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wishusYesterday, I briefly faced the prospect of celebrating N's birthday with absolutely no money whatsoever - not even enough to buy milk. But then the rent came through - huzzah!
Back from the brink, we tried to plan a picnic somewhere nice and settled on Cambridge, where we knew a few writers were doing a signing and reading event, including China Mieville, Trudi Canavan, Peter F Hamilton, Eric Brown and our friend, Ian Whates.
The picnic didn't happen in the end, as we thought the weather was going to be rubbish, so we went for a lovely yet inexpensive lunch at the Polish cafe in St Giles Street, where I had beetroot soup with a few dumplings and Neil had a hearty beef goulash with potato cakes. Yum!
Of course, when we got to Cambridge the weather was in fact glorious. We happily spent a couple of hours gazing at the beautiful architecture and meandering in the path of bicycles, then got to Heffers promptly at 6.30, thinking it would all start shortly after. Unfortunately that was the time Ian had been scheduled to talk, so we just caught the end of his speaking bit. Never mind.
We wandered around, imbibing the ambiance, the smell of inky paper and one or two glasses of free vino, and ended up buying a few books. I know, I know. My to-read pile is taller than me, I need to eat etc etc... but books are just lovely - you know?
In particular, it made us happy to see Ian, looking so content and successful, surrounded by a pile of his books and chatting to readers. We know the work he has put in over the years to get where he is and he is an inspiration (an ianspiration?) to us all.
We were also very impressed by Heffers and decided we would quite like to move there - specifically to that bookshop. The staff there are so passionate about what they do, and it's just what a booksellers should be like. We made a compare/contrast with our own local branch of Waterstones in Northampton, which comes up (just right now) very poorly beside Heffers, following their recent refurb.
It is something I happened to mention today to the regional manager of Waterstones, who was very polite and friendly and seemed very keen to take on my points as a consumer.
What they've done is to expand the range of cards and gifts, and these now take up the majority of the ground floor. In terms of books now, when you walk in there are two 3 for 2 tables and the best-selling and recommended reads wall. Only the children's section is unchanged. There is a reduced A-Z fiction at the back of the store and genre and specialised subjects are now crammed together on the first floor.
I say crammed... it is true to say they have less space allocated to them, but if the individual books were hens, they'd practically be free range. I mentioned to the manager that I was most perturbed by the focussing of the store away from books and in particular the lack of stock for the science fiction section.
This is somewhat different to the situation before Easter when a special display was made of the shortlisted books for the BSFA Award. Now there are so few books on the shelf there are big gaps with books falling over. However, the regional manager has assured me this is a temporary stocking situation and has urged me to stay in touch with the manager concerning the SF section. This restores my faith enormously.
As my Money Manager testifies, I spend more on books than I do on food, so it is very important to me that the one and only bookseller in town (apart from the charity shops, remainders, supermarkets and stationers)is listening to customer feedback. I'm only too happy to help out with that!
The Heffers night continued to be much fun, and we tagged along to a meal after where I sat next to the very interesting Jasper Kent (looking forward to reading Twelve as soon as N is finished with it!). Unfortunately, I'm not sure the restaurant The Chop House lives up to its price. I had the fisherman's pie... nice and hot, though the fish were overdone, and it wasn't much of a pie, consisting of fish mix in a mornay sauce (what no potato topping?). A shame, but I think most people enjoyed theirs. When you pass a chip van on the way out of a restaurent though and decide to get chips, it's not good really, is it?
Back from the brink, we tried to plan a picnic somewhere nice and settled on Cambridge, where we knew a few writers were doing a signing and reading event, including China Mieville, Trudi Canavan, Peter F Hamilton, Eric Brown and our friend, Ian Whates.
The picnic didn't happen in the end, as we thought the weather was going to be rubbish, so we went for a lovely yet inexpensive lunch at the Polish cafe in St Giles Street, where I had beetroot soup with a few dumplings and Neil had a hearty beef goulash with potato cakes. Yum!
Of course, when we got to Cambridge the weather was in fact glorious. We happily spent a couple of hours gazing at the beautiful architecture and meandering in the path of bicycles, then got to Heffers promptly at 6.30, thinking it would all start shortly after. Unfortunately that was the time Ian had been scheduled to talk, so we just caught the end of his speaking bit. Never mind.
We wandered around, imbibing the ambiance, the smell of inky paper and one or two glasses of free vino, and ended up buying a few books. I know, I know. My to-read pile is taller than me, I need to eat etc etc... but books are just lovely - you know?
In particular, it made us happy to see Ian, looking so content and successful, surrounded by a pile of his books and chatting to readers. We know the work he has put in over the years to get where he is and he is an inspiration (an ianspiration?) to us all.
We were also very impressed by Heffers and decided we would quite like to move there - specifically to that bookshop. The staff there are so passionate about what they do, and it's just what a booksellers should be like. We made a compare/contrast with our own local branch of Waterstones in Northampton, which comes up (just right now) very poorly beside Heffers, following their recent refurb.
It is something I happened to mention today to the regional manager of Waterstones, who was very polite and friendly and seemed very keen to take on my points as a consumer.
What they've done is to expand the range of cards and gifts, and these now take up the majority of the ground floor. In terms of books now, when you walk in there are two 3 for 2 tables and the best-selling and recommended reads wall. Only the children's section is unchanged. There is a reduced A-Z fiction at the back of the store and genre and specialised subjects are now crammed together on the first floor.
I say crammed... it is true to say they have less space allocated to them, but if the individual books were hens, they'd practically be free range. I mentioned to the manager that I was most perturbed by the focussing of the store away from books and in particular the lack of stock for the science fiction section.
This is somewhat different to the situation before Easter when a special display was made of the shortlisted books for the BSFA Award. Now there are so few books on the shelf there are big gaps with books falling over. However, the regional manager has assured me this is a temporary stocking situation and has urged me to stay in touch with the manager concerning the SF section. This restores my faith enormously.
As my Money Manager testifies, I spend more on books than I do on food, so it is very important to me that the one and only bookseller in town (apart from the charity shops, remainders, supermarkets and stationers)is listening to customer feedback. I'm only too happy to help out with that!
The Heffers night continued to be much fun, and we tagged along to a meal after where I sat next to the very interesting Jasper Kent (looking forward to reading Twelve as soon as N is finished with it!). Unfortunately, I'm not sure the restaurant The Chop House lives up to its price. I had the fisherman's pie... nice and hot, though the fish were overdone, and it wasn't much of a pie, consisting of fish mix in a mornay sauce (what no potato topping?). A shame, but I think most people enjoyed theirs. When you pass a chip van on the way out of a restaurent though and decide to get chips, it's not good really, is it?
