleep.

August will be remembered for the riots, which started on Saturday August 6th in Tottenham. During that night of trouble, loads of people turned up in Wood Green, having realised that the police were busy a couple of miles up the road. For 5 hours they looted and smashed shop after shop. The following day I wrote this post . I was angry and upset, as were many other people, but trying to find a positive, one of the things that came about from what happened in Wood Green and Tottenham (and i'm sure in many other areas affected), was how strong the community was. The support that those affected were shown afterwards by the local people was phenomenal. People gave their time and money to help those who'd become homeless or had lost their businesses and for the weeks afterwards there was a kind of steely determination not to let this dreadful series of events damage the area permanently. As I said then, I am in no position to offer solutions, but there is a strong core of people in Haringey who, given the chance, can make a real difference. Let's hope they are one day soon.

Glamorous musical visitors this year included Pauline Black from the brilliant 2Tone 80's band The Selecter, Hugh Cornwell lead singer of the legendary punk band The Stranglers, and the superb Jimbob from Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine, who played a brilliant acoustic set in the shop. We also had a visit from (sweary) darts legend, the King of Bling, Bobby George.

Bobby George. I hugged him. This is what he looked like afterwards (sorry Bobby).

We have had more than 100 authors an speakers visiting this year, which is rather an achievement.We love putting on events in the shop and without these wonderful people giving up their time to visit the shop, it wouldn't be the same. I started listing them, but quickly realised this was a very long job. So I won't. But here's a few...David Vann, Karen Maitland, Andy Stanton, David Nichols, David Lammy MP, Hayley Campbell, Naomi Stadlen, Zehra Hicks, Nadia Shireen, Mark Watson and the Gruffalo. Thanks to everyone. Really.

Storytelling and Songs for the under 5's have been a real hit this year. Tim has nailed the guitar classics like 'Zoom Zoom Zoom, We're Going To The Moon', and 'The Wheels on the Bus'. But more recently, he's added the Wiggles classic 'Hot Potatoes'.

We started our Local Market in July. We decided that it would be cool to get people who did locally produced stuff (honey, cakes, knitted goods, ceramics, cards, veg and fruit etc) to come and sell it in the shop once a month. So, on the last Sunday of the Month at 10.30am-1.00pm the shop turns into a Local Market. It's had really good months and also it's had slow months, but we think it's a good idea (and so do a lot of other people) and we're going to keep at it next year.

We tried to break a World Record for the World's Largest Reading Group. It was hilarious (for us) and failed magnificently. But Norris McWirter certainly didn't give us much help. However, we did get about 50 people involved and that, I think, is good. We have the systems all set up now for this years effort. Which will happen btw.

I published a book in November. I published a book in November. I thought i'd better mention it twice, because it really is a very exciting development for me. London Tales by Greg Stekelman. It is the greatest book ever published and you should all buy it. It's only £40. Here is a story about how all this came about.

LOOK. THIS IS THE GREATEST BOOK OF ALL TIME. BUY IT NOW.

The rather good author Haruki Murakami had a book published in the UK this year, which was all rather exciting. It was called 1Q84 and those cheeky little pumpkins at Random House (his publishers) wouldn't let anyone sell the book until 18th October. Right, we thought, let's have a special shindig with food, film and fun on the eveining of October 17th stay open till midnight and then sell his book. We ticketed this event, (read this cos it is rather good) Fantastically, lots and lots of people wanted to come. It really was a brilliant night and many thanks go to Hungrywolf for their incredible food.

Murakami night at the shop. One of my highlights of the year.

There were loads of other stuff wot happened too. NaNoWriMo, Booker Prize Book Challenge, we have a new Graphic Novels Book Group and a new Children's book group. Knitting Club continues, as does our monthly Boardgames Day.

Plus we had this geezer turn up too;

Thanks for making this year one of the best ever. We love what we do and we can't thank you enough for allowing us to do it .

2012 will be even better....

Our friends on Twitter save the Day

2011-12-21T21:20:00.001Z

This is a quick message.

On Saturday, a delivery that should have arrived at the bookshop didn't. It was supposed to be delivered by Yodel. This isn't the first time that this has happened and it seems that Yodel are not having a very good time of it at the moment. I guess their problem is that they are supposed to deliver parcels to people at agreed times and singularly fail to do so. Yeah, that's probably it.
There were a few customer orders in the box that never arrived and so we tried to get in touch with Yodel to ask where the box might be. We tracked it online, and apparently it was in a van, but somehow didn't quite make it to the shop.

On Monday, we kept a close eye on its' progress.
At 9.17am it was 'Out for delivery'. Excellent, we thought. It will arrive sometime soon.
When we looked again at about midday it stated that at 11.41am it had been 'unable to gain access' to our shop. Mmm, interesting. I don't remember closing the bookshop at 11.30-12.00 in the busiest retailing week of the year. Oh well.
Then, at 12.21 a new message came up. It had been delivered and had been signed for by somebody called Steve.
Who is Steve? We'd love to meet you and get our box of books. But that is unlikely to ever happen, as you don't actually exist.

So, this put us in a tricky position.

We checked through all the orders that hadn't arrived and re-ordered all the books that customers had asked for to arrive before Christmas.
Sadly there were two books that were no longer in stock at our suppliers.
This was bad. Very bad. We had promised these customers the books before Christmas and because of Yodel's shiteness, we were going to struggle to fulfill this.

So, this morning I sent out a message on Twitter.

' I need help to find 2 books for our customers that stupid Yodel have lost & are now out of stock at the publishers'

I am not going to name the books as the recipients of these may read this blog, but magic happened and we found both books and two of the people who follow our twitterfeed (and who we follow because they are superace) @lucebrett and @kaitharshayr helped us find, buy and deliver the books to the Big Green Bookshop.

This is a great example of how brilliant and thoughtful our customers (I think possibly a better word would be friends) are and also how rather wonderful a 'social networking site' can be.

Lovely friends. Lovely Twitter.

x

One of my Bookshelves

2011-12-05T23:16:00.000Z

I've taken a photo of one of my bookshelves at home. I thought it might be fun to introduce you to it. I look at my bookshelves all the time and i'd like to share with you how each book makes me feel. There is a conclusion to this blog, so you can skip to the bottom if you like, but if you don't mind reading how I feel about these books, i'd appreciate it. So let's start at on end (how about the left) and have a stroll along it. I've numbered the books (or series of books) 1-26. With a bit of luck you can click on the picture and it will get bigger. I don't know how these things work. Anyway, shall we set off?

1. Love and Summer by William Trevor.
    This was on the longlist of the Booker Prize in 2009. This was the first year we ran the Booker Book challenge in the shop, where we challenged our customers to read all 6 of the Booker longlist before the prize is announced. We met up on the night of the announcement and discussed each of the books and then decided who we thought would win. Then we watched the result and were delighted or appalled (depending on who we were). It's great fun. Anyway, when the longlist was announced, I thought i'd get a head start, and trying to be sneaky, I guessed which of the longlist would get into the shortlist. William Trevor was one of my guesses. I'd never read any of his stuff before and, although it took about 50 pages to get into, I absolutely loved it. Of course, it didn't make the shortlist and yet JM Coetzee did (!), however, if we hadn't done the Booker book challenge, I might never have read it. I love that this book reminds me of all this.

2. Noel Park. A History, by Caroline Wech
    Noel Park (it's a lovely little area in Wood Green) is where my girlfriend Katie and I bought our first flat. This booklet is something that every resident of Noel Park was given after Noel Park won a grant to put it together. I'm fascinated by the history of our area and this is a book I constantly go back to. Lovely

3. Box of Delights by John Masefield.
    I bloody love this book. This has the cover with Patrick Troughton (the second Doctor Who) on it, who played  Cole Hawlings in the BBC adaptaton of this brilliant Christmas story. Katie and I watch the DVD of this every year sometime in December (we also watch It's a Wonderful Life, Home Alone, Planes Trains and Automobiles and National Lampoon's Christmas, but don't judge us) and i've read the book more times than I can remember. I can't wait for my daughter to be old enough, so I can read it to her.

I'm warming up now. There is a point to all this, so please persevere.
4. Where Would I be Without You by Guillaume Musso.
      This book reminds me of a delicious meal I had in Old Brompton Road with the author and the publishers, Gallic Books. It also reminds me of our World Record Reading Group attempt we tried earlier this year. I have very happy memories of both these things. Guillaume is charming, the book is bonkers brilliant and looking at it always makes me smile inside.

5. The Rebel Bookseller.
      Whenever i'm feeling a bit down about work, I take this book off the shelf. I don't even need to read very much of it before I feel better again. It's about how a small Indie bookshop in the US survived and thrived in a very difficult market, by thinking outside the box, being massivley stubborn and hugely positive. It's ace.

6. Testament by Alis Hawkins
       Alis was among 8 authors who came and spent some time at the bookshop on it's opening day. She and I had chatted after she read about us on the blog and I heard that her first novel was coming out thought Macmillan new Writers. She doesn't live in London and made a special journey to the bookshop to be there for the opening. I bought this copy at her book launch in... ooh gosh, what's the name of that bookshop just off Charing Cross Road that sells lots of signed first editions and stuff? No, I can't remember. Anyway, it was lovely as was Alis.

7. Tescopoly by Andrew Simms
        Tesco. What a bag of poo they are. Avery large and dangerous bag of poo, but nonetheless, a bag of poo. This is my opinion, and also that of the author of this book. Clone town monstrosities, community destroyers, I feel a bit icky writing about them. I remember when I first moved to the Waterstone's in Wood Green (having just read this book), when it was still there, I ordered 50 copies of this and made it our Book of the Month. Yeah, I know, Waterstone's didn't do shop based books of the month. Ha ha ha. Anyway, the good news was that we sold all 50. As you can clearly see, this has brought Tescos to their knees.

8. Mark Leyner.
        The greatest contemporary writer I know. Not available in the UK, I import these and occasionally try to gently sell them to our customers. I realise he is not for everyone. For a start it is sometimes hard to find any narrative in his writing. It's like a rollercoaster ride of words and thoughts, but in my opinion Leyner pulls it off every time. He is totally incredible. I would never part with these books.

9. Crawlers by Sam Enthoven and Witchfinder by William Hussey.
     Two brilliant young adult books that I read within 3 days of each other. We hired a theatre and put on a Horror Night in Stoke Newington last year and Sam and Bill were a big part of the show. William's book is staggeringly good. It's the start of a trilogy that has quality written all over it. It's bloody scary too.
I read Crawlers in one sitting and finished it at about 4.30am. That's how good it is.
I like that these two books sit next to each other.

