Whilst the shop is closed, it seemed like a good time to start getting more and more of our books online, not just our Signed Editions. It’s a work in progress (!) and stretches the mind, but it’s immensley enjoyable. The combination of data and character in trying to create a website which is a reflection of the physical shop is a wonderful challenge. Every day is a school day, and learning something new is what keeps the mind fresh and active. In the coming weeks more and more of the shop will be able to be viewed online – the bookcases in the shop are reflected by the categories on the website, we’ll be adding more and more images and perhaps even some film to give you view of what the shop looks like. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, then please drop us a note by email or give us a call and we’ll track down that book for you.
As part of the lockdown and to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, we’ve reduced the number of us in the building at any one time and have also reduced the days we’re at the shop to Monday to Friday from 9am to 5.30pm.
Our Coles Signed Editions this week are a mixture of new and old favourites – the new titles this week include Rhonda Byrne’s ‘The Greatest Secret’, Tom Croft’s curated collection of ‘Portraits for NHS Heroes’, kindness is explored and celebrated by Rutger Bergman in ‘Human Kind’, we escape to Ambridge with The Archers in a novel from Catherine Miller and things get a little eerie in Laura Purcell’s ‘The Shape of Darkness’. Younger reader’s will delight in the wonderfully illustrated (by Rob Biddulph) ‘The Adventure’s of Parsley the Lion’. Some of our old favourites are back, including Susie Dent’s ‘Word Perfect’; Casey Stoner is burning rubber in his 2013 memoir ‘Pushing the Limits’; the autobiography from one half of the Eurythmics, Dave Stewart is available again along with David Suchet’s ‘Behine the Lens’ and Gerald Scarfe’s ‘Long Drawn Out Trip’.
We had some lovely emails from customers following last week’s poem about kindness, this week it’s about love – Robert Browning’s ‘Meeting at Night’ – it may be quite short, but it captures beautifully the breatless urgency of love.
The grey sea and the long black land;
And the yellow half-moon large and low;
And the startled little waves that leap
In fiery ringlets from their sleep,
As I gain the cove with pushing prow,
And quench its speed i’ the slushy sand.
Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;
Three fields to cross till a farm appears;
A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
And blue spurt of a lighted match,
And a voice less loud, thro’ its joys and fears,
Than the two hearts beating each to each!
The bookshop in Bicester is closed for browsing, however Click & Collect orders are still possible, just call us on 01869 320779 or email shop@coles-books.co.uk and we’ll do all we can to help.
