Homework

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Homework

by cpmatthew @ Sunday, Apr. 30, 2006 – 11:13:56 am

Been a little quiet on here recently. The reason is that we've been working away to make our virtual shop a reality. Just this morning we received and processed our first orders. Yes! It works! What is even more exciting is that this was all accomplished from the comfort of an armchair at home while I was drinking coffee and lounging around in a dressing-gown...

I LOVE COMPUTERS

Anyway let's wade in with a few of the usual oppinionated bookselling rants.

1: Waterstones have a new promotion at the moment that claims to be about remembering "classic" backlist titles such as Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb. What makes this so funny is that it is only Waterstones that has forgotten these titles - places such as Crockatt & Powell know these are the most important books - the core that sells year after year and stands apart from the whims of literary fashion. Those in charge of the big W really are dumb. No wonder Timmy wants his toys back!

2: Why is the Orange prize shortlist so bloody boring? The same books crop up again and again on the prize lists whilst the chance to highlight brilliant and really exciting books like Lorraine Adam's Harbor are lost.

Only two rants? Oh well, that will have to do...
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16 Comments to Homework

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- JonathanM (Visitor)
- http://booksellercrow.typepad.com/the_bedside_crow/
- Sunday, Apr. 30, 2006 @ 11:45:36 am
How right you are.
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- cpmarie
- http://www.crockattpowell.com
- Sunday, Apr. 30, 2006 @ 10:24:42 pm
I'm not sure I agree with you Matthew. Maybe the books were nominated for the Orange Prize because they were good. Maybe they are everywhere because they are good. I haven't read the Orange shortlist myself but I'd hesitate to wade in and start describing it as boring just because I recognise the books and authors on the list. The purpose of a prize isn't to highight the overlooked, it's to reward the best. I for one am glad to see certain female writers starting to attain the ubiquity of establishment status, it's a position the men have held for far too long. How refreshing that The Booker and Orange lists would be so similar - it appears female writers are no longer niche. Speaking as an aspiring writer, meanwhile, I would hate to be championed only when I am low profile, only to be dismissed the moment I achieve any kind of success. Though like I say, I haven't read the shortlist, so I could be wrong, maybe the books on it are dull. But then again, I suspect, neither have you.
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- cpmatthew
- Monday, May. 01, 2006 @ 11:08:21 am
Marie - if you believe that when you see products (be they books, cds, clothes whatever) all over the place they are there because they are good then logically you eat at McDonalds, shop in Top-Shop, listen to Coldplay and enjoy films like King Kong...

I know this is not the case!

In my small, ridiculous, "I'm a professional bookseller I know what I'm talking about" kind of way I am just trying to point out that if I were an Orange Prize judge (corporate sponsored so I never will be!) I would have included Maggie Gee's My Cleaner, Harbor by Lorraine Adams and Minaret by Leila Aboulela.

There is so much more out there than this prize list suggests! Don't be suckered by the homogenising tastes forced on us by these corporate sponsored prizes...(Orange - the Man Booker Prize - Man group is a HUGE hedge fund!)

Remember...PETS WIN PRIZES
- - cpmatthew
  - Monday, May. 01, 2006 @ 11:14:25 am
  PPS I have a feeling I'm going to regret these comments...
  - - cpmatthew
    - Wednesday, May. 03, 2006 @ 10:32:44 am
    I was right!
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- cpmarie
- http://www.crockattpowell.com
- Monday, May. 01, 2006 @ 01:22:47 pm
I quite like Coldplay.
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- Elaine (Visitor)
- Tuesday, May. 02, 2006 @ 04:01:20 pm
I'm starting to find the tone of this blog a bit depressing. Can I first of all make clear that I am not, nor have I ever been, an employee of a book store, corporate or not? I work in pharmacy and have no interests whatsoever to declare. OK? Right, with that out of the way let me confess that I am ignorant enough to think that the Waterstone's initiative you describe sounds quite useful. No doubt this marks me down as an utter philistine, but I'd never heard of the book, or the author, you mention (from the tone of your post this would seem akin to admitting that I've never heard of the Gospel According to St Luke). I just can't quite work out what is so wrong with an attempt -- by anybody -- to rectify that? It's hard not to infer that you are rattled by the thought that in doing so they are encroaching on what you think of as your USP, the thing that makes your higher prices worthwhile.

