Waterstones – F C MALBY

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.

There are current and heated debates about paperbacks versus eBooks in every crevice of the book-loving community, and for good reason. Some fear the closure of many and, possibly in the future, all bookshops, but I believe and hope that this will not be the case. I posted a while about about library finds and old books and the pleasure of finding a unique or out of print book. I want to delve into what it is about bookshops that give people so much joy. I promise to balance this by looking at eBook purchases and the benefits of this in another post.

In my years of living in London I spent many hours in Waterstones and Borders (admittedly now closed in the UK) scanning bookshelves and sinking into a seat with a stack of books to skim before buying. The feeling of being surrounded by books gives me a sense of calm and brings with it a dose of quiet anticipation, a hope that I will stumble across something brilliant. Recommendations are wonderful, and I often go in search of specific books, but I love finding something fresh and unexpected, picking up a book by a new author who I have not previously heard of, and sinking into an unexpectedly good story.

The look and feel of a book cover appeals to me aesthetically, it says something about the nature of the book and the author; it provides just enough of a taster to know what to expect of the book in terms of genre and style. I really appreciate striking and unusual cover design and, as much as you can see the thumbnail image online, it is never quite the same experience as holding the paper between your fingers.

I love the scent of the paper and the physical turning of the pages, the ability to flick back and forth. I like to see books on a coffee table and the spines of the jackets on bookshelves. I enjoy the colours and the graphics. It is a pleasure that I miss when reading an eBook (and I do also read many eBooks).

Physical books, for me, hold a nostalgic quality and stimulate my senses in a way that eBooks don’t. I often buy hard copies of books that I have read and particularly enjoyed on kindle, just to be able to keep a physical copy. I like to keep classics and travel books in paperback or hardback. I will never tired of the experience of bookshops and I hope that eBooks and paperbacks will continue to live in relative harmony and without the need for a fight.

I’ll leave you with a look at more bookshops and reading spaces and this short video:

Photo credits:

foxedbooks.com, aprettybook.com, bookmania.me, global.oup.com, artstheanswer.blogspot.co.uk

Tag Archives: Waterstones

The joy of bookshops and finding signed author copies