News of the (Bookselling) World

I consider myself reasonably up to speed with 'current affairs' (lovely catch-all for 'stuff you should know to look cleverer than your friends', which is, of course, why one bothers to read anything these days) and I'd expect even the least savvy of you to be aware of the NotW scandal, and be shocked by it: shock would be a totally reasonable and expected moral reaction to what has happened.

Shock, however, is something that industries, not individuals, experience. As for the book trade - I'm curious to see what will come out of the scandal. Since the recession began, there have been a gazillion books published about the crisis, and generally portraying how awful city bankers are. I'm thinking especially of Geraint Anderson's book City Boys, not only because this has been very popular: in fact, he's a hack. And most of the books that have come out of the recession have also been written in a very journalistic way: I have yet to see a serious, though non-academic, response to the financial crisis. I'm not suggesting that journalism can't be serious, but by its nature it has to be speedily produced with little time for reflection.Whilst, from a trade POV, speed and topicality are vital, I think that hindsight and perspective are necessarily lacking.

Similarly, I'm curious about the possible books that might come out of this scandal. As it happens, Iain Banks was in the Guardian Books today (doing the ol' Q & A) and he rightly points out, to the question:


Q:  Given the current corruption in media and politics, ever considered returning to the themes of Complicity, The Business, Garbadale etc. ? 


A: that books are a very slow way to respond to current events. Whilst that means Publishing House Co can't enjoy a glut of ill-considered sales, it does mean that, for the right person, there's a wonderful book to be written in a few years time. After all, chuck a book out there now, when the story seems to have only just begun, and the book will be lacking, of course, and date easily, compared to a work of richer scholarship, taking into account the full story, and mixing it with a dose of perspective.



I'm of the opinion that too many books are produced too quickly these days, to the immediate short term gain of the publisher, but with little thought for anything else. Take, for example, the glut of Royal Wedding books. Sure, they sold well, but honestly - honestly?!? Too many titles were produced (hands up: I did quite enjoy How to Knit Your Own Royal Wedding) but they pretty much all lacked substance. I'd like to see a book come out in five or ten years, charting the relationship, but then of course Kate won't be so pretty, we'll have all decided we don't love her any more, and her sister's bottom will have overtaken the world in any case. I worry that the same is true of this Murdoch mess: he'll avoid prison, release another Sunday paper, and in a few years time it'll be just another one of those stories they show on the end-of-the-year run down and we'll all be saying, 'Aaah remember that?'. I think the implications will be long lasting, but like the similar journalistic exposure of the expenses scandal last year, it'll be a sounding board for jokes soon enough.

On the plus side, something like 4.5 million copies of the paper sold on Sunday. I can't decide if this is a good thing: obviously, that's [4.5 million] x [the price of the paper] going back to Murdoch, despite condemnation. These sales do illustrate, though, that nothing can really replace print media. And I'm sure that's something that all of Fleet Street can be grateful for.

A really lovely story about a bookshop

As some of you may already know, I work in a bookshop. It is not the sort of bookshop where we are encouraged to be silent and let people browse as they wish. Instead we are meant to engage with customers and talk to every single one of them. I personally think this is excessive - I really hate talking to staff when I'm shopping - but then of course working for someone else is only a temporary arrangement. The Dream is to run my own little bookshop somewhere, and I really don't think that's an impossible challenge. I'll have experience, enthusiasm, and the ability to live on very little money, which is what bookselling is really all about, right?

There I was at work, chatting to a couple of really lovely ladies. I assumed they were sisters; as it happens they are neighbours. We had a very long chat indeed - we discussed A S Byatt (this was a while ago, at least when I was still trying to plough through The Children's Book) and the merits or difficulties of historical fiction. One of the ladies recommended a book to me, and although I was interested, I really didn't think of the conversation much after they left.

How lovely then, to be at work on Sunday, engaged in a really boring task like stickering, when one of the women came back into the shop. She headed right in my direction, and we greeted each other warmly, because she recognised me. She insisted that she was in a hurry and that she could only pop in briefly. Well, if only - she had come in solely to lend me a copy of the book she had been talking about: The Sisters who would be Queen by Leanda De Lisle.

The story looks pretty interesting. I've only read a couple of pages, but it's an era of history that I'm into, so pages should be turning quite easily. As much as I'll find some delight, I'm sure, in the book itself, this little episode has made me so happy for the non-tangible side of things. How lovely that she should think of me again, that she should lend me her possessions, that she should trust me to look after it, that she should care what I think of the book, that I should be interested in talking to her again, either about this particular book or another one. After much thanks I explained that although I would start reading it quickly, as I only work on Sundays, it would be likely that I wouldn't be able to return the book soon. She said she already knew that I only worked on Sundays, as that's what I'd told her last time, when she came in with her friend. How lovely!

I suppose to some people, this might just read as an anecdote about a girl getting excited because someone lent her a book. On the most superficial level, that reading might work. This exchange is important to me though, because it illustrates so much more. It shows books can, and should. bring people together - it shows that sometimes we take the lessons that we learn from books, and do try to become better, nicer people.

Work was also exciting because I had a chat with a chap who's just published his first book. Hopefully I'll be able to arrange an event for him to promote that, which'll be ideal for the both of us. More on that as it happens; I'll plug it here, of course!

Today has been a great day: I've been thinking about this lovely lady lots. I also saw a tutor today, who told me I should do a PhD as my ideas for my dissertation have been so interesting; he said it would definitely be a great topic for a book. How lovely of him! I'll probably do a post about that soon, just to see how it goes down (this means that you have to give me some feedback). I'm super excited about writing it, so I hope that comes across when I summarise it for y'all.

Much love xxx