Hey, are you still with me. Well done we're getting somewhere now.

10. Sound Bites by Alex Kapranos
       Katie and I went to the launch party of this. Alex is the lead singer of Franz Ferdinand and the launch party was in Wapping (I think). The party was brilliant. Free drink, great live music and lots of famous people. We got lost on the way. As the party drew to a close I told Alex that we were going to a pub down the road and asked if he'd like to join us. I drew him a map of how to get there and off I went. 20 minutes later he came through the door. The dozen of us who'd been at the party and had come to the pub had another great couple of hours of fun as Alex and his chums played pool chatted and were generally delightful. I will not forget this night.

11. Two books by the Publisher Gallic
    The Suicide Shop and Hector and his Search for Happiness.
When I look at these books I smile. Hector is an interesting book. A multimillion bestselling story about a psychiatrist who decides to travel the world looking for what it is that makes people happy. The Suicide Shop is about a guy who is born into a family who own a shop that sells stuff for people to kill themselves with. Poison, rope etc (use your imagnation). However he is far too positive and happy for this serious business of death and this threatens to ruin the whole thing.
I was introduced to the Suicide Shop by Scott Pack (a lovely chap) and from this introduction Big Green and Gallic have become very firm friends.

12. Company of Liars by Karen Maitland.
    Wow. This is another book that makes me very excited when I see it on the shelf. Penguin sent me this book a few years ago and said it would be worth a read. I read it. I LOVED IT. This is the first book we decided to make Big Green Bookshop Book of the Month. Historical fiction, brilliant pageturning fun. If you haven't read it, then you really ought to. Seriously. Karen is a superb author.

13.Threepenny Memoir by Carl Barat.

One my loveliest moments in the bookshop. Who would have thought that we could get one of the biggest musicians of the time to play a set in the bookshop. But that is what happened. I'd seen the Libertines live (and also Carl's band Dirty Pretty Things) and when it was announced that Carl was bringing a book out I thought it was deffo worth asking if he's be up to play in the shop. Why not? I put together a pich and sent it off. The next day i heard back that Carl said he'd be happy to do a gig in the shop. And he did. This was within 3 weeks of The Libertines reuniting for the Reading Festival and it was amazing. Carl was superb and he stuck around for a couple of hours afterwards to chat and sign and generally be lovely. I was very happy that night as you can see by this photo.

Happy

14.Meat by Joseph D'Lacey
       This has a blank spine. But I know what it is. One of the best horror novels I have ever read. Incredible imagery, brilliant pacing and totally horrific. This was sent to me whilst we were trying to set up the Big Green Bookshop and it sat on my shelves for a long time until i got round to reading it. I'm so glad I did though. I got in touch with Joseph after i'd finished it and asked if he'd visit the bookshop if and when we actually opened it. He said yes and he was our first ever author to come and sign copies of his book in the shop. He turned up 2 weeks before we opened in a 'meat wagon', but it was such a lift for us and Jose is now a good frienof mine. Eco horror has never been so good, so read his books.

15. The Inner Game by Dominic Lawson.
    The story of Nigel Short's attempt to win the World Chess Championship by beating Garri Kasparov. OMG, this book is incredible. I remember watching the chess matches on the TV and being baffled but fascinated by the whole thing. I love chess, although i'm not great at it, and this book looked inside the story, at the incredible work that is put into playing a seemingly simple game of chess. It staggers me every time I read this book. Short got battered, but there were one or two games where he showed total brilliance and this is what chess is all about. Kasparov (a bit of a hero of mine) shows brilliance more than most and I often dip into this to remind myself just how good he is.

16. Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter.
      one of my top 5 books of all time. I wrote about it here. I love the cover too. her most complete novel. Amazeballs .

We're on the home stretch now. Not long to go.

17.  Dog Binary by Alex Macdonald.
    There's a story behind this book. I've written about it before, and Alex (the author) has no idea how highly I rate him, but this is a very very special publication. If you want to know more about it here's a link. The book is also lovely to stroke and its cover has pots of meat and urine on it. Top notch.

18. Tom Hodgkinson.
     Tom is one of the people who influenced me in deciding to open the Big Green Bookshop. 'How to be Free' is a book that ultimately encourages you to rid yourself of all the stuff that gets in the way of you living the life you want to live. WORK was one of those things. Work. A thing you do all your life to ensure that when you're old you don't have to. It's a weird idea isn't it? I prefer to do something I want to now. So let's open a bookshop! Hurrah.

    Tom's been to the bookshop a few times and it's always great to see him. We keep in touch, especially now that he has his own bookshop (copycat) and it's great to be able to offer what little advice we can to him.

19. The 30 Minute Cookbook by Nigel Slater.
     Nigel Slater is a shiny man who you want to hug and pat and stroke and say 'Thanks Nigel, you're lovely, and a real foody inspiration (but don't overdo it on the TV)'. He has produce some of the best cookbooks I have and 30 Minute Cookbook is one of the best. It is also THE FIRST BOOK WE EVER SOLD IN THE BIG GREEN BOOKSHOP'. A very special title indeed.

20. A Year in the Life of TheManWhoFellAsleep by Greg Stekelman
    I have written many things about Greg Stekelman. Here's a link to an interview I did with him. I love this book, I look at it all the time, I can open it at any page and it makes me smile. Greg is a very good friend of mine and I would feel odd not having this in my house.
Oh yeah, buy his new book too. I publish it.

21. The Complete Novels of Geroge Orwell
    George bloody Orwell. If I see a copy of any of his books in charity shops I have to buy them. This man was a total genius. Years ahead of his time. He spoke to everyone and was unafraid to say things that weren't considered popular. Coming Up For Air, Keep The Aspidistra Flying, Animal Farm, 1984, this geezer knew how to write. I read an Orwell book once a year at least and this reminds me to do it. It looks down at me LIKE BIG BROTHER.

22. Memoirs of a Sword Swallower by Dan Mannix.
    Not in print any more, which is a real shame. It really is the memoir of a carny performer who slowly learns how swallow swords (as the title gives away) as well as flourescent tubes and worse. I read this for the first time when I was lying by a swimming pool in Italy and seeing this on the shelf not only reminds me of the dark and dirty world of freakshows, it also reminds me of this wonderful holiday I had. Aces.
23. Stuart Evers and ting.
    Stuart wrote a book which was published earlier this year. Ten Stories About Smoking was published by Picador and is a series of short stories where the general theme is loosely cigarettes. It is excellent and therefore sits proudly on my bookshelves. Actually it is more than excellent and his style has been compared to Raymond Carver and Raymond Chandler. I used to work with Stuart when we were booksellers in in Charing Cross Road. He introduced me to Hermann Hesse (not personally) and also was an excellent drinker. A fine combination.
Before we opened the bookshop, after we'd finally got the keys to the shop, we asked if anyone could volunteer to help us with the decorating etc. Stuart was one of the first people to get in touch.
here is an example of this. The other book arrowed here is called Beginning In Bookselling, a book that Stu gave me on the day before we opened. Thanks Stuart.

Well done. 85% of the bookshelf done now.
24. Reach For The Ground by Jeffrey Bernard.
    Another one of my treasures. Bernard is a true antihero, who lived life to the full, usually at the expense of everybody else. But his charm (and talent) always seemed to get him through. A gloriously awful man to know I imagine, this book is a collection of his contributions in the Spectator magazine. I have his other collctions too, but this one is the one that, when I notice it on the shelf, I like to pick it off and dip into it. He is a true master.

25. The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse.
     If you go back to book 23 you will see that Stuart Evers introduced me to Hermann Hesse. This is the book that did it. Staggering. Only available from America (and the Big Green Bookshop), this is a superb collection of adult fairy tales, which have been lovingly translated by Jack Zipes (he knows everything you need to know about Fairy tales). It's a book that, if I didn't have on the shelf, I might never return to. But i'm so glad I do.

26. Legend of a Suicide by David Vann.
    A very special author. I got a postcard from him once from USA, thanking me for the stuff i'd written about this book. Joe Pickering, from the publishers (Penguin), sent me a copy of this and asked me to read it, cos he thought it was brilliant. I did, and it was.
David came to our shop last time he was in the UK and it really was an amazing evening. I struggle to think of an author so dedicated to his craft, but so generous and friendly.

So, we have reached the end of my shelf. I ask myself this question. Would my memories still be this strong if I saw this instead.

Books are more than just pieces of paper with words on them. They each tell a story that is more than the one that you read. I love looking at the books on my bookshelves and the way they each evoke special memories. I hope that there are enough people that feel the same way so that books will stick around for a long while yet.

3 for 2 on All our books. Oh No, Not Again.

2011-12-02T12:31:00.001Z

I couldtell you about KNITTING on Sunday, our CHRISTMAS CRAFT FAIR next Thursday orour COMEDY NIGHT next Friday. But you could look up this on the Website here http://www.biggreenbookshop.com/events-diary/info_6.html

Whatwe’re going to tell you about though, is this.

TOMORROW,SATURDAY 3^rd DECEMBER 2011 BETWEEN 9AM & 6PM WE ARE HAVING A 3 FOR 2 ONALL BOOKS AND BOOK RELATED STUFF ON SALE AT THE BIG GREEN BOOKSHOP.

As is traditional with these things, the cheapest item isfree and we will PROBABLY have biscuits. This doesn’t include Book Tokens orVouchers, but it does include pretty much everything else. The offer is justfor books that we have in the shop on the day, so this is a brilliant chance for you toget ALL your Christmas shopping done in one massive go.

You might want to have a look at our second hand booksdepartment while you’re here. We’ve expanded it and it now has its very ownspecial corner in the bookshop.

My advice would also be to bring your own bag, as we arerunning low.

Look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Christmas Card Competition. YOU DECIDE.

2011-11-21T15:58:00.029Z

OK. We ran a Christmas Card Competition, where we asked children to design a christmas card for us. The winning six entries are going to be made into cards and sold at the Big Green Bookshop in packs. Also the six winners will each receive a £10 Big Green Bookshop Voucher to spend at the shop.
The overall winner will receive a £50 Big green Bookshop Voucher. Yes, it's crazy, I know.

We had lots of entries. Over 600.

We want to say how brilliant the cards were and also a huge thankyou to everyone who entered, it was great fun looking at your cards. We will be displaying as many as we can at the bookshop over Christmas, so do come in and have a look at them.

