Bookshelves – F C MALBY

The joy of bookshops and finding signed author copies

I spent some time in Waterstones at the weekend. It’s a place I’ve always loved – the scent of books, the anticipation of finding new titles, the peace, the labyrinth of bookshelves. There are so many wonderful bookshops, both large and small, to peruse the shelves and find new books. These two new titles were a lovely surprise.

The scent of books, the anticipation of finding new titles, the peace, the labyrinth of bookshelves.

I love Kevin Barry’s work, but hadn’t heard about this new title, The Heart in Winter, released on 6 June and set in 1891 Montana. Butte is a city rich in copper mines and immigrant Irish workers. The story centres around Tom Rourke, a young poet and ballad maker. As he feels his life is heading nowhere, and struggling with alcohol, Polly Gillespie arrives in town as the new bride of the devout mine captain, Long Anthony Harrington. Tom and Polly steal a horse and head out west through the badlands of Montana and Idaho. This is described as a ‘ballad of a novel’ and ‘a glorious haunted yarn.’

A ‘ballad of a novel’ and ‘a glorious haunted yarn.’

Josie Ferguson’s The Silence In Between, released on 20 June and shortlisted for the Waterstone’s Debut Fiction Prize, is a historical debut novel about a family separated by the Berlin Wall. It piqued my interest because my debut novel, Take Me to the Castle, also centres around the political changes in Eastern Europe through the 1990s. Lisette is in hospital with her baby boy. The doctors tell her to go home and get some rest, that he’ll be fine. When she wakes up and a wall has divided the city in two and her child is on the other side. Lisette is trapped in the east, while her newborn baby is unreachable in the west. With the streets in chaos and armed guards ordered to shoot anyone who tries to cross, her situation is desperate. I can’t wait to begin reading this.

When she wakes up and a wall has divided the city in two and her child is on the other side.

Another thing I love about bookshops is the sometimes quirky and lovingly-written notes from the booksellers themselves. This one, caught my eye as I entered and drew me to the first bookshelf. Lost In A Good Book, No agenda – just treat yourself and escape reality with these wonderful stories. You’re worth it (and they need you). The last part reads like a L’Oreal add and is tough-in-cheek. I love these personal touches.

Lost In A Good Book, No agenda – just treat yourself and escape reality with these wonderful stories. You’re worth it (and they need you).

And then there’s this…Straight from the Tortured Poets Department…. Perfectly written and positioned below these two great classics by Dylan Thomas and William Wordsworth!

Straight from the Tortured Poets Department

Which signs have you seen in bookshops recently, and what do you love about bookshops? Have you seen my recent blog post about two wonderful bookshops in Italy? Don’t miss these.

Two European Bookshops You Need to Know About

There are two fabulous bookshops in Europe that you might not know about. Both are in Italy, one is in Rome and one is in Florence.

GUINTI ODEON, FLORENCE

The first bookshop is the Giunti Odeon. Yes, you read that right. It’s a cinema with a built-in bookshop. What an amazing combination of culture from the world of books and film! The Giunti Odeon, or GO remains a cinema, showing films in Italian and English, but it also has a bookshop which is open 7 days week until the end of the film each night. The bookshop contains over 25,000 books, which fill the whole of the ground floor, including the foyer.

The cinema opened in 1922 in Palazzo dello Strozzino. It is one of the most stunning Renaissance palazzos in Florence with an Art Déco interior and sculptures by Antonio Maraini and tapestries by Matilde Festa Piacentini. Cinema Teatro Savoia, as it was known, hosted world-class film premieres, theatre performances and musicals. It was reopened after WWII and renamed Cinema-Teatro Odeon and has hosted Louis Armstrong and Kate Winslet.

In 2023, the Odeon partnered with publishing house Giunti Editore. It was then renovated and reopened in November 2023. The stalls have been redesigned, with the original detail remaining intact, as required by the city’s fine arts department – fountains, tapestries, ornate columns, terrazzo floors, glass dome, gilded lettering and heavy golden drapes. No less than 200 armchairs have been placed in the mezzanine gallery, where cinema goers remain undistracted by the bookshop below.

OPEN DOOR BOOKSHOP, ROME

The second gem of a bookshop is in Rome. The Open Door Bookshop sells second-hand books, and has been in Trastevere for more than forty years. Its name is both a wolcome to book lovers and a reflection of an open mind and a curiosity for learning. The bookshop sells “the unusual and even the bizarre.” Finding a book is a “treasure hunt among old, antiquarian and even new books”.

