Have you discovered Stephen Biesty yet?

We're big fans of Stephen Biesty here in the shop. And he has a new book out, The Story of Buildings. The perfect balance of text and illustrations and will appeal to adults and kids alike.

Today I learnt...

Today I learnt that The Venison Wars (or Deer, or Helicopter Wars) were a real thing in New Zealand back in the 60's and 70's. Something to add to my admittedly limited hunting knowledge.

"I have the most wonderful adventures now I'm losing my eyesight" ....

We loved this comment today from one of our delightful customers. We do have a pile of glasses to help with (or stymie?) these adventures.

Things that make us happy Part 17(a)

We were having one of our computers upgraded to Windows 7 today and in the process our receipt printer suddenly started perforating receipts! MAGIC!

What was Lynn searching for?

(Lucy) I came across this interesting query in the search bar this morning. Lynn was actually looking for "Taking the Piss: A Potted History of Pee" which sounds pants-wettingly interesting.
(Lynn) A lovely customer asked me to search for a book titled "A potted history".

What could be better?

A satisfied customer from Wellington who always buys books from us when he is here!

Lost and found: Are you missing your purchase?

This lovely atlas was left lying lonely on a street seat, still wrapped in a Page and Blackmore labelled bag. Thanks to a chain of community spirit it has made its way back to us. We would love to reunite it with its rightful owner. Please let us know if you think it may be yours?

Auckland Writers Festival

We were very excited to receive the programmes for the Auckland Writer's Festival this morning and promptly refreshed our display area with some of the fantastic authors who are going to be speaking.

Feeding the workers

We're all busy doing out annual stocktake today, but took a break for well earned pizza and chocolate. A big thank you to everyone who came and helped.

TOUCHDOWN shelf talkers

How do you like our new Thomas-designed bookmarks and shelf talkers? Now when we send out our TOUCHDOWN newsletter every Friday, the books included are easily identifiable.

Media darling

Peter with Nick from the MPI who is off to China to promote regional economies in New Zealand. Such the media darling at the moment is our Peter!

Villainous Teen Book Group

 

We had heaps of fun yesterday with our teen book group. Our topic was villains!  We all agreed that Professor Umbridge was mean-spirited and down right nasty, Voldemort was a classic evil character, President Snow was a villain (along with his regime), but the people in District 1 were just selfish and self-absorbed, Mrs Coulter dangerously charming and Mrs Trunchbull ...well what can you say!

The problem... and the solution

Some days this handy little machine picks up every wireless network in town except our own.

Spot the Difference

We had a lovely card arrive in post today from wonderful artist and regular customer Jo Tyson. Love the doggie personalities! Jo, we think you've captured Peter & Susi delightfully.

Special guest appearance ...

Mr Blackmore graced us with his presence behind the counter on a wet Sunday during Cyclone Lusi.

Translucency

The interim paper bags are so sheer you don't even need to take the books out to read them.

Famous! (again)

A large spread in the Nelson Mail this afternoon on the history of the shop, and Peter and Susi on the front page!

Aleksandra & Daniel Mizielinski

We hosted authors Daniel and Aleksandra Mizielinski at Red Gallery this afternoon. They were signing their books H.O.U.S.E and D.E.S.I.G.N as well as previewing their new titles Maps, Welcome to Mamoko, and Welcome to Mamoko in the year 3000 (due out in April)

 Daniel and Aleksandra signing for the crowd. The kids brought their own designs to show the authors.

Sophie and her personalised copy of H.O.U.S.E

It's a magazine morning

Every Monday and Thursday several large stacks of magazines arrive. Cherie processes them all and then they're put out on the shelves and into cubby holes ready for customers. There's pretty much a magazine for everyone, from Crochet Monthly to Wooden Boats to Inked (a tattoo magazine).

A Regular Visitor (Lucky Us)

Here's Maurice Gee, (a regular visitor in the shop - lucky us!), holding up a recently republished memoir. It's part of  an excellent new series of essays from Bridget Williams Books. They've just arrived in the shop.

Larger than usual news!

Some days in the life of an independent bookseller are not quite like other days.
Tim, Susi, Peter and Ann have decided to seek new owners for Page & Blackmore. Read their letter here.

(Business as usual otherwise.)

Fire! Fire!

We arrived this morning to fire alarms at the shoe shop and clothes shop across the road. Eventually the fire men arrived!

Karen Healey!

Young adult author and Nebula Award Nominee Karen Healey popped in this morning to sign copies of her latest book When We Wake, and to purchase fellow nominee Jaclyn Moriarty's A Corner of White. We always love it when authors pop in to say hi and have a chat. It's great to put a face to a name.

A piece of history

Thank you to Rene, one of our regular customers, who dropped in this photocopied advertisement from the Nelson Evening Mail, dated July 4th 1963. We think Peter was a shop junior at the time.

Even booksellers need to eat

Peter enjoying his chocolate brownie

Our morning tea shout, courtesy of the lovely Ford's cafe, fundraising for Relay for Life.

Celebrating success

As ardent supporters of the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary we were thrilled to hear that they will receive $1.25mil funding from the Lottery Grants Significant Projects fund. Hudson Dodd, General Manager of the Sanctuary came in today to get the newspaper which contained the announcement .

Location location

Stormy weather south and stormy weather north. The Wellington weather on the front page of today's Dominion Post kept visitors in Nelson ...where it was sunny. (sorry)

Posting cards

Some days all you seem to do is sell a ton of postcards.....

...and stamps.

Autumn book on an autumn day

With the departure of February comes cooler mornings, brisk winds and even a hail storm. And lots of good books to read in front of a fire.

Our Viennese visitors

Maria and Nina, our visitors from Vienna were very excited to discover a map of their home town sitting on the counter. They are here for a year studying at Nelson College for Girls, but I think we made them slightly homesick!

Advanced Style

We think Jan has wonderful Advanced Style, don't you agree? Just look at the lining of her bag, matching her shirt.