It’s the tipping point of the year. This is the height of autumn, with a blaze of orange light and orange leaf. Dazzled visitors are raucous in this unexpected late sun. Now with the clocks going back, there’s the sense... Continue Reading →
The first thing that greeted me last Saturday morning was a gentleman attentive to our opening procedures. He dutifully watched as the postcards were hung up, the maps placed on display and the doors thrown open to the weekend visitors.... Continue Reading →
If you’ve been watching any kind of news media you could be forgiven for thinking that, as a bookshop, we’ve been inundated with custom for a certain study of a prominent American. Actually we’ve yet to have a query. It’s... Continue Reading →
Much Anticipated of 2018 One of the delights of working in a bookshop is getting a glimpse of exciting things as they are published. We’re so lucky that after 130 years of Sam Read’s selling books in Grasmere we’re still... Continue Reading →
Grasmere Book Group 2017 The Grasmere Book Group has been going for some years now and we thought it might be nice to share our reflections on this year’s reading. Some of what follows has already appeared in the esteemed... Continue Reading →
Shaun Bythell’s The Diary of a Bookseller (Profile Books) begins with two touchstones, ‘Bookshop Memories’ an essay by George Orwell on the world of bookselling published in 1936 and Jen Campbell’s 2012 book Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops (Constable). Orwell’s essay,... Continue Reading →
You know you’re in London when you see billboard advertising for books. A species of book publicity not frequently spotted in Cumbria, the house-sized display of book promotion is, to this viewer, heart-warming. I mention this, as my first glimpse... Continue Reading →
Excellent new books are arriving thick and fast and capturing our hearts on a ridiculously quick turnaround. Some of the recent ones capturing our imagination, and *drawing* us in are discussed below… Elan Mastai’s All Our Wrong Todays (Michael Joseph)... Continue Reading →
This is the first in a series of posts by members of the Sam Read's team reflecting on some of our favourite reads of 2016. The following is Gill Cowton's review of John Lister-Kaye's Gods of the Morning (Canongate)...