But, we had to make a decision and, hard as it was we chose the 6 winners. But now what we want to do is to let YOU decide who will be the overall winner of the competition. The six winners are displayed here and at the top right of this blog there is a thing where you can vote for the card you think is the best. Please take a minute or so to do this and also if you can, please share this post with anyone else who might be interested.

Image 1. The Three Kings

Image 2. The Snowman

Image 3. The Penguin

Image 4. Santa in his Sleigh

Image 5. Mrs Santa (?)

Image 6. Child and Christmas Tree

Right, there are the 6 winning cards that we're going to make into real Christmas cards and sell at the bookshop. Congratulations to all 6 winners.
But now it's up to you to choose the overall winner, who'll get the £50 voucher.
Voting Closes at midday on Saturday 26th November, and the winner will be officially announced on Monday 28th.

VOTE NOW!!!!!

World Book Night

2011-10-31T15:21:00.000Z

World Book Night is happening again next year. Remember last year, when there was all that telly stuff and Traflagar Square and Margaret Atwood did a TV whatsit. It was nice. Well this time it's on April 23rd, a sensible distance away from World Book Day, which is on March 1st. (last year it was a little bit closer, and caused a bit of a kerfuffle). The 25 titles for World Book Night were announced earlier this week. Alison Flood did a piece about it here. I mention this article specifically, because I am quoted in it. Ha ha ha.

The article, among other things, questions whether giving away free books will hurt Independent Bookshops. On a personal level, it makes not the slightest difference to us whatsoever that these books are being given away for free. In reality, we are likely to sell between 2-5 each of these titles a year. In fact 10 of them we don't regularly keep (although all shops stock profiles are different), so in terms of black and white facts, it really isn't that big a deal.

'but if people are reading these books, that means they might not buy a book from you instead'.

Well that is possible, but it is also possible that if the organinsers of World Book Night get it right, it will raise the profile of books and how ace reading is, and then get more people into bookshops, libraries etc.
My concern is that last year, the organisers did NOT get it quite right.

The idea of World Book Night is a good one. Give lots of free books away to people who don't usually have access to books or to people who don't read. Good, I like it.

But how do you get the right books to the right people?

That's incredibly hard. But asking for volunteers take packs of 48 books and expecting them to do it is not, in my humbly bumbly opinion, the right way. These volunteers are wonderful people who want to get involved, but a lot of them are (I suspect) pretty well read. My concern is that the books will often be distributed to these well read group of people's well read group of friends. I know this is not true in lots of cases, but it was certainly true of a number of volunteers who picked up their books from our shop. I am not in any way blaming the volunteers, because all of them clearly wanted to spread the word about reading and gave up their own time to do this. All i'm saying is that I think the point is to give books to people who don't usually have access to books or to people who don't read and there is probably a better way of doing this.

Tricky.

World Book Day is good. Very good. The idea of World Book Day is to encourage children to explore the pleasures of books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own.
There's more;
Thanks to the generosity of.....participating booksellers, school children are entitled to receive a World Book Day £1 Book Token. The Book Token can be exchanged for one of the six specially published World Book Day £1 Books or is redeemable against any book or audiobook of their choice at a participating bookshop or book club.

Ooh, now here's an idea. Instead of giving away one from a selection of 24 titles to random people, why don't we give certain people (people who don't usually have access to books or to people who don't read) a voucher up to the value of say £7.99 to buy a book of their choice from a selection of thousands and thousands of titles at any bookshop in the country.
Here are the plus points.

People get to choose a book they might actually read.
It will get people into bookshops.
It's more likely that the people who should benefit from World Book Night, do benefit from it.
More people will read books.
It is ace
There will be no need to print 1,000,000 extra books with special covers n' stuff because the books that people want will already be on the shelves. Hurrah.

There are negative points too, like not everybody will use the vouchers (did everyone read the free book they got given last year), and i'm sure that it will be impossible to target 100% accurately the poeple most in need of these vouchers. But I suspect that if a little research was done to work out those people most worthy of the vouchers (area's with lowest literacy, highest unemployment etc), then it would be totally brilliant.
The cost of the scheme could be shared by everyone (government, publishers, bookshops, BA and the like), and WBN is a charity too so that's good.
Well anyway, that's my idea.

Here's a picture of a kitten with some cute ducklings

London Tales.

2011-10-26T14:46:00.000+01:00

I met Greg Stekelman a few years ago. Probably just after Waterstone's in Wood Green closed down in 2007. I absolutely loved his book A Year in the Life of TheManWhoFellAsleep, and wanted to get in touch with the author to let him know. The book sadly went out of print, as the publishers went bust (this is becoming a theme of my blogposts). Rather than having his book pulped, Greg sensibly bought a few hundred copies from the administrators. You can read a longer version of this story, plus an interview I did with Greg in 2008 right here.
I was very proud that our bookshop was the only one that sold Greg's book, which we got directly from him, and it was probably the most consistently bestselling book we have stocked. Inevitably, Greg ran out of copies earlier this year, such was its popularity.
I had spoken to Greg last year about the idea of publishing a book with him. Initially the idea was to re-issue his original book with a few changes, but Greg was getting some really positive feedback from some of the illustrations that he had been doing and he persuaded me that a collection of these would actually be a much more exciting project. And London Tales was born.
We wanted the book to be something special. A lavish, beautifully produced collectors item, which complimented Greg's wonderful atmospheric drawings. Here are a couple of them to give you a taste of what I mean.

The book slowly took shape and sure enough a new London (fairy)Tale was written.
What Greg has done is incredible. The book contains the dreamlike quality of his first book, but what London Tales offers is a new perspective on London and the people who find themselves living here.

Such a special book needed to be presented in a special way, and as such there is a limited edition of just 250 copies. Each will be signed by Greg, and the first 50 copies ordered will contain a personalised hand-drawn London Tales postcard. The book costs £40

Here is the final product. I hope you like it.

The book will be published on November 10th, but you are able to pre-order copies by going to the London Tales microsite here. Please take a look.

I shall share with you all the story of how Timeline Books, my new publishing company came about later, because right now, it's all about the book. As it should be.

Thank you for reading this.

Beautiful Books

2011-10-24T13:03:00.003+01:00

A couple of weeks ago I read this on Beautiful Books website;

"Today, 11th October 2011, Beautiful Books entered administration. For information regarding the administration of the company, please contact Leonard Curtis...All the employees at Beautiful Books would like to thank everyone with whom we have worked over the past six years."

Now I really like Beautiful Books and this made me very sad indeed. They have published some of my favourite books of the last few years. Let me give you a couple of examples.

1. Meat by Joseph D'Lacey. Actually this is published by Bloody Books (the horror arm of Beautiful Books) and I have said lovely things about this book on the blog. I did an interview with Joseph here, and also Joseph was the first author to come and do a signing at the shop...two weeks before we even opened. Here's a link to that story. Beautiful books consequently went on to publish Garbage Man by Joseph and also the wonderful horror of Bill Hussey too. If you like eco-horror, or think you might, then Meat is the book for you. Or at least it was.

2. Dog Binary by Alex MacDonald. Alex is/was one of our customers and came into the shop one day asking if I wouldn't mind reading the first chapter of a book he'd been writing for the last seven years. He'd only showed one other person his book and I was totally blown away that he had asked for my opinion. That evening, I read the first chapter, and for the second time that day I was totally blown away. The incredible imagery and power behind Alex's writing was a real pleasure, and the next morning I called him and demanded that I see the rest of the book.
It was me who suggested to Alex that he should contact Simon Petherick, the MD of Beautiful Books to show him his novel. And I was so pleased when Simn showed the same enthusiasm as me for Alex's book. It would be a real shame if nobody picked up this little masterpiece and gave it a new home.

Not only did Beautiful Books publish some great stuff (other titles include Role Models by John Waters, The Glassblower of Murano by Marino Fiorato, 17 by Bill Drummond, The Wreckng Ball, The Sweet Smell of Decay by Paul Lawrence and The Secret Lives of People in Love by Simon Van Booy), they also were one of the most innovative publishers around. The way they marketed the books was refreshing and infectious, as was their enthusiasm for the books they sold. I was lucky enough to work with Beautiful Books on a number of occasions and each time I did it was a real treat.

There are probably lots of reasons why BB went into administration and i'm sure there are many unhappy people who are far more directly involved as a little bookshop in Wood Green. I hope all the legal issues are sorted out and a satisfactory conclusion is reached.
But I didn't want to let this news pass without sayng how sorry I am that it happened. That's all.

A special night to mark the publication of Haruki Murakami's 1Q84

2011-09-27T21:14:00.001+01:00

Haruki Murakami is an international phenomenon. When Books One and Two of his latest masterpiece, 1Q84, were published in Japan, a million copies were sold in one month, and the critical acclaim that ensued was reported all over the globe. Readers were transfixed by the mesmerising story of Aomame and Tengo and the strange parallel universe they inhabit. Then, one year later, to the surprise and delight of his readers, Murakami published an unexpected Book Three, bringing the story to a close.

In order to reflect the experience of 1Q84’s first readers, Harvill Secker is publishing Books One and Two in one beautifully designed volume and Book Three in a separate edition. A long-awaited treat for his fans, 1Q84 is also a thrilling introduction to the unique world of Murakami’s imagination. This hypnotically addictive novel is a work of startling originality and, as the title suggests, a mind-bending ode to George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. (The number 9 in Japanese is pronounced like the letter ‘Q’).

Volumes 1 and 2, published in a single £20 volume, is strictly embargoed. It will only be available to buy from midnight on October 17/18, and so excited are we about its publication that we will be having a special night in the bookshop to celebrate, culminating in the book being available to take home at midnight.

The evening’s entertainment, which costs just £30 (the ticket price includes a copy of the book) will run as follows.

The doors will be open from 7.30pm. As you arrive there will be a selection of Japanese drinks and snacks to welcome you to the bookshop.
Then at 8.00pm there will be a delicious Japanese meal supplied by the amazing local catering company Hungry Wolf Ltd based Hornsey. The meal will include;

Futomaki (thick sushi rolls).

Temaki (hand rolled sushi cones).

Miso Soup (a traditional Japanese soup, consisting of a stock called Dashi, in which is mixed Miso paste. Other ingredients change seasonally).

Gyoza (traditional meat or vegetable dumplings usually eaten with a dipping sauce).

Gobo Salad (Gobo is burdock in English, and as well as using the root of the burdock, this salad often includes carrots and sesame seeds).

Wakame Seaweed Salad (Wakame is a thin and stringy seaweed, deep green in color and used in making miso soup as well as this delicious salad).

