Whether it's an action-packed SAS memoir or a grim tale of an abuse-ridden childhood in Ireland, there's only one thing you can guarantee about a smash hit book: that there'll soon be a host of publishers jumping on the bandwagon and filling the shelves with copycat titles with similar covers. Bookseller Steerforth recalls some ... Read More...
Books
The Travellers' Library series of books published by Jonathan Cape gives a fascinating glimpse of literary fashion in the 1920s, including names that have endured, others that have been completely forgotten, and still others currently halfway to obscurity... My edition of James Joyce's Dubliners was published in Jonathan Cape's series The Travellers' Library ... Read More...
Seamus Sweeney reads God’s Fifth Column: A Biography of the Age 1890-1940 - an unusual work by an author who at one time looked like becoming one of the greats... William Gerhardie has achieved an odd kind of fame; famous for not being famous. He is a writer whose champions specifically focus on ... Read More...
What's the real minority specialist-interest genre of books - the one that bookshops just can't shift? It's literary fiction, says Steerforth... As a bookseller, one of the first lessons I learned when running the fiction section was that the sales of the first volume of Proust's A La Recherche Du Temps ... Read More...
Bookseller Steerforth recalls his battles with the bibliokepts - both oddball amateurs and professional book thieves... In his memoirs, Jeffrey Bernard used to talk about the distinct social groups that frequented his regular pub, the notorious Coach and Horses in Soho. Alongside the actors, stage hands, dancers and drunks, there were ... Read More...
Like all businesses, bookselling would be fine if it wasn't for the customers. Here Steerforth sets out his Browser's Charter for people who would presume to enter a bookshop... When booksellers get together what do we talk about? Books? Yes, sometimes - I remember waking up on someone's floor after a ... Read More...
As everyone who has ever worked anywhere knows, the worst bit of any business is the customers. Here, Steerforth recalls the most absurd questions he was asked when working as a bookseller... The following is a real-life encounter I had with a customer when I was a fledgling bookseller: Customer - I ... Read More...
Mark Pack is addicted to writing Amazon reviews. But what are they really for?... I first started writing book reviews purely for my personal benefit: to help me remember more about the books I had read. Even now, with the subsequent explosion of online reviews, the aspects of a book I ... Read More...
Andy Miller had a busy job in publishing, a growing family and no time at all for reading. Or so he kept telling himself. But, no matter how busy or tired he was, something kept niggling at him. Books. Books he’d always wanted to read. Books he’d lied about having read. Books that ... Read More...
September sees us feature an apocalyptic new work of fiction as our bookclub choice for the month - and you can get your hands on a free copy by signing up to the Dabbler Book club newsletter. DAY ONE The Georgia Flu explodes over the surface of the earth like a neutron ... Read More...
