End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas. Number 3 of #365BigGreenBooks

Book 3 in the challenge. Already way behind schedule.
This is one of those books that I've been meaning to read for years. I've had so many people come in to the shop and pick it up and say, 'oooh, have you read this? it's amazing'. And i've shuffled my feet and said '..er, yeah. I've heard it's really good'. And so earlier this year I finally got round to reading it.

The End Of Mr. Y

Well, it didn't take me too long to realise why people were raving about it. This is a truly wonderful book. It's trippy.
 I still haven't quite worked out how to describe it. Is it a fantasy? An adventure story? A philosophical conundrum? A magical time travelling freak festival?
What I can tell you is that it grips you from the very first moment you open the book.
The main protagonist, PHD student Ariel, comes across a seemingly impossibly obscure book which, whilst incredibly important to the studies she's doing, also has a 'curse'. Everyone who reads it or is in any way involved with it, dies. Yoinks.
The book takes her on a most amazing journey, both in reality and in her dreams.
There are some parts of the book that I had no idea what was going on, but I have to tell you, it made no difference to my enjoyment whatsoever. Scarlett Thomas knows how to write. She knows how to engage the reader.
I guess it kind of looks at life, existence and being (trippy, like I said). There is also a mouse god in it called Apollo Smintheus. YES.
I am not going to reveal anything more about this book, because I want YOU to read it. It is book that people should read.
(9)

Earth Abides by George R Stewart. Number 2 of #365BigGreenBooks

Here is the second book of the ridiculous challenge i've set myself. We have a few Book Groups at the shop. I oversee the one we hold on the second Tuesday of each month. How we choose the books is quite democratic. Everyone writes their choice down on a piece of paper and puts it in a hat, and then one is picked at random. It seems to work well. A couple of month's ago, out of the hat came Earth Abides.

Earth Abides

This pleased me greatly. I like a bit of post apocalyptic fiction, and by the sounds of it this was right up my street.

"Oh no", I hear you cry, "not another one of those 'end of the world', over the top stories".

NO.

The story is set around California. Nearly all of the population has perished an unknown disease. Ish Williams, having been on a scientific study of the mountains around California, somehow survives. Returning to civilisation he finds no humans alive. Being something of a loner, Ish is able to deal with this far better than the other (very very few) survivors he encounters.
It dawns on him that he is now in a position of great responsibility if civilisation is going to survive and begins a quest to find people who will help him rebuild and repopulate the earth.

What is so very very special about this novel is that it doesn't go over the top, like so many other books on the subject. It is beautifully paced, and incredibly thoughtfully put together. It looks specifically at the issue of what would happen to the planet if humans were virtually wiped out. It not only focuses on practical issues such as the neglection of roads, and water pipes, the eventual end of electricity, food, transport and homes, but it also looks at stuff like religion and reproduction.

Ish finally finds Em, who, like Ish understands the importance of her survival. She's a hugely important figure in the book (possibly the most important), and together they begin to build a Tribe, a group of people who will hopefully be able to repopulate the world.
It very cleverly then goes follows the Tribe through 3 or 4 generations and looks at how this group of people develop and thrive.
I don't want to give too much away, but I was pretty blown away by this book.
The Book Group were also full of high praise for it and (of the 22 people who attended the meeting) its lowest score out of 10 was 6.

I gave it a 9, because it's that good.

If you want to buy it you can do so here. FREE P+P.

Swimming Home by Deborah Levy. Number 1 of #365BigGreenBooks

So, the challenge that I've set myself begins. To review 365 books in 365 days. Books that I've read since January 1st 2012. You can read a little bit more about this here 

 

Where do I start?

Well, I guess this is as good a place as any.

