Tag: books in the wild

bookshops

Books in the Wild: The Riverside Bookshop

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Happy Saturday everyone, I’ve been bookshop wandering again this week and I’m back with another new spot. I tried to visit The Riverside Bookshop last time that I went to see a show at the Menier Chocolate Factory, but they were closed early for an event. But this time I managed it, and I’m glad that I did!

As you know, my main reading interests are almost always Crime and Romance and here they’re right next to each other so that’s pretty perfect. It’s a bijou selection for both, but I think you’d manage to find something for most reading tastes. I’ve read a lot and I still managed to find a couple of books I hadn’t seen before that were in my sort of reading wheelhouse.

As you can see, here is A Murder for Miss Hortense looking all pepermint-y in the wild but also Nicola Upson‘s new standalone book – which is a Christmas mystery that’s probably slightly longer than a novella but not hugely so. You can also see a pretrty good sense of the range: a couple of Maigrets, some Japanese crime, a bit of Irvine Welsh, Stuart Turton, Louise Penny and Kristin Perrin.

I love a table of new non-fiction, especially where there are things that I haven’t seen before, like Ghosts of the British Museum, How to win the Premier League and Supremacy along with things that I’ve read reviews for like If Russia Wins and The View from Down Here.

And finally I had to put the new fiction shelves too – because right at the top there is one of my recent reads The Murder at World’s End along with the new ones from Salman Rushdie, Bob Mortimer, Ken Follett and Richard Osman. A truly eclectic selection.

Happy Saturday – go out and support your local bookshop by buying some books for Christmas!

bookshops, Christmas books

Books in the Wild: Daunt Marylebone

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Yes I’ve been wandering again, and today’s post is mostly about their windows, because I’m always interested to see what they have picked – there’s always at least one that I haven’t seen before.

The Boroughs of London is – as the name suggests – a book of maps of London’s boroughs complete with commentary and trivia about them. There’s almost always a local or at least London related book in the Marylebone window. It looks like it would make a great coffee table book either for yourself or as a Christmas gift.

This is even more local than the previous book – you can practically see Regent’s Park from the shop front. This is a children’s book about a fox. All the details I can find about this suggests that it’s a small press release, very new and that this is possibly the most publicity and prominence it’s had so far!

From a Christmas children’s book to a Christmas book for adults. Advent is apparently an Icelandic Christmas classic about a man rescuing sheep in the run up to Christmas time and this is the first time in 90 years that it’s been translated into English.

And finally here’s the mixed books window – featuring Small Bomb at Dimperley in paperback, The Wedding People, Voyage around the Queen and the Glass Maker which I have waiting to be read and a mix of books I e seen around and others that I haven’t.

And that’s your lot. Have a great Saturday!

bookshops

Books in the Wild: The Works October 2025 edition

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Happy Saturday everyone, and I’ve been back into my local branch of The Works again to see what you can pick up in there for a bargain…

These are the new release titles (as opposed to the multi-buy deals) and you can see that they’ve got the new Richard Osman, R F Kuang, Stephanie Garber and Bob Mortimer here, along with The Favourites (just in time for the start of the Grand Prix figure skating season this weekend) and a stack of Cecelia Aherns, a tonne of romantasy and sports romance (mostly hockey) and a stack of the latest wave of paranormal romances should you be in the market for some Halloween reading.

On the next one we have more Romantasy, more romance, more Richard Osman, but also the majority of the crime selection that they’ve got at the moment – which again shows the shift in publishing trends as a couple of years ago, in fact maybe only a year ago, there would have been at least one of these carcases full of crime and mystery novels – all my early Tasha Alexander, Royal Spynesses, Carola Dunns, Dandy Gilvers, Max Tudors and Kate Shackletons came from The Works back in the day so I’m a big miffed about that although obviously my wallet (and Him Indoors) thanks me.

And here we have the deals shelves – there are plenty of Christmas reads if you want them too. I haven’t read these particular Sarah Morgans, but her Christmas novels that I have read have been good. I have read Jingle Bell Mingle which is part of the Christmas Notch series by Sierra Simone and Julie Murphy. But apart from that I’ve read embarrassingly little of this shelf – I’ve read a lot of the authors, just not these books in particular.

