Volume 7 | subscribers | 1 different countries | 5 August 2008 Contents Part 1 - Welcome! Dear %$firstname$%, August is traditionally a quiet month, although the summer sales appear to be as frenetic as ever. Whether you are going away or staying at home, it is a great time to catch up on your reading. I recently picked up a number of new books (having only gone in for one, typical!) including Affluenza by Oliver James and A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. Both are fairly hefty tomes that should keep me going for a while (theoretically!). When you are trying to make time to write (and sometimes do necessary research as well) it can be hard to find time to just read. But remember, the more you read, the more it helps you develop your own writing style and can provide you with new ideas and inspiration. I recently came across a tremendous piece of writing in the
form of a speech delivered by J K Rowling at the graduation
ceremony at Harvard University. It is both eloquent and moving
and quite took my breath away. Enjoy!
Leda Sammarco It's a book thing. Where
is human nature so weak as in the bookstore.
Henry Ward Beecher I can never resist going into a bookstore and buy books the way some people buy shoes. Naturally I have to buy books, given what I do. For research purposes…well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! I have to admit that I find bookstores very therapeutic places. If I’m ever in a strange town or feeling a bit out of sorts, I’ll go into one and the feeling of calm that washes over me is immediate. But, like anything in life, things are always changing and bookselling is no exception. The demise of independent booksellers, as they struggle to compete against the chains and deal with high rents is an ongoing issue. In France a group of booksellers has even fled the high rents of Paris' literary quarter, Saint-Germain-des-Pres, to La Charite-sur-Loire just two hours away, which is now known as the city of books. Earlier this year Borders in the USA gave us a glimpse of the future, when it unveiled its new concept store in Michigan. In the newly-created in-store digital centre, customers can download music and audiobooks onto MP3 players, create digital photo albums, learn how to self-publish and research their ancestry. Another 14 are planned. There has even been much debate recently about whether books, as we know them, will even exist in the future given the arrival of ebook readers (Amazon’s Kindle and Sony Reader). Personally I shudder to imagine a world without diverse bookstores, let alone printed books and with that I would like to share some of my favourite bookshops with you: In Blackwells in Oxford lies the Norrington Room which has books on over three miles of shelving (sigh!). It gained a place in the Guinness Book of Records for having the largest display of books for sale in one room anywhere in the world. Just two minutes from Blackwells was QI (sob!). This bookshop was located within a circular room and the books were grouped thematically under categories such as ‘Power’ or ‘Sensational Beginnings’ so that you had a mixture of genres all sharing a shelf. Too cool for words! Barnes & Noble on Union Square in New York is a veritable Aladdin’s cave with a café and strategically placed comfy chairs. It has a great stationery department too. One could literally go to ground for days, were it not for the weekly farmers market, where I first discovered the delights of maple syrup candy! On the Left Bank near Notre Dame in Paris, is Shakespeare & Co. Rather rambling, with a gloriously higgledy-piggledy feel to it, there is usually a sweet black cat asleep in the window. In such an atmosphere serendipity surely beckons. I’ve spent many a lunch hour in Nomad
on London’s Fulham Road. Inspired by the independent bookstores
on the West Coast of America, it has wooden floors, a delightful
little coffee shop, an alcove with a sofa and a downstairs travel
section. To share your favourite bookstores, or any new ones
that you discover whilst out and about this summer, please go
to my
blog. |
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Copyright © Leda Sammarco 2008. All rights reserved.
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