I was delighted when you opened in Lower Marsh. I have very little spare cash, but a worryingly high proportion of what I do have has gone your way since you opened. But why, oh why, do you feel that this constant denigration of the corporates is necessary to sell your stuff? Are you that insecure about the higher prices you charge? Most of us are intelligent enough to work out why it has to be this way. But I don't vote for politicians who negatively campaign and I must admit that your constant whingeing about big bad Waterstones is likely to drive me straight into -- well, maybe not their particular demonic embrace as they don't tend to stock stuff I want -- but Amazon does. And it doesn't harp on endlessly about how worthy it is. It just gets on with being the best at what it does (can't deny it). Why can't you just get on with being the best at what you do -- after all, yours is a totally different model with a different audience?
- - booksellertothestars
  - http://www.markfarley.blogspot.com
  - Tuesday, May. 02, 2006 @ 09:16:08 pm
  I completely agree with everything you have said Elaine. I stopped coming this way regularily a few weeks ago actually when the tone turned very bitter towards the corporates.
  
  It's such a shame you guys because when you started this blog, it was a breath of fresh air, then you got all righteous.
  
  No one is gonna want to read all of this selfish indignation all of the time. It's not funny anymore. You are boring everyone, even your customers now. This is not the way to run a bookshop. You are making the elitist staff members in High Fidelity look like angels.
  
  You keep calling and baiting me in your comments to drop some sort of bombshell or enter in some sort of silly debate.
  Be funny but stop with the Waterstones crap or you will continue to be the only ones commenting on this public forum like it has been the last couple of weeks because at the moment, no one is interested.
  
  PS we are still waiting for this big secret announcement about the company that you said was gonna happen and affect everyone that only you and your special tardis had found out about.
  
  Elaine Darling, you are welcome to The Bookseller to the Stars anytime.
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- cpmatthew
- Tuesday, May. 02, 2006 @ 05:31:18 pm
Sorry Elaine...

What can I say? Just about every point you make is valid.

No more whinging!
- - booksellertothestars
  - http://www.markfarley.blogspot.com
  - Tuesday, May. 02, 2006 @ 09:07:14 pm
  By Jove, I think he has got it....
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- Scott Pack (Visitor)
- Wednesday, May. 03, 2006 @ 12:44:58 am
I think the point to the 'lost classics' idea was to profile in a greater way the sort of books that all booksellers (whether from Waterstone's, Borders, LRB, C&P or wherever) champion every day in their own unique way.

I found it remarkable that Revenge Of The Lawn by Richard Brautigan came top of the booksellers poll for these 'lost classics'. I assumed it was a cult classic that most people have read (much as you feel with the Szerb) but when I checked sales it does little more than tick over and when I quizzed well-read friends the vast majority had not heard of it.

I would argue that anything that brings great books like these to a wider readership is a good thing. Sure, an independent bookshop may recoil a little from a high street chain taking such a line but surely booksellers of any colour, t-shirt, chain, brand etc. have the right to shout about books they love?

By the way. Check out The Artist Of The Missing by Paul LaFarge for your next US order (I may have mentioned it before). Murakami meets Auster meets Kafka. Odd but delightful.
- - cpmatthew
  - Wednesday, May. 03, 2006 @ 10:31:58 am
  Thanks for the The Artist of the Missing tip Scott!
  
  Thing about all the fuss above is we would never have got all chummy with you if I hadn't challanged you to a fight right back at the beginning!
  
  My tongue is often in my cheek - though that's hard to appreciate over the net...
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- cpmatthew
- Wednesday, May. 03, 2006 @ 09:43:40 am
Great to have you back Mark!
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- Elaine (Visitor)
- Wednesday, May. 03, 2006 @ 02:20:18 pm
Oh heck -- now I feel like a complete heel. Matthew, I'm sorry. I can't believe how graciously you have dealt with my bitching (both here in in a personal email -- more than I deserve) -- you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din. And it would take trolls with tasers to keep me out of your fine shop.
Your point about tongue in cheek comments being hard to appreciate online no doubt nails it -- I've fallen foul of that one myself and thus should be the last to throw stones. Anyway -- the whole point is -- you don't need to slag the opposition BECAUSE YOU'RE BRILLIANT - and most people reading this blog will already know this. Apologies once again; I feel two inches tall now - E.
- - cpmatthew
  - Wednesday, May. 03, 2006 @ 02:39:00 pm
  Ahhh! Thanks Elaine - you're brilliant too!
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- Scott Pack (Visitor)
- Thursday, May. 04, 2006 @ 11:31:41 pm
Hang on, this is becoming a love-in. We must get the fight back on.
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