Swimming Home by Deborah Levy

I was on holiday last week. Yes, it was lovely thanks. We went to Bude in North Cornwall. So I took some books with me to read. This was one of them. It's been longlisted for this years Man Booker Prize and I'm delighted that such a new and small publisher such as &otherstories has a book on the longlist, although to be honest when it comes to sales, it's only when a book reaches the shortlist that things really start to kick off.
Anyway, I thought I'd give it a go. It's probably not the kind of book I would usually read, but the more I think about it, it has many of the ingredients that I like in a book. Dark humour, unusual prose, and a powerful and thought provoking storyline. Hey, what's not to like?
The story is set in a villa near Nice in the mid nineties. A famous poet, just arriving there with his family sees what he thinks is a body in the swimming pool. It turns out that this body is in fact very much alive. It is Kitty French, who is about to turn the whole families holiday upside down.
She is a huge fan of Joe's and wants to share a poem with him that she's written.
The family (strangely) insist she stays with them until she sorts out alternative accommodation. Kitty seems to possess a kind of hypnotic hold on the people she encounters throughout the book, and her self destructive nature threatens to destroy all of them. It looks at how depression can affect people differently and how difficult people can find it to totally remove it from their lives. If I had to fault it, I'd say that Jurgen the hippy German handyman, who spends his days getting stoned and reading Hermann Hesse seemed caricatured, but this is a  small fault.
At just over 150 pages, it didn't take too long to read, but to suggest that 150 pages is too short would be doing the book an injustice. I think that Deborah Levy uses language thoughtfully and doesn't fluff the novel out with flowery descriptions or pointless asides. The story is tight, powerful, sometimes disturbing, but delightfully written.
Whether it makes the Booker Shortlist, we shall find out tomorrow. I suspect not, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't (my predictions for the shortlist by the way are, Hilary Mantel, Will Self, Nicola Barker, Alison Moore, Michael Frayn and Ned Beauman). If it does, then it will make doing this years Booker Book Challenge a bit easier.
So part of the rules of my challenge is that I have to mark books out of 10. Remember, this is just my opinion. You may have very different thoughts about it.
(7)
It's available to buy here. Free P+P too (and we also pay our corporation tax). x




365 Books in 365 Days

I like books. So much so, in fact, that I read quite a few of them. Some make me shake with excitement just thinking about them. Some make me pleased that I've read them. Some make me angry. But every book I read makes me feel something.
I get many opportunities to share these feelings in the bookshop, where I will delightedly bang on about (for example) how incredible chapter 33 of Mr Chartwell is or how simple the language in Brooklyn by Colm Toibin is, but how it draws you into the story without realising it.

Ah, books.
Books, books books books.

Despite my woeful lack of bloggery on this particular blog recently, I also like typing words and making them into sentences, which I then like to post online.

So, I thought, why not combine these two things into one bigger thing. A THING.
So here's the THING.

Announcing 365 BIG GREEN BOOKS (twitter hashtag #365BigGreenBooks). One year, 365 book  reviews (that is a tagline).

Here are my rules. I made them all by myself.

• 365 Big Green Books will start on Monday September 10th 2012 and finish on September 9th 2013
• all books must have been read since January 1st 2012
• at least 30% of a book must have been read to register a review (I am not going to finish reading a book I can't stand)
• all genres of books are included (although it's likely that it will mainly be fiction and kids)
• Each book will be marked out of 10
• I do not have to review one book a day.  e.g. I can review 5 books in one blog if I like.
• This rule isn't important, please ignore it.
• I can change the rules. I made them, I can break them.

So, that's it really.

This is what I am hoping to achieve by doing this.

1. It will allow me to share my love of books with you.
2. It will stimulate debate about the books I have read.
3. I will be recommended books to read by you lot, that I might not have read otherwise.
4. It will encourage me to blog more here.

I'm quite excited about this. I thnk it's going to be a good THING.
I think i'd better go and read some more books now.
x

"Epiphany", by the Fairy Bookmother.

On a dark day in December, "Appalled of Harringay" learnt of the statistic that one in three children do not own a single book.
"That's real poverty", she cried (for it was a she).
"This is a situation up with which we cannot put", she continued.
She ran (stopping only to catch the 141 bus) to the Big Green Bookshop for a why-oh-why session with Tim and Simon. When calm had been restored, they put their heads together and the Fairy Bookmother Intiative (FBI) was inaugurated, its aim being to share the enjoyment of reading & work towards raising literacy and reducing book-poverty amongst children in the borough of Haringey.

Using a donation from the Fairy Bookmother, the Bookshop supplied books to certain schools in the borough with the remit of getting the books into the hands of those children who were least likely to own a book. This proved tricky, but it was a START.
The Fairy Bookmother is not a millionaire philanthropist (with or without a youthful ward) and is therefore looking for people who share her outrage and would be willing to join with her in further developing the FBI. This may mean a small donation or something less tangible.
She wishes to remain anonymous, at least outside the group, but if anyone is interested in helping out in any way please contact the bookshop.
You could be an individual, a business or maybe you are someone in Haringey Council who may have the facility to take this initiative to another level. Whoever you are, if you think you can help, please get in touch.