I’m a little better on this shelf. There’s The Christmas Jigsaw Murders which I read back in 2023, The Rom-Commers and Any Trope But You that I’ve read, and then Match Point and Murder at Holly House that I have on the to-read pile. But that’s it. And actually the thing that has surprised me everytime I’ve been into The Works recently is how few of the romance novels I recognise. Yes there are the Elsie Silvers and Elle Kennedys and the like, but there’s also loads of other illustrated pastel covers that I haven’t come across. ANd I don’t know if that’s just because they’re aimed at the BookTok viewer tastes – which are younger heroines and lots of sports and that’s not what I’m after – or if there are just a different set of books that are making it to The Works now, because I swear I haven’t seen them in Foyles or Gower Street’s Romance selections. But maybe I just haven’t been paying attention…

bookshops

Books in the Wild: Spanish Supermarket edition

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Happy weekend everyone, and when we were on holiday I did my traditional wander around the supermarket to see what that book selection was like in Gran Canaria, because I always like to see what has made it into translation, and what covers they’ve been given.

So i hose the romance section for the first picture because a) I like romance and b) I think it’s a good summation of the whole thing – some books in translation, mixed in with Spanish authors and no real pattern to which of the translated authors get new covers and which don’t!

I picked this one out because as you can see, the sports romance trend has made it to Spain. There’s Elle Kennedy, Stephanie Archer and Elsie Silver in that first photo above, but this is a home grown one. There isn’t an English version, but it’s a tennis romance where the hero is an up-and-coming player who comes to the heroine’s father for coaching help because he’s in a slump. And just like so many authors at the moment, it sounds like Anna Farres started out on Wattpad.

You all know how much I loved Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, so here it is in Spanish, with the same cover design as the UK hardback had – but in paperback. and I think it works really well in Spanish. I do like this design better than the paperback adaptation it got in the UK – the retro computer font hints at the game design element of the book. Yes the wave is from the computer game, but you don’t know that – so I think the paperback with just the wave and then a more boring/standard font and layout is a bit of a miss.

This is A Lady’s Guide to Scandal, the sequel to A Lady’s Guide to Fortune Hunting, I picked this one out because it’s actually got the American cover translated, as opposed to having the UK cover (and a quote on the cover from The Bookseller, which is British!). And it just goes to show what a mix it is on the cover front – it doesn’t even really seem to decided by genre- the Jojo Moyes in the first picture has the UK cover, this has the US cover, Nora Roberts has the US cover for The Mirror, the Elsie Silver has the same illustration in slightly different versions on the UK, US and Spanish versions.

And finally I’m finishing with Dan Brown, because they seemed to be completely different covers to the UK and US ones – and they didn’t have the new one at all and I couldn’t work out if that was because it was sold out or because it hadn’t arrived yet. And also because it was displayed with kids books!

Have a great weekend everyone!

bookshops

Books in the Wild: Autumn 2024 Airport Edition

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Happy Saturday everyone! I’ve been on holiday – and so I’ve been at the airport bookshop again. And please note, these were not taken this week – so they’re pre-Richard Osman release, which I’m expecting to be dominating from this week on.

But let’s start with the “biggest books” of the week which continue to be Coleen Hoover, Frieda McFadden and Sarah J Maas with a spattering of other books in silimar ends of their genres like Elsie Silver and Rebecca Yarros.

Lots of familiar names here too – last year’s Osman now in small paperback, Liane Moriarty, Lisa Jewell, Jojo Moyes, Harlan Coben but I’m really pleased to see how often Bob Mortimer is popping up in these displays now. I don’t think he’s my thing but I will give one a go at some point because I’ve heard good things about them being smart and funny. And we need more smart and funny.

I was a bit disappointed with the non-fiction paperbacks – I was hoping for more stuff I hadn’t seen or at least more stuff that wasn’t self help or podcast tie-in books. I’ve picked up some interesting stuff from this very bookshop before (Going Infinite for example) that was a bit different.

