The Gallic Books Blog

Independent Bookseller of the Month - Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights

Independent Bookseller of the Month - March 2011

Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights
14/15 John Street
(behind Jolly's, opposite the "Salamander" pub)
Bath, BA1 2JL

01225 331155
books@mrbsemporium.com
www.mrbsemporium.com

Escaping the hustle and bustle of London to set up a new life elsewhere is, for many, little more than a pipedream. Not for successful city lawyers Nic and Juliette however who, in 2005, left the capital and settled on Bath for the location of their dream enterprise – an independent bookshop.

Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights opened its doors the following year in 2006 and has since become an unrivalled success attracting booklovers from all over the South West and beyond as well as winning a multitude of industry awards.

And it isn’t hard to see why. Mr B’s has a passion for books which is evident in everything they do. The shop itself is a monument to contemporary fiction with a sumptuous bibliotherapy room for those who prefer to do their reading in the lap of luxury. An eye-popping array of extra-curricular literary activities makes sure that regular frequenters of the shop are never short of literary inspiration. Not sure what to read next? Then why not sign up to a (quite brilliant) Reading Spa Treatment? Stuck for what to do one evening? Then why not visit an off-the-wall themed literary evening?

As with all of our Bookseller of the Month winners we spoke to Mr B’s about what makes them tick...

1) What genres does Mr B’s specialise in? Are there any genres you don’t stock?

Literary and translated fiction are really strong areas for us. Amongst our favourite authors are Jose Saramago, Andrey Kurkov, Olga Grushin and Siri Hustvedt, to name just a few. We also have a particularly packed travel and travel writing section. We specialise in reading for pleasure so we don’t stock many technical books and textbooks, although we can order them for our customers and school clients when needed. The Mr B’s team has really diverse reading tastes, which makes for a great variety of customer recommendations. Whilst we all tend to veer towards fiction for the most part, we have a photography/art expert, cycling enthusiast, history buff, travel enthusiast and a psychology graduate amongst the ranks. In order to broaden our horizons even further this year most of the team have taken on reading challenges to encourage us to read outside our comfort zones.

2) Do you organise events and readings with (local) authors? What events have you coming up in the next month?

We’ve recently completely changed the way that we run our author events and have introduced themed literary evenings that differ from the standard author talk. We call these new style of events “Book Lovers Unite!” evenings and they are made up of a talk from a special guest (usually an author), music from our band of local musicians “The Bookshop Band”, drinks, canapés and a tasty buffet from some of our favourite local foodies and a whistle stop tour of literature linked to the guest’s book by a common theme. Our spring season of “Book Lovers Unite!” events is titled “Books Behaving Badly” and celebrates misbehaviour in literature and kicks off with Adultery Night on April 7 with special guest Paula McLain, whose evocative fictional biography of Ernest Hemingway ‘The Paris Wife’ has really impressed us. Full details of the rest of the season are detailed on our website.

3) Do you do promotions/discounts? If so, what are your current promotions?

Generally we don’t discount our books. We do run a loyalty card scheme though, where we reward our customers with stamps for their purchases, which ultimately amount to £5 off in our shop. We also offer discounts for students.

4) Which book are you currently recommending and why?

‘The Concert Ticket’ by Olga Grushin – it’s a fantastic novel written in English by a Russian author, which centres around a queue that forms at a mysterious booth. At first the members of the queue have no idea what exactly they are waiting for, but when it is announced that tickets for a one-off concert by an exiled composer will soon go on sale, each member of Anna’s small family has their own motives for wanting the sole ticket, the question is, who will be in the queue when the booth finally opens? Really cleverly plotted with gorgeous evocative description throughout, we’re completely smitten with this novel.

5) What does the future hold for Mr B’s Emporium?

We’re currently in the process of creating a brand new shiny website, with an online shop to promote all of our favourite books to customers from further afield, so watch this space… And of course we’ll continue the search for great titles to recommend to the book-lovers of Bath and beyond.

6) And finally, why should people visit Mr B’s Emporium?

If you love books but want some advice on what to read, we’re always on hand with recommendations. Or if you just want to browse, Mr B’s is bright and well-laid out, with free tea and coffee and comfy armchairs on hand to make the book-buying experience even more relaxing. Or for the ultimate book lover we offer our Reading Spa Treatments – one-on-one sessions with one of trained bibliotherapists talking about books, eating cake and with a book token thrown in to buy all of the great reads that we’ll introduce you to.

Independent Bookseller of the Month - The Big Green Bookshop

Anybody reading The Bookseller these days could be forgiven for thinking that 2011 will mark the start of an inexorable decline in the world of books.

Unfortunate cost-cutting at Waterstone's coupled with the imminent closure of several hundred UK libraries and the (disgraceful) funding cuts to Booktrust certainly do paint a dismal picture.

There are, however, some encouraging signs for the year ahead with several independent bookshops reporting like-for-like sales over the recent weather-hit Christmas period. Indeed, the indies have always provided good cheer when things have looked bad and we believe that 2011 will be no exception.

That is why we have decided, in celebration of the work that independent bookstores do, to launch a new monthly blog feature - the Independent Bookseller of the Month.

Each month we plan to highlight one UK independent bookseller. If you have any suggestions for who we should feature then don't hesitate to let us know by e-mailing us.

First on our list are our good friends in Wood Green who have built (from scratch) the quite amazing Big Green Bookshop. Simon, Tim and Mark have done a fantastic job in creating a shop which caters for every kind of reader, young and old, thus making any trip to Wood Green seem utterly pointless without a visit to their brilliant shop.

