waffle

In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away. (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry).

saber
ps if you haven't read The Little Prince, you're missing out.

Rocket Science it ain't.

I'm stealing/misquoting Julian here who's often said that bookselling isn't rocket science. I've always taken that to mean that x +y+ z doesn't necessarily give you the expected result in bookselling. If you take ten copies of book, it doesn't automatically follow that you'll sell all ten. And that's without even considering that you might want to have a copy (or lots and lots) in the window so that people can see the book. But I digress.

Last night we took along fifty copies of Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist to a launch/reading. We sold forty-seven.

I do get it wrong more often than not. So it feels nice to get it just about right.

saber

Late Shifts

I've just tweaked the blog layout so that our customers can see what signings/signed books we have coming up. It's the kind of tweaking I would never manage to do so quickly during the daytime as I would inevitably have to answer a query, the telephone, tell someone that we don't sell stationery or stamps etc, shelve some books...

I can do it now because I'm on the late shift (which finishes at ten o'clock). While I hate working the late shift, it does mean that I can get a lot of the fiddly work stuff done. And that I can stay at home in the morning and wait for the electrician to come and fix my boiler so that I can finally have a warm shower. Or just have a lie-in. Or even on on a good day, I might even have gone for a wander and ended up in a museum. Or not. But working on a late shift gives you a flexibility that a normal nine to five job doesn't.

(A normal nine to five job would mean that I would never ever have to work weekends...).

saber

politicians and books- do they read?

To my shame I've just finished Suite Francaise (If you've not heard of it, it is the first two parts of an unfinished sequence of novels by Irene Nemirovsky: a Russian Jew who had to move to France and became a successful writer. It is about the occupation of France written during the occupation of France. The manuscript was found in notebook form years after it was written. The fact that the author died in Auschwitz has only added to it's allure)
Due to family history I avoid anything that tends to sell itself via the holocaust (While being perfectly happy that he's written it-I probably won't read the new Norman Mailer, for example) but I came down off this particular high horse as, credit to Chatto, they did not push the tragic author aspect too much, mostly selling the book on its artistic merit.

They were right to do so; it is fantastic, especially the first section dealing with the evacuation of Paris. This is a book about war but about the civilian experience of it. And it should be compulsory reading for anyone in charge of armed forces. It is, in a quiet way, a brutal book . The consequences of invasion are spelt out with absolute clarity, the casual destruction of families, the stupid and unforeseen tragedies that rip the meaning out of countless peoples lives. You see the news and wish this book had been around a few years ago and thrown onto the laps of our lords and masters.

Mind you when you have defence secretaries claiming that they are 'surprised' by the level of resistance in Afghanistan (something I've now heard twice) it beggars belief. Could they not employ some kind of book doctor to recommend certain titles to stop making total arses of themselves- in this case I would prescribe 'The Great Game' by Peter Hopkirk

p.s. I don't care how hard hearted you are- you've got to feel a bit sorry for West Ham and Carlos Tevez

julian

More books than time to read them.

One of the (many) great things about working in a bookshop is the discount we get on books which encourages us to read more, another that publishers often publish proofs of books and are nice enough to send them to booksellers to read.

You could say that it increases your product knowledge. I just enjoy reading, so it never feels like work. And I hate referring to books as texts or products. Yes, yes, I know they're handy terms but they sound awful.

In the past fortnight these are the proofs that have been floating around my bedside table.

Jim Crace's The Pesthouse - coming in to sign at the shop in a week or so, and I (did anyone not?) liked Quarantine.

Clive James' Cultural Amnesia - 100 or so essays on the great and the good of history and culture. It's a book you dip into. Perfect because it'll take you a quiet moment to read an essay, but you then spend the rest of the day/night percolating your thoughts on Clive James and what he's writer about. I'm not sure that - I'm pretty sure actually - that I don't agree with everything he says. But working out why has made me think a lot about what matters to me. I would defy anyone to not find something of interest in this book. Of the 20 or so essays I've read so far, my favourite is the one on Sophie Scholl. After writing about how important she was/is, James appears to digress and starts talking about what a great actress Nathalie Portman is. He neatly dovetails these two strands to then make conclusions about Hollywood and truth.