Once the meal is finished, there will be a screening of the classic film Norwegian Wood, directed by Anh Hung Tran and based on Haruki Murakami’s most famous book.

At the conclusion of the night each guest will be given a copy of 1Q84 to take home.

We will have parking permits for non residents who want to drive to the bookshop on the evening. This will be included in the ticket price.

A meal, drinks, a film and a copy of 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. All this for just £30.

Also, each guest will be entered into a raffle with a chance to win an extremely rare Proof Copy of 1Q84, which we have been lucky enough to get from the publishers.

Tickets for the evening are available on our website which you can get to by clicking this link.

Announcing our Children's Christmas Card Competition

2011-09-26T13:59:00.000+01:00

With only 89 days until December 25th, we thought it was time that we launched our first ever Children's Christmas Card Competition.

Will you draw reindeers? It's entirely up to you.

This is the chance to have a Christmas Card designed by you on sale at the Big Green Bookshop. Not only that but one lucky person will win a £50 voucher to spend at the Big Green Bookshop.
It couldn't be easier.
Here are the rules.

1. Take a piece of A4 paper and fold in half to make the template of your card
2. Complete your Christmas card design, you can design all sides of your card but you must design at least the front.
3. Post or deliver your finished design to the bookshop, all entries must be submitted before Saturday the 5th of November.
4. All cards must also include your Name, Age and School (if applicable) Parents or guardians Email and contact telephone number.

Here is our address;
Big Green Bookshop
Unit 1, Brampton Park Road,
Wood Green,
London
N22 6BG

There are 3 categories
6 Years and under.
7-11 years old.
12-16 years.
There will be 2 winners from each category, and one overall winner.

The winners from each category will win a £10 voucher to spend at the Big Green Bookshop.
The overall winner will receive a £50 voucher to spend at the Big Green Bookshop.
There will no doubt be a photo opportunity with the Local Press too.

Could there be robins on your card? You decide.

The six winning designs will then be made into cards and sold at the bookshop in December.
Other designs that we like will be displayed in the bookshop over November and December.

The judges decision is final.

Have fun designing your cards and good luck.

Bah, Celebrity

2011-09-24T17:57:00.002+01:00

Rumour has it that there's a TV programme on called Strictly Come Dancing which runs for months at a time, in which rugby players and weathermen and politicians dance with professional dancers for our entertainment. Some of these 'celebrities' become quite proficient at dancing, and eventually become so good that they could almost compete in non TV competitions. I suspect they don't though, as the money isn't as good.
Yesterday I read that Marian Keyes is to write a cookery book for Michael Joseph. Entitled title, Saved by Cake, to be released in February. 'It will give an account of her recent battle with depression and how baking helped her, including recipes aimed at baking novices.'

Earlier this year Gwyneth Paltrow's Cookbook was published.

'The Academy-Award-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow is an icon of style and taste around the world. But for her, family comes above everything, and cooking and eating together are the key ingredients of a happy home.'

I think Marian is a very good writer. She's very funny and her books are a lot smarter than many others that hers are lumped together with and she obviously has a massive appeal. And Gwyneth is by all accounts an actress of some stature.

Call me a misery guts, but if I liked dancing, i'd rather watch two people at the very top of their game, rather than a clumsy rugby player. And if i wanted to get a cookery book, i'd probably get one that was written by someone who knew a little bit more than a keen amateur. Otherwise i'd write one myself.

Or am I missing the point. Is it all about greed or something?

I dunno. I blame Morecambe and Wise.

Hello Twitter. Thursday is #biggreenday

2011-09-20T17:41:00.001+01:00

I am on Twitter (@biggreenbooks) Twitter is a social networking and microblogging site (that clears that up then). I tweet for the bookshop. Sometimes I tweet well, most of the time my tweets are pointless and some of the time I tweet badly. I don't really have quality control and don't get worried if people stop following me, which is a good job, because there can only be so many times that people can read 'I am in a train' or 'RAIN!!!' (my two most regular tweets), without wondering why they should have to put up with this.
I enjoy tweeting very much most of the time, although sometimes it all gets a little bit silly and angry. Then I close my eyes, wait for all the shouting to go away and then carry on.

The people that the bookshop follows fall into four main groups.

1. People in the booktrade.
2. Friends.
3. Locals.
4. People who I don't know but whose tweets I enjoy.

There is a crossover within these groups of course, but this probably covers 95% of the people the bookshop follows.
Twitter has been very good for the bookshop, introducing us to new customers, enabling us to contact authors and publishers to help arrange events and also helping to spread word of all the stuff that the Big Green Bookshop is doing. I hope, in turn, that the people who follow @biggreenbooks get some satisfaction from doing so.
I have been asked recently by more than 1 tweeter (3) if I would tweet a typical day at the bookshop. People have different ideas about what it's like to work in a bookshop and also i've been told that it would be interesting to see the kind of books that we sold on a typical day.
So, I've decided that on Thursday September 22nd, I am going to livetweet a day at the bookshop. It will probably start and end with 'I am in a train' and there is more than likely going to be some 'RAIN!!!' in the middle, but hopefully it will be entertaining and sometimes informative. I will try not to tweet 'sold a book' or 'made a cup of coffee' too much, as that would be a bit boring (although, I do tweet these kind of things anyway). There will be no rules, but I will endeavour to tweet on a regular basis about what the heck is going on at the shop.
Hashtag fans (I am not a big one, but understand that sometimes they can be quite useful) will be delighted that I have chosen one especially for the day. It is #biggreenday.
At least 3 of you will enjoy this, i'm sure.
That's it really. If you fancy coming in so that you can be a part of this odd sort of experimental day, feel free. But don't bunk of school or take a sickie just to visit. That would be above and beyond all that's sane.

Cheerio.

Booker Prize Challenge

2011-09-19T16:40:00.000+01:00

The Man Booker Prize is probably regarded as the most prestigious literary award in the UK. It’s awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe.On Tuesday September 6th the six shortlisted books were announced.

Here they are.

Here are the books, but this time from a different angle.

In one month's time, or thereabouts, the winner will be announced at a swanky do where everyone has to dress up, and it will also be televised to the watching millions (thousands) on BBC News24. For the third year we’re going to be hosting a Booker Prize Book Club which is open to everyone. This is how it’s going to work;
We challeng anyone to try and read all six of the shortlisted books in time for the night of the awards on October 18th. On the night we will meet in the shop at about 7pm to discuss each of the books. After a heated debate, and a glass or two of vino, each of the group will vote for the book they think should win. We’ll then watch the televised ceremony, and hopefully cheer as our choice and the actual winner is one and the same. Or more likely, shout and curse as our least favourite book takes the glory.

This year, the cost of the shortlist is in the region of £70 and we don’t expect you to pay this much for books that you might otherwise not buy. So we’ve come up with a few solutions;

•For a one off payment of £25, we will be a lending library, where you can borrow each of the books for up a week each. You can also keep your favourite book after the ceremony.
•We will offer a discount of 20% on the shortlist.
•A group of you could share the cost, so for example 3 of you could buy 2 books each.

Of course you can get the books from anywhere you like. Hey, we can't and won't stop you.
But however you decide to do this, we will do everything we can to make the books accessible to you. The important thing is that you're able to join in.
It's a bit of a challenge, but if you think you're up for it, come along.

Here's another important bit. Even if you don't manage to read all six of the books (I haven't managed it myself in the last two years) you are more than welcome to come along and join in the debate on the book/books that you've read.
It's supposed to be fun remember.

Anyway, there you go.

3 for 2. They said it would never happen.

2011-09-09T10:45:00.000+01:00

Well, after 10 long long years Waterstone's has announced it is going to stop doing the 3 for 2 offer. Flipin' eck.
We couldn't let this pass without marking this occasion in some way.

Now, what can we do?

I know. Let's have a 3 for 2 at the Big Green Bookshop.

Yes, on Saturday, September 10th, we will be having a 3 for 2 on ALL our books (and bookmarks and cards). As is traditional with these things, the cheapest item is free and we will have biscuits. And maybe cake.
I will not be stickering any books though, for that would be foolhardy.

This is likely to coincide with the glorious launch of our secondhand books department, if we can price them all in time. Three or four bookcases of lovely books a good proportion of which were kindly donated by our customers, including 3 copies of Charlie Brooker's Screenburn and a lovely selection of old Penguin Van Der Valk crime novels.

COME ALONG. It will be groovy. And there maybe cake.
Maybe.

Comedy Night Benefit Gig

2011-08-21T21:39:00.002+01:00

Once a month we host a comedy night at the bookshop.
'A comedy night at the bookshop?', I hear you exclaim. '
Yes' I reply.

We started in March this year and if i'm honest, it's been rather flippin' successful. Brilliant comics have been doing some brilliant stuff, including Nick Sun, Lewis Schaffer, Dane Baptiste and Susan Murray.

The format is usually this:

Get to the bookshop at about 8pm

Turn up with booze.

Pay £3.

Mingle.

Sit down.

Listen and laugh to the lovely compere

Watch 3 different acts.

laugh a lot.

BREAK!

Compere returns.

Watch 3 more acts.

Laugh more.

(buy some books if you feel like it).

mingle a bit more, and either;

Go to the pub, or

Go home.

So that's the set up.

Well anyway, this month's Comedy Night was a Benefit Gig.

Our compere, Chris Brosnahan..

This is Chris with a Light Sabre (of course)

..suggested to me that we could do a benefit gig for the residents and businesses affected by the riots in Tottenham. he's quite clever like that, and so we did.

And it was AMAZING!!!

We decided for this one off special gig, we should make tickets a fiver and also we made them available to pre-order.

The tickets sold out quickety quick quick, and we knew it was going to be a pretty full house.

And so the audience arrived.

Before.

The audience is ready (before the lights went down)

We manged to squeeze another 15-20 people in after this too, such was the popularity of the night.

The Comedians
(photos are courtesy of Daniel Dyer)

Dave Rego (pun filth)

Johnny Armstrong (pun filth plus insanity)

Robert Commiskey (US of Amazing. Look out for him btw)

Babatunde (who blew the audience away.I've had emails since telling me how much people enjoyed his stuff)

Peter Dillon Trenchard. Geek genius. (I thought he was super ace and he wore a Tom Baker T-shirt!)

And our Headliner

Sir Ian Bowler MP (aka Natt Tapley), who "finished the evening off" in style.

It really was a special night and we want to say thanks to everyone who helped out, and donated money.