Thanks.

Tel. 020 8881 6767
Email. enquiries@biggreenbookshop.com

PAY WHAT YOU LIKE ON ANY OF OUR SECOND HAND BOOKS

 Last month we had a big old sale of on all our 2nd hand books. We'd been inundated by your generous book donations and we'd got to a stage where we had boxes and boxes of books that we just had no room to display.
Rather than leave them in boxes, feeling sorry for themselves, we decided to set them free and offer all our 2nd hand books to our customers at whatever price they wanted to pay.
It worked really well and we were able to free hundred, if not thousands of books on the day.
What the day also achieved was raise the profile of our second hand section. This has led to us getting boxes and boxes more second hand books since the day. This is brilliant, because what it means is....WE'RE GOING TO DO IT AGAIN. 

Yes, this Saturday, ALL DAY we're having another

PAY WHAT YOU LIKE ON ALL OUR SECOND HAND BOOKS 

day.

Once again, you can choose up to 6 books and pay as little as 1p for each. You could pay a tenner for each too, but that's up to you.
We still have well over 3,500 secondhand books here and we're bringing in a load more.
We're hoping for another sunny day so that we can get the tables and boxes outside again.
It's great that we can do this, as we know that lots of you were really sad that you missed the last one.

PLEASE TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS

Fludd/Flood

One of my favourite books ever is Fludd by Hilary Mantel. It's about a dying town in the north of England. The priest has lost his faith and the town has given up on life. Suddenly a preacher called Fludd arrives, informing the priest that he's been sent to renew his (and the town's) faith. Strange things start to happen when he turns up, almost like miracles. Is he good or evil? Oh man, it's a great book.
However this isn't the Fludd i'm talking about today.
 Because this Saturday we had a FLOOD. Not just a leak (we've had lots of those before, as our roof is a bit shite), but a big old flood.
There we were in our small, relatively dry bookshop when a mini tsunami appeared from the 2nd hand book corner. It was a shock. It didn't stop either and continued to pump out gallon after gallon of unpleasant smelling water.
Ten minutes later, after we'd removed bookcases and books from the area in question, we were confronted with this.

The brown thing on the floor looks like a poorly constructed robot with no arms.

We lost a few hundred quids worth of books and the emergency plumber (who was brilliant btw) cost us another couple of hundred. Bugger.

we're getting back to normality and apart from a squelchy green carpet and a slightly damp smell, things are OK.

I guess this is the kind of thing that exemplifies the title of this blog really.

La la la. (these are my happy noises).

If there is a preacher called Fludd out there who fancies visiting Wood Green any time soon, that'd be great. x



  

Garden. A Progress Report

There's a bit of ground by the side of the shop that we have intended to make better use of since we opened. With the help of volunteers we've cleared the area twice now, with plans to turn it into a reading garden. For one reason or another these plans didn't materialise.

Until now.

(left click on the picture and it gets bigger)

Here is the plan that our good friend Louise (a garden designer) has put together. She has sourced almost all the materials that we need to make this a reality and is free to help do the work over the next month. There is also Ben and Alyson, who came to our Bookshop Meeting on Saturday who have kindly agreed to manage the project from our end.

Louise is in the process of making the benches to go into garden once the paving has been put down, and we're pretty much ready to get going.

So, as usual, we're looking for some help.

On the 'Schedule of Works', the first thing we need to do is totally clear the area. At the moment it's covered in gravel and other nasty stuff that will require gloves..All this will need to be transported to a gravel pit in Highgate, where we've been told we can dump it.

Once this is done Louise and the team can get going with putting the fence posts in and doing all the clever things that they need to do.

So , if you're free on Saturday 19th May from 11am and want to give us a hand, then please get in touch. Also, if you have a van or a car that you don't mind being used to transport gravel and stuff to Highgate in, please let us know.

It's going to look fantastic and we're keen that it's done as soon as possible so that our customers can make use of it over the Summer.