And now on to the airport exclusives aka the stuff that’s only in hardback everywhere else. And we have some more of the same names from the biggest books display but also the latest Emily Henry, the very new R F Kuang, and the new Adam Kay (as in This is Going to Hurt) murder mystery. But surprisingly not Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

And it should be noted that I clearly missed a display somewhere because one of my airport purchases was Entitled, the new Andrew Lownie about the Duke and Duchess of York and I cannot find it in any of my pictures, but the other was Fast Money – seen on the bottoms row here about the finances of Formula One.

And finally because I can hear you wondering about Dan Brown and yes, they did have the new Robert Langdon but and this is a big bit – only in hardback, not as the large format paperback which I found really interesting – and not many of them which given the big ad they had for it may well mean they had sold a fair few copies!

Have a great weekend!

bookshops

Books in the Wild: The Notting Hill Bookshop

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After I had been to Saucy Books the other week, I may have headed to another bookshop in the area. Because the only thing better than one bookshop, is two bookshops!

This isn’t the full frontage because at various points when I was trying to take a picutre of the whole thing, there where people posing for photos and I try not to include random people full face on here. And why were people posing for photos outside I hear you say. Well this is a bookshop in Notting Hill and you may remember that in the film Notting Hill Hugh Grant’s character runs a bookshop in Notting Hill. Now there is something of a turf war going on about this…

This one is actually the store front that was used in the movie, and the beef goes deep enough that as you can see they have a whole poster about it outlining their story. Anyway, back to the Notting Hill Bookshop, which is a bookshop, in Notting Hill, founded in the early 1980s which says it inspired the bookshop in the movie….

It’s not a huge shop, but it is bigger than the shop front would suggest, and it is stuffed with books and made more crowded by the number of customers (huge when I was there, I was glad I hadn’t come straight from work and had taken the time to ditch my rucksack, even if carrying my purchases home in the shoulder bag wasn’t the best idea for my poor shoulder!). And the huge number of customers and crowded nature of it all are the reasons why the photos aren’t exactly ideal sometimes. Sorry about that.

I thought whoever was doing the book picking was doing a pretty good job too – this table right at the front shows what I mean – it’s got stuff for the Casual Reader (things that you might be able to pick up at the supermarket), it’s got prize winning authors for the Serious Reader, and things that you might not have come across before for people like me who visit a lot of bookshops and want something different!

It’s also got a small romance section, which is always nice to see, even if a lot of the books are either things I’ve already read or not my end of the genre (see my previous comments about New Adult).

They’ve also got a tonne of extra-bits – like Paddington and London related stuff in the kids section as well as loads of collectible hardbacks, notepads, souvenirs to say you were there. I bought myself Hattie Steals the Show (which you’ve already seen in Books Incoming) and a bunch of book related post cards.

Have a great weekend everyone!

bookshops

Books in the Wild: Penguin Pop-up

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Happy Saturday everyone and did you know that there is a pop-up in the basement of Waterstones Piccadilly celebrating 90 years of Penguin books?

There very much is, as well as books it’s got this little mini exhibit in the middle – literally one display case – but it’s got this really cool pasteboard for the cover design among a few other bits.

It’s also got a section for the special archive shorts that they’ve released for the anniversary. If my maths is right there is space for 80 on this display, but I didn’t check to see exactly how many different ones there are on it. And they’ve also got another display of them on one of the other floors so if anywhere has a chance of having all 90, Piccadilly does!

And there is a huge selection of the clothbound special editions – again, the biggest variety of them that I remember seeing anywhere because often it’s the usual suspects that you see: Pride and Prejudice and David Copperfield and similar, but this has got some books I didn’t even know had versions in this format – like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Around the World in Eighty Days and Phantom of the Opera.

But there’s still loads more – the Puffin special editions, some vintage books, a load of non-fiction including memoirs, history and science writing.

And there’s loads more – lots of fiction in the various different special lines, but also normal (so to speak) Penguin new releases and similar. I really enjoyed my wander, and yes I bought a book – but you’ll have to wait until Books Incoming (next weekend) so see what it was!

Have a great Saturday.

bookshops

Books in the Wild: Saucy Books

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There’s a new romance bookshop in London, so of course I have been to visit!