The total that you lot gave was

£442.52

Thank you

This will make things a bit easier for the homeless and busniessless people of Tottenham, so thanks.

Hope to see you at the next Comedy Night on September 16th. x

A Question.

2011-08-18T13:11:00.000+01:00

Hello online world. Can you help. I hope you can.
We like the shop to have lots of people in it. Not necessarily people buying books (although this clearly helps us to remain open), but people using the shop as a venue for activities and clubs.
At the moment we have 4 reading groups, a writers group, a monthly boardgames club, a monthly knitting club. We turn the shop into a market once a month on a Sunday, where people sell their locally produced goods (it's happening this Sunday from 10am to midday). We do storytelling on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings at 11am.
Most of these things happen during the day, while the shop is still open.
And we'd like to do more of them.
Can any of you lot think of regular events/clubs/meet-ups that we can hold in the bookshop during the day. For example, chess club, flower arranging, art class etc. Things that we can do that won't get in the way of customers coming in (should that happen).
Please have a think and let us know.

Wood Green. Normal service will resume shortly.

2011-08-17T17:40:00.002+01:00

It's been a while (10 days) since the looting in Wood Green, and in most cases things have got back to normal. Nearly all the shops that were smashed up and robbed are back open again and people are beginning to talk about other things, like the weather and Bristol City's terrible start to the football season (that might just be me).
There are a number of things that I think are worth mentioning though, in relation to the trouble.

1. This amazing post-it note board that appeared on the boarded up door of Body Shop

Inspired by a similar board in Peckham, this appeared last Tuesday/Wednesday and was soon full of (mainly ) positive messages.

I really hope that the board is saved and put up as a display somewhere like the Civic Centre, the Council Buildings or the Library, or even in the shopping centre, to serve as a reminder of the feelings of the vast majority people in Wood Green.

2. The Tottenham Fund. A fund was set up to help thise residents and business affected by the looting and rioting in Tottenham. Within only a few days £16,000 was raised. I'm absolutely sure that as more people hear about this fund the figure will get higher and higher.

3. The Help Centres. Immediately after the rioting, a number of help centres opened around Haringey. Clothes, toys, food, bedding etc were needed by those who were made homeless by the criminal behaviour and once again the people delivered. Within a day or two the centres were chocabloc with clothes and were almost at a stage where they were having to turn stuff away.

4. Andrew Thornton ( I like Andrew Thornton) who owns Budgen's in Crouch End deserves a special mention. There are lots of people doing things to help, but Andrew seems to me, like the kind of person that Haringey needs. Not only does he consistently come up with community minded projects, like the Food From the Sky, but he 'gets' Haringey. There is a huge East/West divide in the borough and Andrew has called a meeting (everyone is invited) to discuss ways of addressing this. Here are the details.

5. Entitled 'I Love Wood Green' This blogpost made me smile

There are hundreds more examples of the wonderful acts of kindness and community spirit that have been shown by the people of Haringey. Whilst politicians and so called experts shake their heads and wag their fingers and tell us what the problems are and what they are going to do about it, our borough has actually pulled together and is doing what NEEDS to be done.
Perhaps rather than offering an opinion, these experts and politicians could offer something a little more practical.
I love Wood Green, and these last two weeks have emphasised why I feel this way.

Committee Meeting

2011-08-11T17:02:00.004+01:00

An advert we put on our website and on Facebook a couple of weeks ago;

"There's no point in us doing things at the shop if nobody turns up, so in order for the shop to be and do what you want it to, we're setting up regular meetings at the bookshop in which we ask for your opinions on different aspects of the bookshop. They won't last more than an hour and we'd love to see lots of you here.

This month we'll be talking about how the shop looks and what we can do to improve it, and also the kind of events and authors you'd like to see in the bookshop. If you have time, please have a think about this, and even if you can't make it to the bookshop, please email us with your suggestions.

enquiries@biggreenbookshop.com"

The date we arranged this meeting was the Sunday just gone at 11.00am. In hindsight, this wasn't the best day to choose, but how were we to know that Wood Green was going to get trashed a few hours before this.

Anyway we shouldn't have worried as a good crowd turned up to offer opinions and ideas.
Here are some of the things that we learned (learnt?)

We should keep doing lots of events
We should advertise more in the shop beforehand (most of our advertising is online or in local papers).
We should do more themed events with more than one author.
The new format of our newsletter is clearer (we only highlight stuff that's happening in the next week, and point readers to our website to see what else is happening)
Our windows are rubbish (we knew this). Solutions were offered (by solutions, I don't mean soapy water).

There were other things we discussed that are very secret and exciting, which I hope we can introduce in the next month or so.

The best thing to come out of this meeting was that it's focussed us on the areas we need to concentrate on. We do have a habit of procrastinating and also we have so many things we want to do that we sometimes miss the most obvious.
It's always useful to get feedback (constructive please) from our customers and we're really going to benefit from these meetings.

So far we've cleared the front of our till area and painted it with blackboard paint. This will be a rolling information point for all that's going on in the bookshop.
We've also decided it's time to clear the crappy area to the left of the bookshop, that's used as a car park/toilet/rubbish tip. We're going to have a big clear up day on Saturday August 20th, with a view to fencing it off and making it into a garden/reading area. Oh, it'll be gorgeous. You mark my words.
Hopefully it'll be clear enough and clean enough to be able to put some stalls out there on the Sunday, when we have our next local market (check the website for details).

Keep the suggestions coming in for the first book you'd order if you owned a bookshop.

The other thing we'd like to mention is that our comedy night next Friday August 19th will be a Benefit Gig with all proceeds going to the Tottenham Fund helping those local residents and businesses affected by the riots and looting.
There's a Facebook group here with info or you can look on the events page of our website for more information (scroll down a bit).
Tickets are selling fast, so if you want to come, you'd better be quick.
Headlining the gig is Natt Tapley, who'll be playing his alter ego Sir Ian Bowler MP.

It will be rather good.

If You Had A Bookshop, What's the First Book You'd Order for the Bookshelves?

2011-08-10T10:21:00.001+01:00

On Saturday I asked this question on Twitter (we have a twitter accout @biggreenbooks)
"if you owned a bookshop, what's the first book you would order for the shelves"

I asked this because, being a small bookshop we rarely stock more than 1 or 2 copies of any one title, so we often sell out of things, and it's cringworthy when someone comes in and asks if we have (for example) Animal Farm having sold it earlier in the day, and we have to say we've sold out.

The response was brilliant and very interesting (I think so anyway), so I thought I would share it with you.

I've marked all the kids books in red (because I felt like it)

1984 (four times)
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr
Little Prince by Saint Exupery
Crime and Punishment (twice)
All the Discworld Novels
Room on a Broom by Julia Donaldson
Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis
Metamorphosis by kafka
The Non-League Football Directory (chosen by Enfield Town FC)
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Love Monkey by Edward Monkton
To Kill a Mockingbird (twice)
Vampire L'Estat by Anne Rice
The novels of Rex Stout
Count of Monte Cristo
Complete Oscar Wilde
Dharma Bums by Kerouac (twice)
My Cat Like to Hide in Boxes (twice)
Nausea by Jean Paul Sartre
Peggy Larkins Way by Trevor Forest (chosen by Trevor Forest)
The Complete Saki
Mortdeai Trilogy by Bonfiglioli
Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries
The Blacker the Berry by Wallace Thurman
Complete Sherlock Holmes
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carre
Carter Beats the Devil
Winnie the Pooh
Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche
The Shopgirl by Steve Martin
Like water for Chocolate by Esquivel
Good Omens by Terry pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Faust by Goethe
The Harry Potter novels (twice)
Cyteen by CJ Cherryh
Alice in Wonderland
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric carle (Four times)
Post Office by Charles Bukowski
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Hienlein
The BFG by Roald Dahl
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller (twice)
Ulysses by james Joyce
Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Euginides
Pride and Prejudice
Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkein
Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers
Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor
Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
Timbuktu by Paul Auster
Girlfriend In a Coma by Douglas Coupland (twice)
Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy (twice)
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Bend Sinister by Nabokov
The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Chabon
Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
Electric Kool Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (twice)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (twice)
The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
Wuthering Heights
Cement Garden by Ian mcEwan
Atonement by Ian mcEwan
The Bible
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist by Tressell
Yes Man by Danny Wallace
All the Tea in China by Bonfiglioni
Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene
Birdsong by Faulks
Memoirs of a Sword Swallower by Dan Mannix
Master and Margerita by Bulgakov
As I walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee
Couples by John Updike
Jane Eyre (twice)
Archy and Mehitbel series
Mt Vertigo by Paul Auster
Catcher in the Rye by J D Sallinger
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Arrival by Shaun Tan
The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher
Touching the Void by Joe Simpson
The Haunted Bookshop by Morley
Perfume by Suskind
The Book Thief by Zusak
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (twice)
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
The Thomas Covenant Chronicles
The Phantom Tollbooth
Little, Big by Crowley
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Knox
I, Claudius by Robert Graves
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
Carbonel by Barbara Sleigh
Witch's Gold by M Elliot
Bridget Jones Diary
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Ash by mary Gentle
The Magus by John Fowles
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Tomorrow Insha' Allah by Tina Johnston (chosen by their publisher)
Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
Thousand Splendid Suns by Hosseni
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Complete Works of Shakespeare
Hamlet 'if I had to choose one' (twice)
Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk
Macbeth
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
Howl's Moving Castle by D Wynne Jones
Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton
Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien
Great Gatsby
Tom Jones by Fielding
Harriet the Spy by Fitzhugh
Reclaim the State by Hilary Wainwright
Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl
Can't Wait to get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg
Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane
War and Peace
Anna Karenina
Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
All A S Byatt's Short Stories
The Guttenburg Bible ( mmm.. )
House on the Strand by Daphne Du Maurier
Small is Beautiful by Schumacher
Clockwork Orange
In The Cut by Daniel Blythe
Tommy's Tale by Alan Cummings
Idiot by Dostoyevsky
Vodka by Boris Starling
Awaydays by Kevin Sampson
Jennie by Paul Gallico
History of Mr Polly by HG Wells
Violins of St Jacques by Patrick Leigh Fermor
Eating Animals by Jonathan Saffron Foer
Crow Road by Iain Banks
Secret History by Donna Tartt
A good dictionary
The Ancient Future by Traci Harding
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Alexandrian Quartet by Durrell
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

This is an ever growing list and i'll add to it as and when more suggestions are given to me. Perhaps this will become a perfect list of books for anyone thinking of opening a bookshop. Perhaps, however, this would be a total disaster and you should completely ignore it. There are a few titles on the list we don't stock and have since ordered, so I'd appreciate any further suggestions.

