Book Store Displays

[Stewart]

A shiny new thread.

I'm getting increasingly impressed with the big Waterstones in Glasgow for its displays in the fiction section. While the usual old 3 for 2 crap dominates the downstairs, along with some promotions of Aye Write (currently ongoing), In The News, and Sellers Recommend, the tables upstairs are getting rather good.

There's a New Hardback section, which has all the latest there. There's also a 3 for 2 table. And a Recent Fiction table. Pretty generic offerings.

There's a translation table, which has a lot of reputable stuff on it. Nice to see a recently added pile of Vesaas' The Ice Palace and four or five copies of Peter Pist'anek's Rivers Of Babylon, since it comes from a very small press (Garnett). I had to buy my copy from the university since they had no distribution. Obviously the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize has raised its profile, even if it didn't make the shortlist.

There's an American Fiction table, which, as you can guess, has plenty of US literature, cult classics, and some new releases.

The Modern Classics table is rather good. Sadly it's not a Penguin Modern Classics table (since I like consistency) but it has a good range of 20th Century literature (English and translated) in which a number of gems are to be found.

On a smaller scale there's a box display about indulgence, in which a number of Dedalus Books books can be found. Some obscure Penguin Classics too. Tempting.

One focused on an author. At the moment, Simone de Beauvoir.

But the one that attracted me, and the one that prompted this thread, was a display called Beginners Plagiarise, Professionals Steal. It had, side by side, novels and the novels that influenced them. So Doctor Glas sits alongside Gregorius, The Magic Mountain next to Castorp, Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea, among others.

So let this be a thread for interesting book display, ones where they get it right, and ones where they actually look like book sellers.

[bakunin_the_cat]

Does sound a lot more interesting than the W. where I work, but then they've got the space to do it in a bigger store. That said, we do have a certain amount of flexibility on certain ends, so if anyone has any ideas like the one above, do spout forth. Of course, I'll get the credit at work but then you will get to see what you want.

[kirsty]

When I worked in (the other) Glasgow Waterstone's, we had a film table of books that had been filmed. Funnily enough. Quite a few people impulse-bought from it because they didn't realise such-and-such was a book first.

[Quink]

Stewart,
The first floor in Glasgow's Waterstone's is one of my favourite browsing spots. The fiction buyer there, Andrew, is a real specialist in Eastern European fiction, as well as being a very knowledgeable bookseller and bookreader. In December, on my last visit, I had gone in to buy Alisdair Gray's new novel (easily found elsewhere in the store) and started wandering around Andrew's tables, as I think of them. We got chatting and I left the store a while later with Magda Szabo's The Door (his read of the year), Paul Leppin's Blaugast, and a new reprint of Kelman's An Old Pub Near the Angel (which he'd thought had little fanfare and assumed, correctly, that it may have escaped my attention).

It's great to find a bookstore, especially in a chain, which you know will have books that few other bookstores will have on the account of the tastes of its buyers.

EDIT: Just found the till receipt in the back of The Door. Add to the above,
Pedro Paramo by Paul Rolfo
Hamish McHaggis and the Loch Ness Monster
Home Sweet Hamish

[John Self]

Magda Szabo's The Door (his read of the year)

Really! Dammit, time to rescue that one from the charity shop pile then!

[Stewart]

Yes, the Szabo is a perennial on that translation table.

So you're in Glasgow, Quink? Or a regular passer through.

[Quink]

A passer through from London to visit the family. It's either Waterstone's or the secondhand books shops near the Uni off Great Western Road (Caledonian Books etc).

[Stewart]

...secondhand books shops near the Uni off Great Western Road (Caledonian Books etc).
The Otago Lane shops. (I've danced with kings and many things but I've never been to them.)

[vald]

Just a quick query. Is Magda Szabo that woman off Kath and Kim?

[John Self]

Definitely not, vald.

Magda Szabo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magda_Szab%C3%B3).

That woman off Kath & Kim (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magda_Szubanski).

[vald]

:oops: I'll get my coat.......

[dovegreyreader]

The Otago Lane shops. (I've danced with kings and many things but I've never been to them.) __________________
Even I've been here all the way from Devon Stewart! mine Offspring worked at BBC Scotland for three years and we used to go to that fabulous second-hand bookshop and then Tchai Ovna teahouse where you sit in a garage on mouldy old sofas and drink out of mismatching cups and it was heaven.
I'm afraid I stll haven't forgiven Waterstone's for losing the black shelving. I'd buy any book off a black shelf, now the one in Plymouth looks bland, ordinary and warehousey, I hate it.

[kirsty]

Oh the Otago street shops! I used to live mere minutes from them. Actually, they're what I miss most about Glasgow. Apart from my mum, obv.