Medieval Banquet

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (in my opinion) thoroughly deserved to win the 2009 Booker Prize for fiction. It also won the National Book Critics Circle award for Fiction, The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. It was the winner of the Morning News Tournament of Books, Wimbledon and The Eurovision Song Contest. It was beaten in the semi final of the Champions League by Barcelona after a controversial disallowed goal, which once again brought up the issue of the use of goal line technology.
It is an excellent novel about the early life of Thomas Cromwell and his rise to power in the early 1500s.

Yesterday Fourth Estate published the sequel. This is BIG NEWS in our part of town, so we thought we'd do something appropriate to celebrate.
So we threw a medieval banquet in the bookshop.

This is what our bookshop looks like.

So, we needed to make it look a bit more authentic

Not bad, eh. (that's a log fire in the top left hand corner).

The food was incredible and supplied by local caterers The Hungry Wolf. There were roasted pigeons with parsley and bread sauce, fish pies with pears and spices, a staggeringly tasty mutton stew apple pies, marchipane, fruit jellies. For the vegetarians we had a mushroom and prune stuffed bread, (which was out of this world) and a borage leaf and parsley egg pie.

This was all washed down with lashings of spiced wine and ale.  





Menu

We also managed to secure SIGNED FIRST EDITIONS of the book, which guests got to take home at the end of the evening (all wrapped in brown paper and tied up with string).

We still have some of the Signed First Editions if you're interested.

As usual, we couldn't have pulled this off without the help of our fantastic customers and friends. All the material and cloth that covered the shelves was borrowed, as were the trestle tables which we used to build the long table. The publishers were great in making sure we got the signed copies that we'd asked for and we even managed to borrow the plates from the cafe next door.

So, to sum up, people got together, chatted, laughed, enjoyed a wonderful meal and took home a great book in a pretty little parcel and hopefully had a memorable evening.

Amazon must be quaking in their boots. 



Timeline Books. An Announcement.

I am  a bookseller. But I am also a publisher. My publishing company is called Timeline Books. I have published one book so far. Yes, ONE. It is London Tales by Greg Stekelman. It is awesome and if you haven't bought it by now and you have £40, then I suggest you do. There are only 250 in the whole world and tests prove that by buying a copy your life will improve on average by 3.2%*.
When I set up Timeline Books, I thought to myself that i'd probably publish just the one book. But having enjoyed the whole experience so very very much, my taste for publishing more has grown.
And this is why I am delighted to announce that I am going to be publishing Timeline Books second book.
It's going to be a collection of the finest short stories by Joseph D'Lacey. Joseph is awesome and I cannot tell you how excited I am to be publishing this.

Let me tell you a bit about Mr D'Lacey.

• He wrote a book called Meat, which I reviewed on this blog here back in 2008 (there is also an interview I did too).He also wrote a book called Garbage Man, which has some of the most powerful imagery I have read. He also wrote the novella Kill Crew, which I reviewed a bit here
• He was awarded Best Newcomer in 2009 at the British Fantasy Society awards for Meat
• Stephen King is a massive fan and has said that 'Joseph D'Lacey Rocks'.
• I have spent the last 2 months reading his short stories and I feel like I am the luckiest person alive. They are brilliant.

This is what Joseph looks like, should you want to say hello to him if you meet him.

Joseph would probably be filed under Horror in bookshops. If there was a more specific sub genre, it would be Eco Horror. But the scope of his writing means that I am reluctant to place him in one particular genre. His stories put me in mind of Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected, but with an even darker, more sinister (and sometimes hilarious) conclusion. What I love about his writing is that I never know quite what to expect. His latest book, Snake Eyes, published in the USA, contains two novellas. Each one takes you on a journey that has layer after layer of storyline. It takes you further and further into his crazy and imaginative mind. You don't know what's going to happen, but when it does happen...BOOM!!

The book will be published on September 27th 2012. This coincides with the publication of a book by JK Rowling, which one or two of you might know about. We thought it would be good for her to have a bit of competition.

There will be a Limited Edition of just 500 copies. Each one will be signed and numbered.

There will be a competition to design the cover of the book. This will be launched in May at the same time as the title of the book is announced.

There are more things, but this is quite enough excitement for one blogpost.

This is going to be something very special. If you know anyone who you think would want of copy of this (who wouldn't to be honest), please let them know.

*I made this up, but you should still buy a copy.