community n, pl –ties ‘a group with shared origins or interests’
The word ‘community’ has been popping-up a lot in conversation this week. The Oxford English Dictionary definition of the word starts with ‘1 a group of people living together in one place. 2 (the community) the people of an area as a group; society.’ And the Collins English Dictionary expands on this with ‘a group with shared origins or interests’. And it’s that last definition which seems most appropriate to those conversations we’ve been having – a community around a shared interest. There have always been clubs and teams and gatherings of folk with shared interests, there’s nothing new in that, but since the pandemic lock-downs it feels as though those groups have been much broader in the their appeal and range of interests. Clearly the internet helps bring people who may be geographically apart together, but there are other ‘magnets’ for coalescing and forming a group with a shared interest – podcasts for example. Working with the We Have Ways and The Rest is Politics podcasts has really demonstrated not only the desire for us to come together as groups (we are social animals after all), but also how engaged we can be when we find that ‘thing’ for which we have a passion – it really is a beautiful thing.
The ’community’ of book lovers who coalesced at the Bicester Library this last week enjoyed an evening of chatter with two popular and lovely authors in Cara Hunter and JP Delaney. Out of the conversations and questions was the point about how important audio books have become for many of us who enjoy reading – in fact the act of listening to a book could also be thought of as ‘reading’ a book. With the decline of CD audio books, bookshops like ours have been excluded from the downloadable audio book world – there’s been a monopoly and the walls of an online behemoth have been too high for us to get over. But the complexities and technologies of the supply of downloadable audio books are becoming more accessible and as such, we now have a ladder to get over the wall – watch out Jeff!
We’ve teamed up with an independent and UK based audio book provider called xigxag (pronounced zigzag) to offer the Coles Books community a wide selection of audio books – all easy to download, no subscriptions, simple & sensible prices (Jeff’s might be worried!) and an ethos which fits perfectly with ours. You can enter the world of xigxag through the image below, click on the purple button and download the free app via the QR code and you’re ready to go – we’ve selected a number of audio books from authors we know you love, but there are thousands more to choose from. It’s a brave new world and we’d love to know what you think – this is us working with another like-minded business and I guess we’re both going to be learning a lot in the coming weeks and months – I’d love to know what you think and what your experience of xigxag is like. It’s exciting, but we want to it be the best it can be – drop me a note to nigel@coles-books.co.uk and help us build something wonderful, something independent, something which becomes a part of our beautiful community.
Downloadable Audio Books through Coles Books & XigXag
Click the image below for the app
The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveller hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands,
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveller to the shore,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
It’s Summer, the sun is almost shining and what better than a chair in the garden or a bench in the park and a bit of reading. We’ve bundled some books from our guest authors at Bicester Library last week to create a little discounted packages of a great reading with each paperback book signed by the author – nice!
Hosted by Ramesh Ranganathan and with Sam Ryder headlining the music, this weekend in Bicester is the gathering for Vegan Camp Out 2023 out at the old airfield – it’s huge a community and there’s a link below for the few remaining tickets.
The full newsletter with links to books can be found HERE