Wood Green 2 Days Later.

2011-08-09T13:18:00.000+01:00

As London and some of the big cities around the UK get pounded by rioters, I thought it would be useful to update you on what's happening in Wood Green.
The shops that got clobbered on Sunday morning are mostly open again now. However some of the worst affected, like HMV are 'closed until further notice' according to the signs.

HMV on Sunday and again this morning

The Body Shop spent all of yesterday cleaning up and doesn't look like it'll be open for a few days.

Body Shop on Sunday and again this morning

Last night there were a few idiots causing mischief on the High Road. It seems that this time they were more intent on smashing things rather than nicking stuff. Stones were thrown from the balconies in Sky City (a block of flats above the shopping centre) and windows of the shops below were smashed. I remember a few years ago having eggs thrown at me from here. That was funny. This is not.

Shocked? I'm appalled.

We have opened as normal. We held our Knitting Group on Sunday and we did our songs and stroytelling to under 5's on Monday morning. We're trying not ot let the situation affect us, but you cannot help but notice the strange atmosphere. Rumours flew around all day yesterday. According to various sources throughout the day I heard rumours that gangs were heading to Wood Green on about eight different occasions. Thankfully none of these rumours were true but at 4.00pm (after the trouble started in Mare Street in Hackney), a number of the shops on the High Street suddenly closed. The owner of the cafe next door to us came in and told us that he'd had a call from his friend up the road in Palmer's Green say there was trouble on the way and that he was closing. Then a rumour that trouble was brewing in Green Lanes just south of Wood Green. I then got a phone call from a friend in the Council telling me that all the shops on the High Road were being closed, although the police were stressing there was no trouble.

When we got a call from my daughter's nursery up the road, telling us that they were closing early and I should come and pick her up, we decided it was time to close.

All these rumours make it very difficult to carry on like normal and, as a precaution, we have cancelled our Book Group discussion tonight. Having 15-20 of our customers leaving the bookshop after dark while there's so much tension in the air seems like an unneccessary risk. We hope this is the only thing we'll have to cancel as the events and groups define the bookshop (in normal circumstances this would be the time where I link you all to the events page on our website).

I suspect this atmosphere will remain for a while, but it's a testament to the communities that have been affected that they have all rallied round to help clean up the areas affected. If you're on twitter, please check out @riotcleanup as they seem to be coordinating things very well.

Thanks for your messages of support They really do mean a lot.

North London Looting

2011-08-07T23:20:00.000+01:00

I was going to write a lovely blogpost about figuring out what book you would hate to not have in stock if you owned a bookshop, but sadly things have turned rather ugly and horrible here in North London. Tottenham has taken the brunt of the rioting and looting and setting fire to anything that it is possible to set fire to, however at about 2am this morning things started happening in Wood Green.

People turned up, having realised that all the police were trying to control the stuff going on in Tottenham, and started smashing Wood Green to pieces.

Burnt out car on Wood Green High Road

The Body Shop. Where looters can stock up on their Jojoba.

These are two photos I took this morning as I came to work. They are both less than 200 yards from the bookshop.

We are not at all happy about this. The people who did this are not representative of how Wood Green (and Tottenham) feel. The people who did this, for example, to HMV...

are fucking idiots. They have used a controversial and tragic incident and turned it into an excuse to steal things and smash things and ruin things. They have no interest in anything other than what they can gain from this situation and I am furious.

I had a text message at 5.30am from one of our most wonderful and precious customers. She lives above a shop on the High Road (where these photos were taken). She texted me to tell me about how horrible things were and to give me a warning in case I didn't know. Now here's the thing. She is pregnant, and was due to give birth yesterday. The High Road has been cordoned off. All the police and ambulances are in Tottenham. Not a good situation when the looting and rioting in Wood Green has been going on for 2-3 hours without any police intervention (they are all still in Tottenham) and the likelihood of a taxi to take you to a hospital is zero.

This is just one example of the short sighted, ignorant, self indulgent and greedy nature of the actions in Wood Green and Tottenham. There are many many more.

Here are a couple more photos.

This is an independent clothes store, ransacked and destroyed. Insurance will not cover the damage caused.

The Carphone Warehouse

Many more shops got trashed on the High Road. Specsavers, Boots, H & M, Holland & Barratt, The O2 shop, and more.

Sometimes, when there is a protest about something and violence occurs in the back of your head you think 'I do not agree with this at all, but actually I can understand why they are angry'. This piss poor excuse for violence and mayhem has caused nothing but anger in Wood Green. Everyone I have spoken too is ashamed and angry that this has happened.

This is not representative of Wood Green. This little place in North London is a diamond and we will not let this terrible night of violence ruin things.

I don't have any solutions but I know that there are so many passionate and community minded people in N22. And we need to make sure that we remain proud and supportive of the area.

On Friday I was at a nursery just up the road, where my daughter goes. They were having a 'carnival' and there was music and dancing and lots of food and drink, and it was a wonderful atmosphere, where you realised what a wonderful community there was. This is how is still see Wood Green and i'm sure that in the next few days Wood Green will show how resilient it is to this dreadful series of events.

Catch Up

2011-08-06T17:20:00.000+01:00

Here's a list of things that have happened recently. This blogpost is a precursor to more regular posts in future.

I cycled 120 miles to Dunwich from Hackney overnight on July 17th/18th. This is what it was all about. Despite forecasts of thunderstorms and gales, an hour before we left peace descended and the weather for the whole journey was wonderful. It was one of the most memorable expereinces of my life and i'm currently looking for other similar bike rides that I can get involved with. So far we've raised about £400 for local schools, but the schools themselves are also raising money, so I won't know the final figure until September, when they come back from their holidays. Many many thanks to Azeem, who was my inspiration for this. He is a lovely lovely person.
It was my birthday last week.
The local market was a big success at the bookshop. We aim to have a regular market in the bookshop, where people can come along and set up a stall selling stuff that's locally produced or made. We had six stalls, selling necklaces & bracelets, knitted stuff, Tottenham Honey, plums and berries, plants, cakes (and cupcakes). Next month (August 21st) we intend it to be bigger and we already have jam in production, a local artist who's interested in coming along and a lot more produce. If you know someone who'd like a stall, no matter how big or small, let me know. The stalls are free. Check out the event page on the website for more news.
We're teasing with the idea of selling second hand books
Our attempt to break the World Record for the largest ever reading group sadly failed. That's the bad news. However the good news is that the systems we set up (the forum and the facebook page) were visited, and discussions took place. I have learned lessons from this. Firstly, I need to give myself more time to organise things. Secondly, I need to be less of a control freak, and accept all the offers of support and help I had to get this working. The book we discussed, Where Would I Be Without You by Guillaume Musso, got mixed reviews as we expected. It is a translated novel, and is part romance, part thriller and part paranormal. We chose it, as it is a pretty easy read, very accessible and there'd be lots to discuss. We asked everyone involved to give it a score out of ten and of the 31 people who replied, the average score was 5.6. Not to bad. We'll be doing this again next year, but we'll be giving ourselves a lot more time to organise it and i'll get a lot more help.
We had a rodent in the shop. We don't any more.
Our computer collapsed recently. Very badly. This meant that we couldn't send out our newsletter and we lost some very important documents. A nasty virus ate our backup (i don't know what any of that means). Anyway, a lovely person called Suze has given us her old laptop, so we can now send out the emails again. We still need to keep our old computer, as it has our stock control system on it and lots of other dreamy things. It stops working every 3 hours. This isn't much fun. This story isn't going anywhere. These are the facts though.
I have tried Blackcurrant Lucozade and I deem it GOOD.
The Booker Prize longlist has been announced. This year there are some PAPERBACKS in the list! That means that people might be able to afford to buy them. That's much more inclusive. Well done. Oh hang on, 2 of them weren't actually published when the longlist was announced. So NOBODY, except those of us lucky enough to be in the book trade who occassionaly get books early, are able to read them. As you were.

There we go.

World's Largest Reading Group - The Rules

2011-07-27T16:41:00.000+01:00

So we tried to organise the World's Largest Reading group and set some kind of Record.

This hasn't been easy to organise.

Our blogpost here will give you some idea of what we are trying to achieve. We've had further communication with the people at The Guinness World Records, but sadly a way to make this an official World record has not been found.
Thankfully there are still lots of you who want to take part, and we have done our best to get as much sorted out as possible. There's still time to join and read the book (Where Would I Be Without You by Guillaume Musso). It took me less than two days to get through it, so there IS still time.

We have a forum set up here (this is the main discussion area), which also links the Twitterfeed for the hashtag #readinggroup. If you are on Twitter you can use this hashtag in your message, and it will come up on the screen on the forum page.

In order to voice your opinion of the book on the Forum, you need to register. This just means clicking register (in the top right hand corner of the Forum) and putting a name and your email address. We need you to do this to calculate how many people are using the Forum.
We also have a Facebook Page (you need to log in to facebook to see this) which you can also use to join in the discussion on Saturday.

You can come to the Big Green Bookshop at 6.00pm on Saturday and join the debate WITH REAL PEOPLE. There will be snacks and drink to add to the enjoymant.

You can meet amongst yourselves and discuss the book this way too. But if you want to be counted towards the final number of people who were involved in the reading Group you must get in touch via twitter/facebook/forum/telephone/email and let us know how many of you there are.

The discussion will begin on Saturday morning. I'll add a couple of discussion points to the forum and the facebook account and see what happens. I suspect the main discussion will take place in the later part of the afternoon to the early evening.

Thrughout the day you will be able to vote (out of 10) on the book. This will be our most accurate way of working out how many people are involved, so if you are in a group please send individual scores to us (you can send them in one message if you like).

At 8.00pm we shall start to calculate how many people have been involved and what the average score for the book is.

At about 9.00pm we will announce on here, the website, the forum, twitter and facebook;

The number of people who were involved in the World Record Attempt
The average score the book was given.

Then I will go home.

We would have liked to have sorted out one or two more exciting things, like getting video links so that we could discuss the book this way.
Sadly our computer has for the last two weeks refused to work for more than 3 hours at a time, before deciding to stop. It has also started to chew up and delete important things, which hasn't made this any easier.
BUT ONWARDS AND UPWARDS
I'm really grateful for everyone who helped spread the word about this attempt. It seems like there will still be lots of people who are going to be taking part, so whatever happens, it will be good fun.
The whole idea of this was to try and raise the profile of reading groups and to celebrate how great they are, and if we've done that in the tiniest of ways, then we're happy.

