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.

A bookman's overalls

1.       Thomas started selling books (then they were antiquarian; now they are new) in a plain grey dustwrapper (like the one he’s wearing here) about twenty years ago. He has also sold books in a brown plaid dressing gown (when he had his own business and sold them by catalogue), but not so often.

2.       The unitary filing system. This useful bag contains the paperwork for this year’s Christmas catalogue. The label is both an injunction to read the contents, and an indication that the contents have already been read.

3.       These are bibliographer’s boots but they are good for bookselling, too. Thomas has tried standing at various points along the path a book takes from writer to reader, and finds the best thing about bookselling is that it occurs at (and can even create) the most exciting moment of all: when a book and a reader find each other.

Coincidences

Today a customer made this purchase. This piqued our interest. Love that combination of titles: Fiona Kidman's fictional account of aviatrix Jean Batten, The Infinite Air and Mawer's The Girl Who Fell from the Sky. A completely coincidental choice.

Feathers, birds and bikes

Plumes, Native Birds of New Zealand & les Bicyclettes

Two new posters arrived in this morning, Plumes (feathers) and Bikes. They look great as an accompaniment to our Native Birds poster. $15 each (what a bargain!)

Thank you Listener

In a time when book reviews in most print media are becoming smaller and more hard to find, it's always refreshing to open the Listener on a Monday morning. This week we're treated to 13 books spread over 9 pages, including Donna Tartt, Elizabeth Knox, Richard Dawkins and Sebastian Faulks.

Another winner!

Sarah and her prize from the Ecoman competition. Sarah is already an avid user of the Ecostore products but is looking forward to trying a few new things that are in the pack. She has bought two copies of the book and reckons if people read it they'll never buy any other kind of cleaning product again.

At the granary...

Marti Friedlander and Emily Perkins gave excellent and well-attended sessions at the Page & Blackmore Readers & Writers festival today. 
We sold out of Marti Friedlander's new book, but we'll have more in the shop early in the week!

Catalogue Layout

In between chasing up endless Luminaries orders, Thomas is busy tweaking the catalogue layout. Placing 140 titles across around 10 genres is a juggling act requiring courage and fortitude. And regular short black coffees.

Jennie from Craig Potton Publishing

Jennie, the lovely rep for splendid local publisher Craig Potton Publishing, visiting us today to show Peter new titles for January 2014. Here are Peter & Jennie scooping up paperwork from the floor. Those glossy Lonely Planet catalogues! (We enjoy visits from various publisher representatives who are all wonderful individuals with heaps of knowledge and a passion for books - they are an invaluable part of our industry).

Congratulations!

Holly came in today for her prize, looking very happy! We are lucky to have many enthusiastic youthful readers as regular customers.

Winner!

Congratulations to Holly who won 15 books in our anniversary competition. Hope you enjoy them!

12.2km

Our order of 98 copies of the Luminaries arrived this morning. 12.2km worth of Booker Prize winning goodness! These are all pre-ordered but we are expecting another order in a couple of weeks or so.

Meet the Staff: Maclean

I have been lucky to be working for P & B for almost three years.  I have worked in 10 good bookshops and libraries over the years, as well as working in museums and as curator for Larnach Castle.  I love books and have a library full of my own.  My husband Derek and I are photographers and  we  plan to live in a caravan next year (when our son starts at Otago Uni)  and to roam the country writing and photographing.  Favourite authors: Too many! Most Indian and Japanese authors, Barbara Kingsolver, A.S.Byatt, Neil Gaiman, current nonfiction and art books of all kinds. Favourite pastime (when not wading in river with camera) curled up with cats, port and a Really Good Book… I think I purr!

At the signing table

Today at Readers & Writers there were two sessions with the wonderful (and indefatigable) Kate De Goldi: storytime in the morning and a talk 'The 10PM Question and More' in the afternoon. And then she was kept busy inscribing books for a great queue of lovers of her books! Writers work really very hard, even when they're not writing.