The contents of the bookshop vary on any given day and if you are looking for a specific book, they will try to find a copy! They also take second-hand books that people want to pass on. There is a good selection of books ranging from contemporary and genre to classics and Italian, French and Spanish. The cluttered nature of the bookshelves and the scent of second-hand books are enticing. It’s a literary Aladdin’s cave!

Photo credits: The Florentine, Open Door Bookshop, Amber Paulen.

How Do You Organise Your Bookshelves?

A friend told me yesterday that their books are all arranged in alphabetical order. I smiled and said that mine are roughly arranged by type. I have a section for psychology, travel, theology, biographies and autobiographies (which are mostly political, but I also have one on Miles Davis), crime thrillers, short stories, poetry, literary fiction, commercial fiction, favourite books (mostly by J.M Coetzee, Julian Barnes, Hilary Mantel, Alice Munro, Colm Tóibín, Milan Kundera, Deborah Levy and Alison Moore).

This morning, I noticed that I have a selection of books with yellow covers, although I’m not entirely sure how the lime green snuck in! It’s the only colour I seem to have grouped together, purely because I love yellow. I don’t think I will ever match my books by colour, having seen a few well-known figures (who shall remain nameless) adding the results of this to Instagram. It feels a little too OCD for my liking, by we are all beautifully different.

How about this cascading cover colour bookshelves look from Book Bub?

As a writer and a reader, I love books, bookshelves and other people’s bookshelves. If I go to a home and there is a large book collection on the shelves, I like to scan the collection and see what the owner reads. Sometimes I find we like similar authors and there are other occasions where I find something new. Amidst the Covid pandemic over the past 15 months or so, and with life as we knew it transferred to Zoom and Teams meetings, a background of bookshelves never fails to capture my attention. Personally, I like a more mixed approach to bookshelves.

How do you arrange your bookshelves? Do you have any favourite bookshelves? Drop a link to a snap in the comments, or tell us how you organise your shelves, and share the book love.

20 of the Most Beautiful Bookshops in the World

A gorgeous converted Dominican church gives the power of reading its due diligence. Selexyz Bookstore, Maastricht, Holland

Modern design at its finest in a store full of art books. The Bookàbar Bookshop, Rome, Italy

We love the stairs as reading and display area, the wall-to-wall bookshelves, and the simple, clean design. Plural Bookshop, Bratislava, Slovakia

This divine neo-gothic bookstore, opened in 1906, contains what we consider to be the ultimate definition of a stairway to heaven. Livraria Lello, Porto, Portugal

Somehow, this bookstore manages to be both whimsical and slightly macabre all at once. Cook & Book, Brussels, Belgium

There’s magic in the air at this English-language bookstore in Beijing. Bookworm, Beijing, China

This majestic converted 1920s movie palace uses theatre boxes for reading rooms and draws thousands of tourists every year. Librería El Ateneo Grand Splendid, Buenos Aires, Argentina [images via and via]

How could any kid (or adult, for that matter) resist those delicious reading nooks? Poplar Kid’s Republic, Beijing, China

This is a bookstore that seems to be made almost entirely out of books — down to its dramatic front doors. Livraria da Vila, Sao Paulo, Brazil [photos via]

For those who like their green spaces (and coffee shops) to invade their bookstores. Cafebreria El Pendulo, Mexico City, Mexico [photos via]

For those browsers not as impressed by architecture as they are by the beauty of books upon books upon books in narrow hallways — not to mention a place to nap. Shakespeare & Company, Paris, France [photo via]

The huge space, high ceilings and stately pillars make for a lovely reading experience. The Last Bookstore, Los Angeles, CA

For sailors and beach readers alike, this sun-kissed bookstore is a little less ostentatious than some of the others on this list, but no less lovely. Atlantis Books, Santorini, Greece

The biggest outdoor bookstore in the world, this photo doesn’t really do the place justice — it’s all about the view. Bart’s Books, Ojai, California [photo via]

The bookstore section of the larger complex dedicated to art and design certainly lives up to its mission. Corso Como Bookshop, Milan, Italy

We’re suckers for rounded ceilings and decorative lighting. Barter Books, Alnwick, UK [photosvia]

This beautifully designed space has surprising shapes, cleverly constructed nooks and crannies and even a tree or two. The American Book Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands [photo via]

Almost utilitarian but filled with simple old-world grace, this store is a little like what we might imagine our ideal ship’s main cabin to look like. VVG Something, Taipei, Taiwan

This store has a flying bike and books to the ceiling. Need we say more? Ler Devagar, Lisbon, Portugal

Source: Flavorwire