Browsing the Bookshelves

The sun is shining here in South East London and Sydenham is bathed is in a golden summer haze with a refreshing cool breeze.  So I am having a day off and friends are coming round for the first BBQ of the summer this evening. And I am definitely not going to feel guilty about it, despite the fact that two books for review this morning : the best selling The White Masai by Corinne Hofmann, which is due out in its first UK edition in September this year, and a weighty tome of a historical novel by Peter Prince.

Peter Prince's Adam Runaway has been hugely hyped already, although again not due for publication until September and much more promotional activity is promised but the comparisons to Sarah Walters and Rose Tremain which are proudly proclaimed on the back of the cover do not inspire me with enthusiasm to get stuck in.

In the meantime, I'm thoroughly enjoying The Shadow of the Wind, although a full review will have to wait until I've finished. 

Those looking for a good, satisfying read, could do worse that Guardian of the Dawn by Richard Zimler which we reviewed way back in November.

...well, not quite.  It's been one of the slowest days I can remember in the bookshop. Hardly a customer to converse with let alone a sniff of a sale.  It does mean however that I have had time to revamp my "About The Virtual Bookshelf" page on ebay, and even list a few items for sale.  Not much for the sum total of a day's work - but then I did give up about 11am and adjourn to the garden which is now blessed with not one but two planted-up potato barrels, lots more garlic and tarragon and a fine barrow-load of gerainiums.  Shame the sun won't shine for more that 3 minutes at time.

But it's only thing I have been able to think about for the last two days. Wednesday, and I woke up with the most incredible pain in my left cheek, running the whole side of my head. Painkillers had little effect. Couldn't sleep, couldn't talk (hubby thought that was quite cool), couldn't think. Worse, I couldn't read.  Even day-time television became to seem quite appealing. No sleep on Wednesday night and even more pain on Thursday. Deep, constant, acute pain, all day. So finally resolved to get a doctor's appointment, and was pleasantly surprised to get an appointment for late afternoon. Lovely, sympathic doctor and quick prescription for antibiotics and painkillers and three hours later I'm pain free again. Such heaven.

It makes me very grateful for the NHS - the fact that I can call on a doctor's services whenever I need to without having to think about the cost. (OK, so the prescription cost me £13.00, but such a small price for pain relief).  But it makes me think even more about those who live with pain constantly with little chance of relief.  I know how dreadful I've been to those around me for the last two days. Not that I meant to snap or be snippy, but I just couldn't help it.  All credit to those who manage the whole thing much better than I ever could.

Well, that's my excuse for not doing much else for the last few days - been far too caught up in reading. Last week it was Andrea Levy's Small Island.  A huge disappointment after all the hype. The scenario is interesting enough but I found the characters - almost without exception - flat and uninteresting.  The relentless stereotpying of minor characters just added to a the sense that nothing was quite real.  Then Grisham's latest blockbuster, The Broker. The Broker is classic, page-turning Grisham.  I felt that his last couple of thrillers had gone off the boil, although I did enjoy Bleachers, but The Broker certainly marks a return to form for Grisham.  Largely set in Italy, it is perhaps a little more softly atmospheric than the likes of The Pelican Brief or The Runaway Jury, but the plot is as compelling as ever.  My favourite Grisham remains The Chamber.

Last night I started reading Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.  A promising start - (unlike the Levy which I found dull from the start), but more later when I've read a little more.  The need for sleep overtook me before I'd reached page 10!.

Naturally, we have some John Grisham books in stock if your interested, including a very nice first edition of The Last Juror.  But if first editions are not your thing, there are plenty of good quality used paperbacks. If you can't find what you're looking for on our virtual shelves, try Ibooknet - real books from real booksellers.

And if you want something even more random - in fact I think we should rename ourselves Random Books (hmm, perhaps that publisher would have something to say about that - try this: Random Books Galore. Serendipity rules!

Little seems to be happening in the bookshop at the moment. The sunshine which manages to escape through the showers in the English spring has tempted me out into the garden and I've been neglecting the business that pays the bills.  There is the comfort that with all the veggies and salad crops that we've planted, the bills wont be so large over the next few months but even so I really need to get down to some serious work over the next couple of weeks.  So that's the resolution. Catalogue, research, market and offer books. Head down, business up: that's the way it usually works.

Of course, selling second hand books on line is changing radically and rapidly.  The six months to May 2005 has seen a 5 per cent increase in the market, but growth of over 30 per cent in the supply of books on line. So many common titles, sure. But there's also been a huge increase in the supply of mid-range books, say from £15 to £50, which have always been the bread and butter of my business, and for so many other medium-sized second hand booksellers.  The on-line market will stabilise. The market will continue to grow and the supply of books is ultimately finite. The problem is that no-one knows how long it will take and no-one knows exactly what infinite means or when we will reach it.  In the meantime, as I said, it's head down and business up. Only the fittest and leanest operations will thrive the current environment. We fully intend to remain among that group.

It's a victory - we have found more space. And it's  hollow, just waiting to be packed full of the precious gems of books that we need to have easy access to so, for sale and to be able to respond to queries. I can't believe it's taken so long to find suitable premises, and in the end the answer was just around the corner.  Thanks to the lovely people at Dulwich Storage Company for making it all so easy.

So a lovely sunny Sunday afternoon was spent shifting boxes of books from our Sydenham home to our new home in Dulwich. It's a bit of an exaggeration to call it a home, but it will be home to a lot of books for months to come.  No lights, minimal heat and not a comfy chair in sight, but the books will be very happy. And I'm very happy to have, finally, some space to move around at home.  Now of course I can plan on filling that space up with even more books next month.

Equally busy in the garden, planting out the first of the cordon tomatoes.  I really worry that I've caught the gardening bug - I feel the gardening calling to me the morning when I get up - as it's just another sign that I am really turning into my mother. Even worse, this afternoon, I caught myself thinking that I might really prefer to have a cup of tea in a nice cup, rather than in a chunky mug.  I've drunk tea from chuncky mugs for years and never wanted for anything else. So why now?