Independent Bookseller of the Month - January 2011

The Big Green Bookshop

1 Brampton Park Rd
London
N22 6BG

020 8881 6767

www.biggreenbookshop.com

We spoke to Simon Key about what makes the Big Green Bookshop tick...

How did the Big Green Bookshop come to life?
We opened in cosmopolitan Wood Green in March 2008. We (Simon Key and Tim West) were the managers of the local Waterstone’s, until a ‘strategic decision’ was made to close it, in August 2007. This left one of London’s most highly populated areas without a dedicated bookshop. We decided this couldn’t happen and, having secured our redundancy, we went about the task of opening our own bloody bookshop!

We chronicled our endeavours online, on a blog entitled Open a Bookshop, What Could Possibly Go Wrong, which proved rather popular and we also started a Facebook group The Last Decent Bookshop in Wood Green (revisited). We were repeatedly buoyed by the incredible local support we got from this. After what seemed like a lifetime, we got the keys to what would be our lovely shop (it was an internet café at the time) and I rather optimistically sent a message out on Facebook, asking for any help in turning it into a bookshop. We were inundated with offers, and were truly touched by the selfless acts of complete strangers. People spent days voluntarily painting, dismantling, building, shelving, and cleaning. We had homemade cakes delivered and boxes of chocolates arrived wishing us luck. People gave us lifts to pick up carpets and paint and all in all it was rather lovely.

With this help and lots of very long hours we opened the Big Green Bookshop just 17 days after we got the keys. An amazing feat made possible by this amazing community.


What genres do you specialise in? Are there any genres you don’t stock?
We’re a general bookshop, that tries to stock the best of everything. However, we do have specialisms, based on the books our customers ask for.

We have a rather lovely fiction section that, as well as stocking the usual bestselling titles, also incorporates some wonderful gems that you won’t see anywhere else. But you’ll have to come and visit to see that! Our Children’s Section is also an area we are particularly proud of, and we work very closely with the local schools to make sure that we’re doing all we can to get the kids excited about reading.

We don’t hold a great deal of academic titles, but we do have suppliers that enable us to get most books in within 24 hours of ordering.


Do you/your staff specialise in any particular genres?
We all have different interests, which certainly help to have a more interesting stock range. Tim is very much into his science fiction and fantasy, and he has put together a very well thought out selection of titles. Mark is our crime expert, and keeps us posted on all the new and up and coming stars of the genre.

I like my modern fiction and more recently I’ve become more and more a fan of the short story. We all feel that this is an area that far too many bookshops neglect, and we really want to champion the art of the shorter story.


Do you organise events and readings with (local) authors? What events have you coming up in the next month?
We’ve done more author events since we opened the Big Green Bookshop than we ever did in the 20 odd years previously in the chain stores!

We had our first author visit a week before the shop had even opened, when Joseph D’Lacey (author of the brilliant eco-horror novel Meat) turned up to sign copies of his book and greet his adoring fans. We arranged for eight authors to turn up on our opening day, and it’s been like that pretty much ever since.

Some of our more high profile events have included Will Self, Mark Billingham, Phill Jupitus, Carl Barat from the Libertines and of course Maisy Mouse, and we usually host at least two evenings a week. We also love to support local talent, and have done dozens of launches for books published by authors who live nearby.

But it’s not just book events we do. We’ve hosted stand-up comedy and an evening of burlesque performance. We also show films and we can hire the shop out for functions. If you want to know what’s coming up, then you can check out the events page on our website.

One of the most satisfying events we do is our Big Green Wednesdays. Every Wednesday during term time, we invite a different children’s author to the shop to talk to a class from one of the 73 schools in the borough. It’s brilliant, as every Wednesday at 9.30am a class troops in to the shop and sits down on our strange pink foldaway chairs. What happens in the next hour is anyone’s guess. We’ve obviously had dozens of kid’s authors do this including Fiona Dunbar, Sam Enthoven, Karen McCombie, Graham Marks and Tanya Landman, and we’re always looking for more, so if there are any authors out there who fancy doing a turn in October or November, get in touch!

We’re very excited about an event on January 27 where David Vann, author of the incredible Legend of a Suicide, is coming to the bookshop to read from his new book Caribou Island and answer questions. David’s only in the UK for five days, so it’s a real coup. I urge anyone who hasn’t read Legend of a Suicide to give it a go.


Do you do promotions/discounts? If so, what are your current promotions?
We don’t discount as a rule, however we are currently having a new year sale, where we have some amazing bargains on offer. We also have 10% off days, where we offer discounts on every book in the shop. We like to use social media to get our message across and we sometimes do offers especially for our Facebook and Twitter groups.


What does the future hold for the Big Green Bookshop?
Of course, this all depends on our customers. The most important thing for us is to remain in Wood Green offering our customers exciting and interesting books and events and being seen as an integral part of the community.


And finally, why should people visit the Big Green Bookshop?
The Big Green Bookshop is totally dedicated to giving the best possible service.

We’ve carefully chosen our stock so that there are plenty of wonderful surprises when you come to the shop, as well as many familiar favourites. We know what we’re doing, having clocked up around 55 years of bookselling experience between the three of us, but we don’t presume to know better than our customers, who are the real owners of the shop.

There’s usually a pot of coffee on (free for our customers), and if you can’t find the book you’re looking for we have very efficient distributors who’ll usually get your book for you by the next working day.
If you can’t make it to the glitz and glamour of North London, you can expect the same service from our website. Whilst we don’t list all our books on the website, you can still order any book you want and we’ll always reply within 24 hours.

We have a FREE out of print book search service, and we are in contact with thousands of book dealers all over the world to get you that elusive title.

But do come and visit so you can take full advantage of The Big Green Bookshop.