Hope to hear from you on Saturday.

Newsletter.

2011-06-27T16:06:00.000+01:00

Hello,
here is a copy of our newsletter which we send out each week. I have added some pictures to make it look pretty. Yes, we do a lot don't we?

Hello,

this week's newsletter is a long one, but we thought it would be useful to remind you of some of the regular events we put on as well as letting you know about the special author events too.

There's news of a couple of events we've just confirmed at the end of the newsletter too, as well as news of the Big Green Bookshop Quiz.

Simon's training for the sponsored 120 miles cycle ride is going well and he's taken the stabilisers off his bike. The next step is turning corners.

We really need people to join in with our world record book group to make it a record worth breaking. You can join in as a group, or on your own. All you have to do is read “Where Would I Be, Without You?” by Guillaume Musso. There’s even a Facebook page and a twitter hashtag (#ReadingGroup) to make it easier for you to get involved. Put Saturday July 30th in your diary now.

Hope you're enjoying the sunshine and hope to see you soon.

Coming up over the next fortnight

Tuesday June 28^th 7.00pm-9.00pm

The Alexander Technique Explained.

Have you ever wondered what the Alexander Technique is all about? Yes, me too. Well, to shed some light on this little understood skill Jeremy Cassidy, an Alexander Teacher who works in Tottenham and Highbury, will be giving a practical talk here at the Bookshop at 7pm on Tuesday 28th June. You may have already sat up straight just reading these words.
Refreshments will be available.

Thursday June 30th 7.00pm-9.00pm

Hayley Campbell Takes us on an Autobiographical Tour of Horror Comics

When Hayley Campbell was between the ages of three and thirteen, her Dad (Eddie Campbell) was illustrating a 600 page graphic novel called From Hell, a book about Jack the Ripper and one of the grisliest and most over-theorised spate of serial killings in history. This is a talk about what becomes of a three-year-old whose father goes to the butcher and asks for bits of cow, places them on a hanky and uses them as picture reference for the insides of disembowelled prostitutes: she becomes totally obsessed with death. It’s an autobiographical history of horror comics – her own careening train of enthusiasm and the stuff it collided with on the way. There's stuff you've heard of, stuff you haven't, and stuff she'd be better off keeping to herself.
Hayley writes for the Comics Journal, London’s esteemed Gosh! Comics Blog, and is working on a book about Neil Gaiman.
Tickets are just £3, which will be redeemable on any graphic novel or horror title bought or ordered on the night.
Tickets can be purchased here, or by contacting the shop direct.
This is going to be a brilliant evening and we hope you can make it.

Friday July 1^st 11.00am

Songs and Stories for the under 5’s

Relax for an hour in the shop as we read stories and sings songs. Ideal for the under 5’s. Tea and coffee (and flapjacks) served. FREE, but all contributions very welcome.

Friday July 1^st 8.00pm-10.00pm

Working Title Comedy Club presents The Age of Treason

The Age of Treason's Edinburgh preview show will take place under the auspices of Working Title comedy club at the Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green. Three stand up comedians will tell you hair raising stories of love and hate, heart breaks and heart attacks, skinhead weddings, fridge magnets, serial killers, and war and piss in the Middle East. And there'll be uplifting music too. With Liz Hobbs, Boris Witz and MissD. Guest MC: Mark Jeary.pounds.
Bring a bottle of wine or a few cans of beer, it is a bit like a house party. And do buy a book while you are there. So you get to see an Edinburgh Preview, support live comedy in London, support independent bookshops AND have a party. How much more worthy can you get? AND WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE??? And all this for meagre 3 British Ponds. Come!

Saturday July 2^nd 10.30am-11.30am

Kids Reading Group (Artemis Fowl)

Hurrah! The Children's Reading Group is back. Aimed at kids aged around 8-12 we'll be meeting every month and discussing a different book each time.

The book that we're going to be talking about is Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer.

Twelve-year-old villain, Artemis Fowl, is the most ingenious criminal mastermind in history. His bold and daring plan is to hold a leprechaun to ransom. But he's taking on more than he bargained for when he kidnaps Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon (Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance Unit). For a start, leprechaun technology is more advanced than our own. Add to that the fact that Holly is a true heroine and that her senior officer Commander Root will stop at nothing to get her back and you've got the mother of all sieges brewing!

So, if you've read it and want to talk about it, or if you haven't read it and want to, or if you are just interested in coming along, then we'll be meeting on Saturday July 2nd at 10.30am.

Also, as a bonus to those of you that turn up, one of you will be taking home a very special signed copy of Eoin's book Airman. We have a pre publication proof copy which i'm sure you'll enjoy, so there's another reason to come along.

Biscuits and juice will be available.

Note to parents / guardians. You don't have to stick around during the discussion. You can head off for an hour and leave the kids in the shop with us.

Sunday July 3^rd 1.00pm-4.00pm

Knitting Day at the Bookshop

Join us for our monthly knitting day at the shop. No experience necessary, as there are lots of lovely knitters who are happy to help you. It’s a lovely relaxing way to spend a Sunday, so come along.

Tea coffee and biscuits will be available throughout the day.

Tuesday July 5^th 7.00pm-9.00pm

The Big Green Bookshop Quiz.

The Big Green Bookshop's now legendary quiz nights returns, due to popular demand. The theme of the quiz is mainly book related but we’ve introduced one or two rounds to test out your knowledge of other cultural joys (not the Simpsons again though).
Each team will have a MAXIMUM OF 4 people
It's £5 per team to enter. Payment in advance please.
The Quiz will start at 7.00pm prompt, so please try and get here on time.
You can buy a ticket online http://www.biggreenbookshop.com/quiz/quiz-entry/prod_415.html which will guarantee you a table, or else you can pay over the phone or you can actually come into the bookshop. Yes the bookshop.
Refreshments will be available, but feel free to bring your own as they usually run out pretty quickly
Your question master will be TheManWhoFellAsleep Greg Stekelman. He is very funny. This is his website. http://www.themanwhofellasleep.com/
Look forward to seeing you there.
Please come along.

Wednesday July 6^th 11.00am

Elevenses Coffee and Cake Book Group

We meet at Café Nero on Wood Green High Road on the first Wednesday of each month. This month’s book choice is A Change of Climate by Hilary Mantel.

Please come along if you’re interested in joining the group, even if you don’t have a chance to read the book.

Wednesday July 6^th 7.00pm

Writers Group.

We meet every fortnight at the bookshop. The group shares experiences and offers each other support and advice. The group is for genre fiction writers of all levels and experience. £3 entrance. This is a really useful group and if you’re at all interested it would be well worth coming along

Thursday July 7^th 7.00pm

Graphic Novels and Comics Reading Group

Whether you're a comic book veteran or an eager novice, all are welcome at our new group for comics and graphic novels. We meet on the first Thursday of every month at 7pm. This month we'll be discussing horror as a genre/theme, and Hellblazer: Original Sins is our suggessted reading material. A second reading option is Chew: Taster's Choice. Both these fine books are available at the shop now. FREE.

Friday July 8^th 11.00am

Songs and Stories for the under 5’s

Relax for an hour in the shop as we read stories and sings songs. Ideal for the under 5’s. Tea and coffee (and flapjacks) served. FREE, but all contributions very welcome.

Friday July 8^th 8.00pm

Working Title Comedy Club Edinburgh Preview.

Every Friday throughout July we’ll be hosting comedy at the shop, showcasing some of the best acts that will be performing at this years Edinburgh Festival. More details nearer the time.

Just confirmed

Wednesday July 13^th 7.00pm

Maggie Butt talks about & reads from her new book Ally Pally Prison Camp.

Few people are aware that Alexandra Palace in North London was used as a prison of war camp in the First World War. Although the 3000 men who were interned there were of German nationality, many of them had lived and worked in

England

for many years and had English wives and children.
Further research from Maggie Butt uncovered letters from these men, as well as photographs of life in the camp and a number of fine paintings by the artist, George Kenner, who was one of the prisoners. Maggie has brought this material together and with a series of her poems based on the Ally Pally Prison Camp, has produced a fascinating and moving record of a piece of little-known history.
The bookshop is delighted to be welcoming Maggie back for her first event to celebrate the launch of the new book, published by Oversteps Press and priced just £10.
This is a FREE event and refreshments will be available.

Thursday July 21^st at 7.00pm

David Pinner author of Ritual, the book that inspired The Wicker Man

Originally published in 1967, Ritual follows the trail of English police officer, David Hanlin, who is requested to investigate the murder of a local child in an enclosed small Cornish village. During the protagonist's short stay, he is slowly subjected to a spectacle of psychological trickery, sexual seduction, ancient religious practices and nightmarish sacrificial rituals.

Pinner's poetic and hallucinatory sequences were transformed into the rural celluloid folk story for Robin Hardy's 1973 film, The Wicker Man, which has enthralled and inspired generations of British movie patrons and folk-pop enthusiasts throughout the world.

Original copies of Ritual's short print run have been known to command price tags as high as £600, rendering reading copies, in any form, to be virtually untraceable... until now.

Finders Keepers Record's debut print run sees Ritual painstakingly reproduced from the author's own personal copy, including its original striking wood-cut cover artwork and a new forward by The Guardian / The Times journalist and pop composer Bob Stanley.

David has kindly agreed to join us to talk about this and also about his extraordinary career as an actor, author and playwrite. This is a not to be missed opportunity and we hope you'll be able to make it.

The book will be available on the night for £7.99 and David will be happy to sign copies for you.

This is a FREE event, but please get here early as this is likely be a very popular.

The Dunwich Dynamo

2011-06-20T14:33:00.000+01:00

Hello.
It all started during our appeal in March. We had been totally overwhelmed by the wonderful and generous people who wanted to keep the bookshop going, and by the incredible things that people offered to do to help.

One morning a customer came in and told us that her husband, let's call him Azeem, was doing a cycle ride in July and wanted to donate any money that he made in sponsorship to the Bookshop. This was one of those *gulp* moments for me. One of those *hold it together Simon, don't blub again* moments. I held it together and after saying thank you thank you thank you, said that the least I could do was do the cycle ride with him too. I like a bike ride, me.

She told me that the ride was known as the Dunwich Dynamo and that Azeem had done it last year and loved it. She then gave me a few more bits of information.

It's an overnight ride
It's unsupported (there was no organisation as such)
Oh, and it's 120 miles.

OK. 120 miles. That's like cycling from London to Bristol. Or like Portsmouth to Coventry. That's quite a long way isn't it?

