Alas, it took me just a quick click and a dash of trade awareness (and the headline, of course, but let's not be literal) to realise it wasn't going to be a happy story. Oh no. The Big Green Bookshop is facing bankruptcy and soon to close. The chain British Bookshops went into administration recently, and Waterstone's have also recently made public plans to close 20 stores (of course, closures don't hit chains so bad, but redundancy is sad for anyone). The book trade hasn't been in a good way for a while, but this recent spate of closures doesn't set the tone for a good year.
To avoid closure, owners Mark, Tim and Simon have set into action an impressive publicity campaign. On their blog (humorous, regularly updated, and full of character) they've written about the problems they face. They've helpfully included the visual aid of the 'Strugglometer', reminiscient of a Blue Peter charity appeal, to let readers (bloggers and book-buyers, geddit) know the progress the store is making. [Hello, BBG: I hope you don't mind me copy+pasting this.]
Anyway: to get to my point. From 6th - 12th March, the Big Green Bookshop are asking people to buy just one book from them. Just one (by which of course I mean, 'at least' one). They already have 1000 customers on a loyalty card scheme, and I don't doubt this number will increase thanks to their publicity efforts. According to the site, a cash injection like this will save them from the abyss.
So. Please go to buy a book from them some time that week. Please. I write this as someone who loves books and the book trade too. Let's not turn our high streets into identikit shopping areas with identikit bookshops and identikit titles. Let's celebrate a local bookshop, one that certainly seems to go way beyond the remit of just a 'shop'. Look! They have board game days and readings and book groups and events for children. They seem like a hub of their community (N22) which is something that all bookshops aspire to do - so few do it well, so let's save the ones that do. Bookshops matter. They matter so much - Amazon doesn't get chatting to you about your current read, Amazon won't give you honest, from-the-heart recommendations, and Amazon couldn't give a toss, frankly, about anything but profit (see this damning description of how they treat their staff). Moreover, the chaps behind this operation seem like such lovely blokes - do we really want to see them made redundant, having set up the shop three years ago after the Waterstone's they managed went under? No, we don't. So let's buy some books!
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