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. 

Briony back in the saddle

Briony Blackmore back on the bookselling bike!  We are happy to have her back from Otago Uni to help over the summer rush.

Sarah in the kid's section

Sarah assisting two customers in the children's section

Helping people find books for their kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews (or for children themselves) is one of the best parts of working in a bookshop. You never know if it will be the book that changes someone's live. Sarah is a great person to ask as she has three daughters of her own who are all avid readers.

A visiting book group

Today this U3A literary group came to visit. Susi talked with them about children's books. We are always happy to host book groups and other groups, and talk about the world of books and bookselling.

Kesia leaps home

We are happy to have Kesia again for the summer, fresh from Dunedin and second year law study. Here she is jumping back into life in the bookshop!

The Sharp Pencil at Work

The proofs for our Christmas catalogue are back from the printer. These need to be checked very carefully before they are signed off (then it will be too late to fix anything). The only space large enough to spread these out is on the floor upstairs.

Welcome back Susi

Susi has been away all winter, reading and pottering in her garden. But now she's back and just in time for Christmas too.

Plinth worthy

Hugh and his pre-Christmas present to himself

It's not every day that one of these beautiful art books finds a home, but Hugh reckons he has a plinth ready for it.

Nigel

Nigel and his latest purchases

Nigel is our most regular fantasy fiction buyer. Raymond Feist, Terry Brooks, Kylie Chan, David Eddings, Robin Hobb, he's read them all. We love getting tips from customers and it's always a pleasure to chat to Nigel and get advice on what fantasy to jump into next.

Watching paint dry

It's never a dull day in a bookshop. Some days we even paint rocks. Here is Maclean, painting some in preparation for a Lost Gold window before the book is launched next week.

Look what we found amongst the packing...

It must be hot in this distributor's warehouse! Do you think we should return this piece of interesting underwear? Someone may be missing it by now.

Unpacking & Stacking

Thanks to the excellent efforts of some muscle power (Peter) and some brain power (Elizabeth) the pallet of books was unpacked, sorted and stacked upstairs. It smells wonderful - that lovely scent of many new books!

Tha biggest single delivery of the year

Today we received a whole shrink-wrapped pallet-load of books: 44 cartons of Christmas catalogue stock!
The chain-gang moving the cartons to the pad included a very obliging lawyer (who needed to get her car out).

Frankie my dear...

A trifecta of Frankiefied goodness, hot off the press. Guaranteed to please the 14-35 year old female market, the Diary especially started getting orders way back in February and always sells out fast.

Do you think we need a new catagory?

One more book and I think we could justify an "Antarctica" section in the shop. It would go between our "Tour de France" and "Everest" sections.

A shining light

It's that time of year again, when other stores get all their decorations out of storage and go nuts. Not so us. This is our Christmas Tree, radiating luminescence around the shop. Although it does seem to have shrunk somewhat in the last 24 hours.

Sergei and Elizabeth

Sergei is a fisherman, here on business, buying Beautiful Horses for his 11 year old daughter Elizabeth, back in the Ukraine.