Here's the Route.

A gentle jaunt overnight from Hackney, through idylic countryside and along uncared for potholed roads, ending on the Suffolk coast in a little place called Dunwich. This is what I can tell you about Dunwich at the moment. Time Team are in Dunwich right now. HP Lovecraft wrote a short story called The Dunwich Horror . It's 120 miles away.

Well, it's happening. It's happening alright. And we're going to do it. And there'll be 4 or 5 of us doing it now. It's happening on July 16/17th and will probably take me until July 18th to finish and July 29th to recover. Just in time for the Reading Group World Record attempt (see previous blogpost).

But we're not going to be raising money for the shop. We're going to be raising money for six local Schools. The budgets for Schools have been cut somewhat recently (some may even go as far as to say they have been slashed), and as such there is less for them to spend on books. We like books and we like kids being able to read books, so any money raised will go towards buying books for the School libraries. It might not be much, but we all hope that whatever we raise helps a little bit.

I'M CYCLING 120 MILES!! IN THE DARK!!

The six Schools are Primary Schools that have supported us or that we know don't have a huge budget for books, and so we hope they will benefit from this. It is very difficult choosing Schools as there are so many that we'd like to help, but it seemed to make sense to choose six.

The six schools are;

Noel Park Primary School N22
South Harringay Infant/Junior School N4
North Harringay Primary School N8
St Michael's CE Primary School N22
Broadwater Farm Primary School N17
Chestnuts Primary School N15

OK, so here's a link that gives you a bit of information about the cycle ride we'll be doing. They make it sound so easy. I shall be tweeting throughout the night, so you can all enjoy the pain I will be suffering. I hope it doesn't rain.

If you want to donate/sponsor us, a special Dunwich Dynamo account has been set up. We wanted to do one of those Just Giving pages, but because Schools aren't charities we couldn't.

120 MILES!!

There's a button on the Top Right of this Blog which will link you to the Donation Account. It is sensibly called 'Dunwich Dynamo'.

Clearly, this is a very local appeal, but even if you don't want to donate, please spread the word. It's really important to us.
Really important.

Thanks.

Reading Group World Record Attempt.

2011-06-16T14:06:00.000+01:00

Here's a copy of a Press Release we have sent out to push our World Record Attempt.
If you know anyone who may be interested, please let them know.
Ta.

To celebrate National Reading Group Day, the Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green is organising a nationwide attempt to set a World Record for the Largest Reading Group ever. This is being supported by The Independent Booksellers Week and is aimed to raise the profile of Reading Groups and their importance in our communities.

The attempt will take place on Saturday July 30^th and will be made by joining people nationwide using social networking websites Twitter and Facebook, using a website forum and also Skype and video links.

On the day of the record attempt itself, those wanting to take part will be asked to register online with a central administrator based at the Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green. People can register as a group or as individuals. The online discussion will take place from 4.00pm until 8.00pm, and a central forum will be set up on which people can share their views.

There is a Facebook page, “Reading Group World Record Attempt”, and also a twitter hashtag, #ReadingGroup, which will be linked to the forum. From 6.00pm until 8.00pm all those taking part will be asked to mark the book out of ten. The scores will be kept by the central administrator and at 9.00pm the average score and the number of people who took part will be announced.

The book that’s been chosen for discussion is Where Would I Be Without You, a romantic thriller by one of France’s bestselling authors Guillaume Musso. The book is widely available in all good bookshops and libraries and the publishers, Gallic Books have kindly agreed to sell it at a special price for this record attempt.

They are also selling the book in packs of 3 and 6 to enable the Reading Groups who are getting involved a chance to get the book at an even better price.

Packs of 6 are just £30. (£5 a copy).

Packs of 3 are just £18. (£6 a copy).

single copies are £7.

Postage and Packing is FREE.

The more people that get involved, the more exciting it will be and we really hope that you want to be a part of this exciting World Record attempt.

For further information please contact Simon, Tim or Mark at the Big Green Bookshop on 020 8881 6767 or you can email at enquiries@biggreenbookshop.com.

You can also visit the website for updates http://www.biggreenbookshop.com/

So, I Wrote To Guinness World Records

2011-05-24T10:28:00.009+01:00

About 2 months ago, March 23rd to be exact, I was chatting to some bookloving people about Reading Groups and the like. We now have 4 and jolly good they are too. Well, it turns out that June 25th is National Reading Group Day in the UK, and it got me thinking.
I wonder if there's anything we can do to help make National Reading Group Day go with a swing at the shop.
So then I had an idea, and I logged onto the Guinness World Records website.
I set up an account and I sent an application, which went something like this.

World Record Attempt for the World's Biggest Reading Group
June 25th 2011 is National reading group Day in the UK. We would like to attempt to set/break the World Record for the Worlds Largest Reading Group.
There are many thousands of reading groups throughout the UK and they are a great way of giving people who might not necessarily read regularly an opportunity to do so.
The record attempt will be made by joining people nationwide using social media websites Twitter and Facebook, using a website forum and also skype and video links
A book has been chosen and will be sent out to all the people who register that they would like to take part. This will happen around the end of May. This will give those people around 4 weeks to read the book.
On the day of the record attempt itself, those involved will be asked to log in or register with a central administrator based in a venue in London (possibly the Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green). People can log in as a group or as an individual. The discussion about the book will start at 4.00pm GMT and there will be a centralised forum which will keep people updated about other peoples' thoughts. There will also be a facebook page and also a twitter hashtag which will be linked up to the forum. From 6.00pm until 8.00pm all the individuals taking part will be allowed to give the book marks out of ten. The scores will be kept by the central administrator and at 9.00pm the average score and the number of people who took part will be announced. I am by no means the most tech savvy of people, but I have been assured by colleagues who are that this is a very straight forward system to organise.
We have excellent links with the media and we will ensure that as well as coverage in the Local Press and in the Trade Press, there will be national coverage of this attempt.

Anyway, the application was something like that (I cannot copy the actual application I sent to the Guinness folk as it has been swallowed up like the frothy head on their delicious alcoholic brew).

I was told that I would need to wait 4-6 weeks for a reply and was given a claim number. 342992

So a couple of weeks ago I got a reply. Here it is.

** Please do not send a response to this unmonitored email address as it will not be read**

Claim ID: 342992

Membership Number: 301897

Dear Mr Simon Key,
Thank you for your enquiry regarding your intention to attempt the record for ‘Worlds Largest Reading Group'. We cannot accept your proposal as a new record category at this moment. However, we have searched our Record Database and this is the most similar record we currently monitor: ’Most people completing a questionnaire’.

The current record (current as at the date of this letter) is:

The most people completing a questionnaire is 3,461 and was achieved by Sanofi Aventis de México S.A. de C.V. and La Asociación Psiquiátrica Mexicana (both Mexico) at the Aguascalientes International Speedway in Aguascalientes, Mexico, on 21 March 2010.
(then lots of legal blurb etc)

Please do let us know if you would like to attempt that record instead. If that is the case, you may wish to check with us again closer to submitting your full claim to be sure that a new record has not been set in the interim.

We wish you the best of luck in your record attempt and we look forward to hearing from you!

Yours sincerely,
Kimberly Partrick
Guinness World Records

No, Kimberly Partrick, I would not like to attempt to break the World record for the Most People Completing a Questionnare. I would like to attempt to break the World record for the Worlds Largest Reading Group.

So we're going to try it anyway.

Here's how it works.
We will now be attempting to break the record on Saturday July 30th to give people a chance to read the book (and also this will give us a chance to organise everything properly). Also, we imagine that other reading groups will be busy celebrating National Reading Group Day on June 25th, so it might not be the best day to do this.

The book we have chosen is Where Would I Be Without You by Guillaume Musso.

Having read it, I can assure you it is a book where there's a lot to talk about, hence the reason it was chosen. We've talked to the wonderful publishers, Gallic Books and are able to offer the book at a crazy low price. We hope that reading groups around the country will get involved and so the book is also available as a bundle, so that you can get copies for the other members of your reading group.

We're doing packs of 6 for £30. That's just a fiver a copy.

And we're doing packs of 3 for just £18. (£6 a copy).

single copies we're selling for £7.

And it's FREE Postage and Packing too.

We've set up a Facebook page called appropriately enough;

The Reading Group World Record Attempt.

We will also have a Twitter Hashtag #readinggroup

We will soon be introducing the Forum which will enable us all to discuss the book together.

This is going to be ace. I would love it if you could join in. I would love it also if you could tell everyone you know who loves reading. Reading Groups are cool, reading is sexy and sprouts are green. With a bit of luck these 3 truths will make this world record attempt work (except the thing about the sprouts).

Please let the whole world know. Thanks.

Sainsbury's. Chain Bookselling Company of the Year

2011-05-17T16:06:00.001+01:00

Last night was the Bookseller Industry Awards. At a glitzy award ceremony (i'm assuming it was glitzy, I wasn't there) Sainsbury's scooped the Bookseller of the Year award.

"Sainsbury's was honoured with the Martina Cole General or Chain Bookselling Company of the Year Award after reinvigorating book zones, increasing book sales by more than 33% and attracting new book buyers to the market. One judge said: "We should celebrate the fact that they are embracing books and offering people an alternative place to buy—somewhere they can spend time browsing as well as buying."
I went into my local Sainsbury's today and after congratulating the person on the cigarettes and lotto counter (six items or less), I asked if they could show me where their books were.
Slightly baffled they said they didn't keep them.
That seemed strange for the winner of Martina Cole General or Chain Bookselling Company of the Year Award, especially after one of the judges says that Sainsbury's is a place that we can spend time browsing.

And I don't know about you, but anyone who uses the phrase reinvigorating book zones deserves a very stern talking to and a wedgie at the very least.

So, Sainsbury's are embracing books are they? Well, it's true to say that some of their branches are selling a small selection of general fiction titles at a ridiculously low price. It is also true that they have sold many many thousands of copies of Jamie Oliver's cookery books. They have nailed it with Jamie. Well, if I had 900 shops and sold Jamie Oliver's books for £2 less than I bought it for then I would probably have sold a few copies too.
They sell books, but this does not make them booksellers.

We have sold local honey in the past (Tottenham honey is delicious), but we don't expect to be acknowledged by The National Honey Association.

I have no problem with anybody selling books, but OUR INDUSTRY has recognised them as the Chain Bookselling Company of the Year. This says a great deal about chain bookshops but it says even more about our industry and where it sees the future of bookselling. And for that, I worry.