[Stewart]

An interesting way of categorising books in an extremely interesting - and insane - book store (http://mx.youtube.com/watch?v=EDAtNgjTRgM).

[Ang]

That is so cool. Next time I'm in the area* I'll look them up!

*Last time was 1980.

[sara]

I am very proud of the W that I work in. It' s individual despite being obviously part of the huge chain. We have our Bookseller recommends and local interest, both very varied and interesting, on the ground floor. I work in fiction on first, and alongside the 342's, classics, and new hardbacks, we have world literature, bookseller recommends (very good selection from bonkers fiction buyer), a bay of surrealist writers, a short story display (chosen by me, yippee!), the new gorgeous covered Penguin classics, a huge lesbian and gay fiction section, plus even more!

I had previously worked in a very dull, uniform W, and still feel thrilled at how lovely my current branch is.

[Paul]

Here's an article (http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2008-02-13-borders-downloads_N.htm) about Border's new concept stores. They're opening one down the street from me and I'm intrigued and a little nervous. It's located in the mall so I'm afraid my cozy little chair in the corner of the store will be over run by mall rats. We'll see. The parts that really stood out (and depressed me) were these:

And they struggle to serve a younger generation that doesn't read nearly as much as their parents did.


Still, no one foresees the imminent demise of the major bricks-and-mortar chain bookstores. Helping offset the threat of declining readership: More than half the books sold in the USA, Jones notes, are bought by people over 50.

But this one, from the local newspaper, bugged me the most.


But browsing for books seems so last century when you can download music and burn a custom CD (seven songs for $9.95, each additional song is 99 cents, plus you can print titles and artwork), browse for and print recipes in the cookbook section or research and book trips in the travel department.

So, now browsing for books is "last century"?!

[Stewart]

The Otago Lane shops. (I've danced with kings and many things but I've never been to them.)

And today I went, on a whim, nipping onto the underground and heading out west. My feelings on it were that it's the kind of place a bibliophile imagines liking, probably dreams of, where books teeter over and threaten to spill at the slightest breath. But I couldn't bring myself to buy anything, even though there were a few titles that interested: Beat Sterchi's The Cow and William Maxwell's The Folded Leaf. It's just the idea of books with crumpled covers, yellowed pages, and prices written on them freaks me out. I doubt I'll ever warm to them, even if, amongst all the books, were myriad titles currently out of print and sitting there for a quid or two apiece.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3120/2617183086_c8d4fec2f9.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3095/2617180754_3833a70e7f.jpg

[bill]

I find it extremely difficult to simply browse in places like that, although if I were to find something I wanted, I'd buy it. The problem might be that, as I'm sure most of you do, I go into used bookstores with a catalogue of books/authors I've been searching for in my head, and if the store is that disorganized, I won't be able to really look for those titles. I might luck out, but that's unlikely. I just find it frustrating.

[kirsty]

*sigh* Voltaire and Rousseau. Named after the owner's cats. Occasionally you find a cat atop a pile of books too, though I fear they aren't for sale.

I miss the Otago Street shops. :(

[Quink]

Went once to V&R. Stepped over the threshhold, turned on my heel and left (an impossibility in any other part of the shop). Browsing shops like that is a waste of time, and I'm with Bill on this one. There's another along the lane, Alba (?) Books which I try and visit when I am up on holiday. It's very much more organised and there's always pleasant tasteful music playing - a very soothing place. I hope that's still there, as I prefer that to Caledonian Books. Hopefully soon.

[Lizzy Siddal]

I can't browse in V&R either - although the place is never empty of customers when I do visit ... to make a quick raid on the Folio Society shelf.

Alba Books sounds good - I'll go there one day - the day I manage to find a parking space in the vicinity.

[Beth]

Afraid I'd fit right in at V&R. It reminds me of a community center here where I've made some great finds crawling on the carpet to get to a layer of books underneath a layer of books. The place screams low overhead.

[Stewart]

I see Borders has now opened its online arm (http://www.borders.co.uk/) in the UK now.

[Stewart]

I see Borders has now opened its online arm (http://www.borders.co.uk/) in the UK now.
And now, better value for the customer, as Borders revert back to 3-for-2 rather than the buy one get one half price deal.

[JunkMonkey]

I've always fancied calling a character 'Ortago Street' - I think he's probably a 19th Century Guatemalan freedom fighter. But as the chances of me ever even thinking about writing anything that would in any way occupy the same universe as Guatamala I doubt if I ever will.

He'd probably look a bit like this:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3175/2797645020_d4e419443c_m.jpg (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/797645020/)

[Chookie]

Watersons have just opened a branch in Dunfermline. Fine, you say, but its not fine - all the shelving is WHITE!

That is just so wrong............