Your .10c counts

We got a letter from the RNZFB this morning letting us know that the ceramic dog that sits on our counter and stares beseechingly at you, raised $75.10 in the last four months. Considering that this as accrued at a rate of about .10c a pop, that's quite an achievement. So thank you!

Liz x 2

Page and Blackmore regulars Liz L and Liz P hanging on a Thursday afternoon

Eleanor Catton wins the Booker!

Sarah and Stella can't contain their excitement in the moments after the announcement (and even beyond those moments!). Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries has just won the 2013 Man Booker Prize!

Meet Paul

Peter and Paul in the office/staffroom upstairs.

Paul is one of our independent reps. He sells us books from several different publishers. As you can see he has quite a range! They are buying stock expected to arrive early next year.

Catalogue preparations, Part 2 (Thomas and the boxes)

Thomas and the boxes

40 boxes of catalogue stock arrived this morning, all of which needs to be carted upstairs. Anyone need some exercise?

The Thinking Brunch - Readers and Writers, Day 2

L-R Jim Salinger, Karen Healey, Craig Potton, Matt Lawrey (chair), Sir Alan Mark, Dot Kettle, Ralph Chapman

An inspiring morning at the first Thinking Brunch debating the topic Economy vs Environment. The Thinking Brunches are some of the most popular sessions at the Readers and Writers Festival.

The second brunch will be on the 27th of October featuring panelists Emily Perkins, Bill Manhire, Gabrielle Hervey, Hon Chris Finlayson and Ali Boswijk.

Karen Healey, Readers and Writers Day 1

Great first day at the Page & Blackmore Readers & Writers. Here's super enthusiastic YA author Karen Healey talking with two of our keen teen readers, Sara & Richard, about her book When We Wake.

Readers and Writer's Festival 2013 - Packing In

Charlie's Angels or the Three Stooges?

The Page and Blackmore Readers and Writer's Festival kicks off tomorrow. We have 12 writers and 2 Thinking Brunches on the cards, so this equates to a lot of stock needing to be transported to the venue at Founders. And all in the pouring rain too!

A Diary Day

 Sue with her new diary!

Antonia making her choice...

The lovely Paperblank diaries are proving ever popular. Everyone's planning for 2014!

Sue even took a day off work to have time to make her selection from the almost-impossible-to-choose range. And Antonia couldn't resist taking one home to Christchurch with her.

Wallace browsing in the shop on a busy Wednesday morning

Wallace the seeing eye dog was snapped browsing with his owner Peter in the shop today. 

Rainy day reading

Nine year old Rebecca and her rainy day, school holiday reading.

Catalogue preparations, Part 1

Oscar

Each Summer catalogue is made up of 140 titles, which equates to over 3000 units. This requires a lot of space to be made in the stock room upstairs before the stock starts arriving in early November. Oscar has been drafted in to help tidy, and as you can see, he might be up there a while.

A visit from a publican

Amber pops in most Sundays to collect the papers for the Sprig and Fern. She's a bit camera shy!

A fine balance

A couple of months ago we were lucky enough to host Lynley Dodd for a book signing. In honour of her visit, Maclean made these dogs for the window display and now they're going up on the wall in the kids' section.

Our prodigal pilot returneth

Elizabeth has been working here off and on for four years and it's always a treat when she's in town and is available to work for a day. When she is not selling books Liz reads books, fantasizes about reading books, reads staff reviews of books and occasionally flies planes.

The 2014 Calendars have arrived!

They're here!  From cats to caravans, art to roses, horses, pigs, French kitchens, cars, boats, trains, dogs, Italy, shoes, golf, Sudoku, Lonely Planet and a great New Zealand selection- you name it and we will have a calendar dedicated to it!  Come and have a look !

Underwater books on display

Art in Windows is a yearly chance for local businesses to show work by our local artists.  This year we have a literary theme: Maclean Barker (also on our staff) has completed a series of photographs of books swirling underwater.  She assures us they have had good long lives first! Here she is installing the last pictures.

But wait, there's more!

A visit from Tim and Susi Blackmore (fresh from the garden, and full of the joys of spring)  to top up their reading stacks.  There's plenty to choose from with new titles pouring in at present!