A lot of the people James writes about are unknown to me. But that doesn't really matter. He provides enough information for you to then engage in the argument that he wants to make. There are of course people I wish he had written about. Reading the essay on E. R. Curtius, I wanted to read his thoughts on Eric Auerbach (if you do look up the Auerbach link, you'll find out, among other things, that he supervised Fredric Jameson's doctorate which makes sense and I do find interesting). But he didn't write on Auerbach.

Ramachandra Guha's India After Gandhi. I'm sure that there are going to be many books on India this year as it celebrates it 60th year of independence. I'm hoping that reading this will give me a good overview on the history. It had better - over 800 pages long.

Jenni Mills' Crow Stone. The proof cover is festooned with puffs/praise from all and sundry at HarperCollins. Even if I weren't going to be at a HarperCollins trade dinner with the author (Patrick Gale, Kate Bucknell and Nicola Barker will also be there, so it should be a really good evening), I would read the novel (am reading it): it's set in Bath!

Tad Williams' Shadowplay - the sequel to Shadowplay. It's taken me a while to get into this, but after the first 80 or so pages, I want to carry on reading just to find out what happens. But at the back of my head is the knowledge that this is the second of a trilogy, so I'll end up frustrated at the end of the book.

It can be like Christmas working at Pan - you never know what goodies come in the padded envelope.

saber

The Evil that Lurks in the Heart of Men.

Eergh. Really don't want to waste too much time on this. But we were burgled last night. Some numpty broke in to the shop. Took some money - not even all that much. But it has meant that we didn't open up till lunch time today. Grr.

Yesterday was fantastic. World Book Day which means as much/little as you want it to mean when you work in a bookshop I suppose, was yesterday. And as far as the Pan Bookshop goes this is what it meant. Lots of lovely children from the nearby Park Walk School came to redeem their World Book Day tokens and get the books specially written for them.

Some of the books are fantastic: The Sharing the Shell book and the Selfish Crocodile books are particular faves of mine (I'm not quite the target audience for the Tiara Club).

Oh and while I'm at it, special thanks to Cara/Cora Lovett at Bloomsbury who got me more copies of the Selfish Crocodile book at the last moment.

The whole week has been pretty special. Monday night was - as Julian's blogged - my birthday which I didn't really celebrate. Instead I went along with Charlie and David to sell V. S. Naipaul's books at the Chelsea Arts Club. It's only a shame that he didn't have a brand new book.

And today should resume its normal course fairly soon: we have Allan Mallinson coming in to sign Man of War which by the blurb seems to go into Patrick O'Brian territory. Even if I didn't like the Matthew Hervey novels, I would have read the fourth in the series: The Sabre's Edge.

In fact as I speak, he has just popped in. And recommended Alessandro Barbero's account of Waterloo as one of the best he's ever read. 48 chapters - each of about 1000-1200 words - which in their concision give you a better picture of this battle than you're likely to get anywhere else.

Instead of all of the above, I was going to write about The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril which looks (haven't finished it yet) like a great novel and has a puff from Glen David Gold on the cover. It deals with Lester Dent, L. Ron Hubbard and Walter Gibson. I've never read any of Hubbard's books, but I'm a fan of Dent's Doc Savage (avoid the Ron Ely film which is faithful but terrible) and of Gibson's Shadow - do see the film with Alec Baldwin and Penelope Ann Miller and a cameo from Ian McKellen.

I loved the Shadow not just for the lines which introduced every episode: "Who Knows what Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Men? The Shadow knows!" but just the whole atmosphere and actions...

saber

I just looked at this to read what Saber wrote yesterday- and he hasn't! this is no real surprise as he had to look after hoards of children for world book day. I guess he'll tell us all about that later. but as we promised to be good boys and write something most days and we're only up to day 4 I'd better get something down and call it yesterdays post.

