The walk through town to and from the book shop when the weather is like this is a real joy – it’s not just a great opportunity for exercise, it’s the complete sensory experience.
The noise of the cars on Skimmingdish Lane can sometimes make the place feel more like Silverstone, but once you’re away from the traffic and in amongst the lanes through the houses, a calm befalls and the sound of birdsong comes to the fore. Where the old parade ground is, the sound of the gravel under-foot popping like thousands of tiny balloons; a jogger passes, they’re in the zone, the ptsssst ptssst ptssst of whatever motivating sounds drive them on, leaking in short bursts from their ear buds like the air from a tyre. An open window lets the smell of someone’s breakfast toast drift out to mingle with the freshness in the air, the green of the trees and hedges just seems to be so much more lush in the mornings, as if the leaves have been injected with fresh paint overnight; the blue of the sky preparing to drift through the full range of Pantone hues in the coming day; a nod and a cheery ‘morning’ to the regular fellow walkers as we pass on our way, cutting a corner to walk over a patch of grass feels like bouncing in a cloud after the hard surface of the footpath. The return journey brings banter and laughter from pub gardens, the brightness of the lowering sun falling like a needle on a gauge, the labours of the day slowing down to an idle. Those smells again, sausages this time, drifting over a hedge intertwined with the barbecue smoke, Duran Duran blasting out of a window – who wouldn’t be hungry like a wolf with that smell teasing your nostrils – walking’s great, it’s an exercise for the senses as well as the muscles – it’s the perfect way to bookend the perfect day…
‘Days of walking are very long, they make you live longer, because you have allowed every hour, every minute, every second to breath, to deepen, instead of filling them up by straining them at the joints’ – taken from A Philosophy of Walking by Frederic Gros.
The new shelving for our packing area has arrived, this part of the book shop is becoming a well oiled machine of industrial style output – we’re very lucky, we have loads of space (and a lift!) but it’s interesting how this last year and a half has changed the way we think of being a book shop. Our website and the internet has become as important to our customers as it has to ourselves as booksellers, the merging of the virtual with the real is an exciting development, avoiding the algorithms and anonymity, keeping the connections real and meaningful is exciting work.
We’ve been working like billy-o on our unsigned books this week, shepherding two hundred thousand titles into drop-down menus and categories requires a certain amount of plate spinning, but that’s the great thing about books, the choice of reading material is almost limitless. Our Coles Signed Editions this week include Pre-Orders for the memoir of singer/songwriter Richard Marx; democracy is about keeping an eye on the politicians and making them accountable, Jess Phillips opens the door and lets us peer into the corridors of power; one of our best-selling paperbacks last year was Mark Stay’s ‘The Crow Folk’, the follow-up ‘Babes in the Wood’ is coming this Autumn; the forthcoming graphic novel ‘Sleeper’ from Jed Mercurio is bound to be a cracker; Penny Parkes has signed bookplates for us for her new novel ‘Home’; photographer Harry Benson charts the life of Paul McCartney through his lens; Jane Healey’s novel ‘The Orphelia Girls’ dramatises the romance and tragedy of an obsession with the pre-Raphaelites and actor Manjeet Mann’s ‘The Crossing’ is an essential tale of our times. It’s no surprise, but our Signed Editions of Alistair Brownlee’s book ‘Relentless’ were fast out of the blocks last week and sold-out very quickly, if you missed it, more have now arrived.
And finally, following the success of Charlie Mackesy’s ‘The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse’, the audio version is now available on 12″ vinyl – these are unsigned, but beautiful nonetheless
£24.00
