For the love of WORDS

A sweet slice from our selection of books about books and words... to remind you why we love them so.

Rainy Day Reads

Here is a nice selection of summer, holiday and rainy day reads Sarah collected. Kesia and Briony have channeled their artistic inner child in order to provide colourful signage.

Interesting juxtaposition

What you get when you search the Books in Print database for "He says he loves me". Not quite what the customer was looking for, I suspect.

Little doll Lost

What IS the matter with Mary Jane?
We promised her presents and rides on the train-
And now she's been left in the Bookshop again.....
What IS the matter with Mary Jane?!

Asterix Ann an Duthaich Nan Cruithneach

Lucy searching for Asterix comics in Gaelic with the help of the Scotsman newspaper!

One of the more interesting book requests we've had recently, for graphic novels in Irish Gaelic. Asterix and the Picts has just been translated as Asterix Ann an Duthaich Nan Cruithneach.

Boxing On

Hope everyone is having a lovely relaxing Boxing Day!

Closed for Christmas

The store in a rare dark moment.

The shop is asleep. We are closed today for a well deserved break. We'll re-open Boxing Day from 10-2 for all your boxing needs.

All I want for Christmas is books....

Andy arrived today to pick up his books that he won in our fantastic Christmas giveaway. How good will this look under the Christmas tree?!

And the winner is...

Briony drawing the winner...

Congratulations to Andy who was the winner of our Christmas stack of books draw.

Happy Birthday, Lucy!

Lucy has probably handled more gifts today than all the rest of us on all our birthdays put together (mostly they've been gifts for other people). And she brought us bliss balls!

What keeps us going?

Coffees from Fords Cafe on a hot, busy Saturday afternoon.

Trish keeping it under wraps

We've called in all the troops to help with wrapping. Today is Trish's turn. Trish has a long history of working at Page and Blackmore, she started many years ago at the old Blackmore's shop up the road. Her daughters Anna and Jessie and her son Joe have all worked here. It's rather like working for the Mafia. You really can never leave.

Loyal customer

 A loyal customer signed up to our loyalty scheme, and presented her card today- twelve years too late!  All customers are now electronically entered onto the system, and continue to rack up their 10% savings with every purchase. Of course she discovered she's also on the new system!

Stuck for Stocking fillers??

Our lovely Cherie is showing a little slice of our magazine range- for boys and girls, big or small!  If you want a leisurely read after Christmas dinner, or a way to keep the kids in bed at 5am on Christmas morning, magazines are the answer.

Priceless

Today we discovered a rather overpriced copy of beautiful owls. Someone a little over zealous with the pricing gun perhaps?

Tree-ready

A small selection of the HUGE amount of presents we have wrapped today. These are all tagged and ready to be collected and popped under the tree,

Ollie and his prize

This is Ollie, who came in to spend the voucher he received for winning his school's gardening competition! The winning piece was a gardening book and a living wreath created by Ollie himself. He walked way with a couple of klutz lettering books to keep him entertained for the holidays.

All hands on deck

It's been busy for a few weeks now but today has been the first REALLY busy day, requiring 6 staff (up from the usual 2.5) on the floor, including our dedicated wrapping Queen (Stella).

Sneaky signage

If you've been into the shop lately, you may or may not have noticed the sneaky sign that has appeared on the front door. No one knows how it got there, it just appeared one morning,  but it is certainly correct.

The best cleaner in the world!

Meet Laura, our wonderful cleaner. She is the best cleaner in the world. There are places in the shop (particularly the upstairs store room) that had never seen a duster or a broom before Laura arrived! (And she's colour co-ordinating today with the Ian Rankin books.)

500

Nicole purchases the 500th copy of The Luminaries at the bookshop. That deserves a box of chocolates! The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton will be under many a Christmas tree this season.

Spreading Chistmas cheer

Christmas Angel and Christmas Tree joined by two helpers from More FM outside the shop giving out vouchers and other Christmas goodies. Merry Christmas to all and to all a free coffee!

Teddy Bear's Promise

Congratulations to Lee - the winner of the lovely Teddy Bear's Promise basket. (Teddy seems happy to be heading to a new home). Thanks to Craig Potton Publishing for the gift basket and producing such an adorable book, The Teddy Bear's Promise written by Diana Noonan and gorgeously illustrated by Robyn Belton.