I've actually taken 3 days off to build something in my back garden- guess what, eldest child throws up everywhere and can't go to nursery- my day is spend lying on sofa watching kids TV, way too much kids TV. How do you know when you have watched too much kids TV? when you start worrying about the background characters in The Fimbles- are they jealous of Roly Mole having a successful breakout spin off series of his own, are they nice to him hoping to get a coveted guest spot on his show etc etc

Fleeing from the tv I picked up a book to surreptitiously read and realised I'd probably be going to Iceland in the next year or two. The link, well my last few holidays have been to Southwold, Venice, Ystad, Edingburgh (well Glasgow but we went to Edinburgh for the day so why spoil a perfectly good train of thought) , Dartmoor and I'm hoping to go to Sciliy soon. The book I picked up 'Silence of the Grave' by Arnaldur Indridason a crime novel set in Reykjavik that I'd been meaning to read for a while. The pitifully few pages I was allowed to read seem pretty good and I'm looking forward to the second chapter!

The sun is shining and Arran has just gone to nursery- the garden awaits

julian

what we have in our window


we have a number of desirable titles currently on display to passers by but the one that pushes the most buttons for me is 'City of Laughter- Sex and Satire in eighteenth century London' by Vic Gatrell. Who is Vic Gatrell? - I've no idea, well not until I read the flyleaf of this book. Have I read this book? - no. How then can I recommend it?? - here's how

'The most sumptuous and beautiful history book in years' Stella Tillyard, Sunday Times

'Rarely has a book matched its subject better than ''City of Laughter: sex and Satire in Eighteenth Century London'' Those times were gargantuan and teeming with life, and so is Vic Gatrell's 695-page, richly illustrated work' George Walden, Bloomberg.com

'City of Laughter is an overfowing cornucopia of a book, stuffed with illustrations, rippling with stories, packed with characters, ripe with quotations, rich with insights and arguments..magnificent.' Jenny Uglow, Financial times

etc etc

If Jenny Uglow says that, and as the author of 'Hogarth, a Life and a World' she can do no wrong, it's more than good enough for me.

If you think this rings a bell but can't place why perhaps it's because 'City of Laughter..' came out last October but, I think, the first print run sold out almost instantly, just after these reviews came out. Sadly our- and probably most shops, initial order was way too small (ours was: for some unknown reason we only ordered one copy!!!) hence a small print run.
I am told the reprint was done in China and so did not arrive until after Christmas. The publishers saved, I guess, around 50% in publishing costs but must have lost more than that in Christmas sales- equally there may have been no nearer press that could do such a heavily illustrated book in such short notice. (This doesn't explain why the one I am holding still claims to be a first edition)

Anyway credit where it is due Atlantic have produced a wonderful but pricey book (£35) and had the guts to reprint it after Christmas. I think it looks great and, still feeling pangs of guilt for our crappy first order, have done what we should have done all along- taken 30 copies and put it in our window.

p.s we are asked why we don't have pictures in our blogs- mostly because I and computers are a bit of an oxymoron but this time it's to make anyone reading this to leave their desks and go to a shop, hopefully ours but any will do, and have a proper look at this book.
we don't put just anything in our window you know- well not this time

julian

Shorter

Looking at yesterday's post I think, given my time over again, I probably wouldn't have pointed out the 'it's shorter' bit - looking at it on the screen it still seems long. Too long.

Oh well, thanks to anyone who persevered to the end- as yet no one has stepped forward to be the owl and Saber is still facing the worlds smallest compilation CD as a leaving present.

