Our bestsellers this week
****We accept National Book Tokens. Redeem them in the shop or online by filling in this form with your book wishlist and the number on the back of the token***
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Islands of Abandonment by Cal Flyn (Backstory book club this month)
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
Heatwave by Victor Jestin
Milk Teeth by Jessica Andrews
***BREAKING NEWS (ish): Backstory is famous! I was on the Radio 4 Today programme on Friday talking about the resurgence of independent bookshops. Listen again about 49 minutes in here***
LIKE MOST THIRTYSOMETHING Britons, I grew up with Harry Potter. Every year, there was a new book to devour. He was a year older, and so was I. I stumbled on Philosopher’s Stone by chance in a bookshop in my hometown of Corbridge when I was eight. I was soon hooked, of course. Long before Mr Spielberg released his own attempt, I spent several contented months writing a screenplay for the first book, begged my parents for a camcorder and roped my friends into playing the roles. I think I used one of my mum’s lipsticks for Harry’s scar.
By the time the third book was released, I was queuing outside the same bookshop to pick up my copy at midnight on publication day. My biggest claim to fame remains a non-speaking appearance in a cutaway shot on BBC Look North, queuing outside a branch of Waterstones for JK Rowling to sign my copy (actually, one of my copies) of her fourth book. My parents spoke of little else for days.
I was reminded of all of this in the last few days by the brouhaha surrounding a certain other Big Book about a Harry, due out on Tuesday. (For the benefit of any Spanish booksellers, that’s martes.) As with Potter, the build-up to publication day had been accompanied by breathless reporting about the manuscript being kept under “lock and key”. As with Potter, booksellers who normally receive new releases in a thoroughly haphazard manner and stick ‘em out whenever they fancy, were made to sign embargoes. And, as with Potter, it all went tits up.
In the Potter case, a fork-lift truck driver at the printing press ended up in court after trying to flog the first three chapters of Order of the Phoenix to The Sun for £25,000. The poor chap was, according to his barrister, “extremely embarrassed about the trouble he had caused”.
Which is presumably how my Spanish counterparts are feeling this weekend, perhaps with a side order of bemusement. My highlight of the week was hearing that a BBC reporter had picked up one of the erroneously displayed copies of En La Sombra (so much more elegant than Spare, don’t you think?) and was on her way to the till only to have it snatched back by an employee who told her it was no longer for sale. I love the image of a mild-mannered bookseller desperately trying to stuff the cat back into the bag.
What all of this means for sales of the book is anyone’s guess. Even before the dam burst this week, the royal rift was hardly underexplored territory. Nor could you straight-facedly claim - post-Oprah, podcasts and an entire Netflix series - that Harry has never told his side of the story.
Still, assuming all the best bits aren’t only in Spanish, it does sound juicier than I was expecting. And publicists would ordinarily kill to have their book discussed at the top of a single news bulletin, let alone all of them.
Who knows? I’ll report back. And if you do fancy giving it a go, perhaps you could, ahem, spare a thought for your favourite independent bookshop. It’ll be in the shop from Tuesday and it’s on our website right here.
Happy New Year to you all,
Tom