Ho Ho Ho-Pe It's a Book

Our fantastically minimalist Christmas posters, courtesy of Indiebound went up yesterday. These are our version of tinsel and Christmas lights.

Author visit

Excellent teen author Fleur Beale popped in for a visit this morning and very kindly signed some of her books for us. She is in Nelson researching her new book which I personally am very excited for.

Happy Birthday Soane

Soane on his 2nd birthday, reading Demolition with his Dad Leki. Soane partook of a truck cake and a huge stack of books for his birthday. Clearly he has a bright future ahead.

Not all of our customers are human...

Grr Wingbat (47 years old) ponders his resemblance to Teddy Moore (43) in Much Loved by Mark Nixon, and wonders if the explanation for this is genealogical or merely the result of similar histories of wear, aging and love.

It's a wrap!

Once you find the right books, we have Christmas cards and Christmas wrapping paper that you'll love. There's no time like the Present...!

We're famous!

Local magazine Wild Tomato has run a spread on shopping local, and the Love Your Local Campaign that Stella spearheaded in the latest issue. Lovely shots of the shop, staff and customers, thank you Wild Tomato!

Will this stack of books be under your Christmas tree this year?

We've put together an amazing stack of books perfect for a summer of reading and we're giving them away. Purchase a book before the 23rd of December and you can go in the draw.

The view from here

Nothing says Santa Parade like a giant inflatable clown. Also marching girls (very small ones), classic cars, alpacas, an animatronic nutcracker, baby Jesus and a donkey.

Bookselling in the wild

Lucy took books into the wild this afternoon, to a talk given by author Christopher Johnston at the  Suter Gallery. Luckily, the wild was not very wild and there was good coffee.

You know it's summer when....

Our hanging baskets make an appearance!

Blast from the past...

What a comparison. The other day we unearthed a copy of our 1996 catalogue and have had great fun reading it and seeing how much it has changed in the last 17 years!

The Power of Protest

Marie Leadbeater after her talk in Nelson's Elma Turner Library, launching her important book "Peace, Power and Politics- How New Zealand became Nuclear Free".  A number of audience members featured in the book, and stayed afterwards to swap stories of protests and past victories over tea.

The Wandering Bookseller

A pleasure to have Jessie (a past P&B bookseller) in the shop today, visiting NZ from London. And she brought this wonderful bag with her. We love the 'Books Are My Bag' campaign.

Postal Origami!

Today we have Ashleigh and Gemma in the shop to help tackle the plethora of catalogues that need to be folded and put into envelopes. They are real troopers and we are very grateful for their help!

Children's selection, ready to go

Our summer catalogue children's selection (plus a few others), all together. We've got thrillers, humor, architecture, science, natural history, craft, graphic novels, poetry and mystery.

 The catalogue will be in store tomorrow and in the Nelson Mail on Wednesday.

Warning!

Inspired by these brilliant signs on Buzzfeed

Holding the bookshop together

The much awaited arrival of double sided tape, all ready for lots of wrapping of presents. It reminded us of the quote 'Duct tape is like the Force, it has a dark side and a light side and holds the world together'. Fortunately our tape only has a light side, it does however hold lots of presents together!

Amazing Spaces!

 

George Clarke's Amazing Spaces arrived today. Maybe we need to employ him to help accommodate the vast number of books that keep arriving. Trying to fit them all in is sometimes like doing a very large 3D jigsaw puzzle!

Doppleganger

We couldn't help but notice this customer's resemblance to the ad on the back cover of the magazine she was buying. (Both looking gorgeous!).

The booksellers' friend

In the cause of modern bookselling, we are always open to new energy sources. Lately we've been experimenting with these mintless ginger mints. They are proving quite effective.

Topsey and Biggles

It may not be particularly poetic or mysterious but it's from a husband to his wife for Christmas, and what's better than that?

S.

A quiet Sunday, dusting, filing, ribbon-tying done. A quick browse through the new book from J.J Abrams and Doug Dorst. Hooked before I've even finished the introduction.