julian

OK, Everyone makes mistakes and we seem to have mucked up big time with our newsletter/e-mail/blog/whatever it was we tried to do last time; and then compounded it by not doing another newsletter for a couple of months.
So if you have clicked on a link we've sent you, then welcome to the Pan Bookshop newsblog. Again. And this time- it's shorter.
This time there should be something posted most days, so please feel free to come and visit anytime but if we have anything we need to announce (rare, I'll admit) we'll probably do this sending out of the link through our mailing list to alert anyone of impending news.
One of the reasons the newsletter failed in the end was that we were obsessed with it containing reviews and views of forthcoming books but hey- why should it? Plus we always wanted to have read the books we mentioned (not true of all newsletters) which upped the workload somewhat which was then further increased by our really only wanting to write about books we liked. We're not a review section of a newspaper and life seemed too short to be posting knocking copy of someone else's hard work, duh. If you hit a run like I did last year, not too many actual bad books but one absolute real stinker and lots of only ok ones there's nothing to write about. Oops. Anyway I'm exhausted just thinking about it- in fact, second only to acting, book newsletter writing must be about the hardest and most dangerous thing there is.
Anyway- here is impending news
1. Saber is, unbelievably, going to pastures new.
2. Harry Potter- does anyone want to be our owl?
3. Children's reading sessions
1. and this is sad, Saber who pretty much all of you will know, has decided to up sticks and throw in his lot with Robert Topping at his new bookshop in Bath (this is not sad news if you live in Bath - I know the others Robert has recruited and they are top of the range booksellers too, this will be a really great shop).
If anyone wants to say bye-bye to Saber he leaves us on March 23rd. His Leaving do is at the Bath House (96 Dean Street).
(For any publicists worrying about missing Saber, we will carry on as before...for any publicist wishing to become Saber we are still looking for a replacement, but hurry).
I am hoping to do a cd for Saber to fondly remember us by. Prime candidate for inclusion is 'It's the end of the world as we know it (but I feel fine)' but I'm mostly after songs about books- Fairport Convention did 'The Book Song', Hawkwind, among many literary references probably did the best song ever based on a Herman Hesse novel in 'Steppenwolf', coming up to date the Klaxons quote Thomas Pynchon, Aleister Crowley and Ballard, while hot new item The Hold Steady open their new album with a quote from 'On the Road' but while reasonably eclectic this won't get me a full compilation done. So does anyone have any other examples?
(There you go, just since typing this the Pogues' 'Down all the Days' has just come into mind. And the Cure's 'Killing an Arab'- possibly a song that you don't hear quite so much any more but sound Camus references all the same. But I'm not sure we can count anything with William Burroughs- just too many).
P.S . It's Saber's birthday today
2.As you all probably know this is a Harry Potter year, in fact, THE Harry Potter year- the final installment -Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows comes out on Saturday 21st July This is a cause of great delight for us (although this is not true for all small bookshops, I know it seems unbelievable but due to various circumstances loads of shops will make barely any money from what will probably be the best selling book in our professional lives but we'll go into Harry Potter economics at a later date).
Anyway we do love Harry Potter here. As usual we will open at midnight; it might be an idea to reserve a copy if you want to come. Last time we sold more at the midnight opening than the next day and although we've never run out yet, it may happen.
We will also do our owl delivery service for the next morning, but sadly we have lost our owl as Saber normally did this. (Note to self- booksellers may leave rather than spend a third Harry Potter night in an owl costume). Every year we open we have a number of customers asking if they can help us and we normally have one or two passing out sweets etc and it is great fun- but this year someone could actually be Hedwig if they want. Any volunteers please just pass your or your child's name and contact details to us and I'll get back to you- height restrictions apply, you probably need to be at least 5ft tall.
P.S You're not committed to being an owl for both the midnight and 8.00am next morning. The first is fun but the second, while great for anyone to get their Harry Potter book delivered by a giant owl, is not such fun for the owl if you only went to bed at 3.30am- we know this from experience!
3. I do not know if any of you listen to Oneword radio, it's part of Channel 4 radio and is an arts station in general but most of all it is about books, talking about them, reading them or dramatising them. One of their regular hosts, Paul Blezard, was here the other day and while chewing the fat we all agreed it would be a great idea to record an author reading to a group of children, answering their questions and Paul guiding everyone through making sure it made good radio. We also all thought it would be even better if this was recorded in a shop, this shop (why that should make better radio, I don't know but it feels right).
Before I get back to Paul I need to know if there is any interest in parents, children or teachers attending such an event. If there is enough interest we could set up a storytime anyway. Who knows, if we get it organized fast enough we might get Saber to dress up for one last hurrah. Paul Blezard really does know a phenominal number of authors and we know quite a few too, so between us we should be able to cater for most ages and tastes.