Saucy Books is in Notting Hill, just a short walk from Westbourne Grove Tube station, and as you can see it has a lovely purple frontage and tropical look which makes it really stand out from the crowd.

The tropical colour palate continues inside the store, where there’s what I suspect is a carefully curated selection of romance books, which to my eye seemed to have a little bit of something for most romance readers.

As it happens, I have read quite a lot of this display- Nora Goes off Script, The Paradise Problem, Finders Keepers, The Roommate, and The Neigbor Favor were all books of the week and I’ve writen about One to Watch too.

There’s also “The Smut Hut” upstairs – where there’s a lot of sports romance, but also the romantasy section. I’m not a big romantasy reader, but more sports romances are on my to-do list – except I find it hard to spot the ones that don’t have alphahole heros, because that is really not my thing!

It was actually pretty busy in the store when I arrived – not that you can tell from the photos! – so hopefully it’s going to do OK. I think the location is a good one – I went down to Notting Hill and Portobello Market after I’d made my purchases (yes there were purchases!) and it’s so popular with tourists that hopefully this could become a spot for them.

Have a great weekend!

bookshops

Books in the Wild: Spotted in Waterstones

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Happy Saturday everyone. I’ve been wandering the bookshops again, and so this week we’ve got my latest spots in Gower Street.

Firstly, lets have a moment for the Penguin book vending machine. I’m not sure how long it’s there for, but it’s so cool and I hope there are more of them on tour soon.

Secondly I’m always interested to see what in-store book clubs are reading. And Gower Street is super busy when to comes to events – when i was in there there were people galloping through the store performing Shakespeare, with an audience trailing behind. I read a lot of Nina Bawden as a child but I haven’t read much of her adult fiction and I have Sangu Mandanna’s previous book on the Kindle waiting to be read – this has given me a nudge to move that up the list a bit.

Another thing giving me a nudge – the display of Atmosphere. My copy is sitting on the pile at home too – but it’s the special edition version with the pretty edges.

Here’s A Case of Life and Limb in the wild – go read the bonus review, and my review of the first one – I’m hoping we get a third. And also on the hardback crime shelf is the book that goes with Bookish, the new TV show created by and starring Mark Gatiss, although he hasn’t written this novelisation…

And finally, I was hunting in the American history section for the Caroline Bessette-Kennedy book that I keep seeing being written about (often in the context of having the wrong photos in it!) and not findng it, but instead realising that Ask Not is now out in paperback and I still haven’t read the hardback, and then buying another book about the Kennedy wives despite that…

Have a great weekend everyone!

bookshops

Books in the Wild: The Works

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Here we are again, back in The Works where the main thing I’m seeing is the evolution of publishing trends again..4

Lets take the trending titles. We’ve got a bit of the traditional big names like Richard Osman, Lee Child and Sally Rooney and also Butter, but a lot of this are the TikTok trending books – and at the moment that seems to be romantasy, sports romances, and cozy small town romance. The decline of historical romance as a genre can be seen here in that five years ago because where actually are they?!

And not just in the trending -here’s the romance section, where five years ago I would have been picking up my Mary Balogh, Stephanie Laurens, Eloisa James and Julia Quinn books and as far as i can work out the oldest setting here are the sagas and the Anton Du Beke – which means interwar to World War Two.

And it’s the same here – mid century at oldest, lots of sports romances (which are mainly by new-to-me-authors) and then a lot of books by people like Lucy Score who have emerged from the big-in-self-publishing-and-transitioned-to-trad-publishing world.

And then the other thing that I’m noticing is that there are a lot fewer murder mysteries on the shelves – I used to get a lot of the historical mysteries from The Works as well as trying new contemporary murder mysteries out – but this time we’ve got about one carcase of mysteries and thrillers if you add them together really and a lot less of them are in my reading wheelhouse.

So the good news is that I didn’t buy anything to add to the pile. The bad news is that I came out a bit worried about my prospects for finding books I like in the shops at hte moment. And then I got home and was reminded of the size of the pile and all the things I have waiting to be read and told myself I was being ridiculous!

Have a great weekend!