'Sentimental Amateurs' – five years of Mostly Books

If a week is a long time in politics, five years is a lifetime in retail. On Saturday, July 1st 2006 – armed with books and a bubble machine – we opened the doors of our shop. This Saturday we will be serving champagne and cake, and we invite you to drop in and celebrate our fifth birthday with us.

During the five years that we’ve been open – in fact, even before that – this blog has been an integral part of Mostly Books, a sort of ‘running commentary’ of what we did and how we did it. At the beginning we never really thought anyone would read it, and it was very much a warts-and-all look at two enthusiastic, but possibly deluded, neophyte booksellers following their dream. But even from the first few posts we started to get readers – and more importantly commentators – who, looking back, probably couldn’t bear to watch a potential car crash happen, and weighed in with all kinds of suggestions, tips and assistance which made (and continue to make) a huge difference in the success of the shop.

Looking back through the 316 posts we’ve made over the past five years (approx one post every six days apparently) you get an accelerated and very scary whistle-stop tour through five incredible years of bookselling. I did this last night, and I’m still reeling.

The story (the way the blog tells it) seems to go like this: Couple have dream to open shop, start blogging, muse on the difficulties of everything from shelving to stock selection, indulge in slightly naughty underhand spying missions to nearest large city which catch the imagination and advice starts to come in from authors and booksellers from around the world. Shop opens, congratulations follow, amusing posts on the realities of running shop (hard work), dealing with customers (a joy) and interacting with the wider book trade in getting hold of obscure orders (often complex to the point of baffling insane). First events start happening, Christmas arrives leaving bookselling couple happy, but in heap on floor on Christmas Eve. New Year sees events start to get bigger and more complicated, hiatus caused by change of lifestyle having unforeseen impact on family life (a baby) then threatens to become crisis with apocalyptic floods, over-ambitious outdoor event and first Harry Potter launch, but victory and triumph snatched from jaws of defeat with New Bookshop of the Year Award. Cue stream of celebrity authors, courses, appearances, a radio gig, fame and fortune.

That’s the way the blog tells it of course. But the blog is ever-so-slightly one-sided. It gives a resolutely positive and, yes, spun side to events. What doesn’t appear on the blog are the mistakes that were made (several biggies), errors of judgment (many) and the things that didn’t come off (or, more usually, came off in ever respect apart from commercial). It doesn’t record the dark teatimes of the soul and late-night impromptu planning sessions over one-too-many glasses of wine as we tried to solve problems, change tactics and work out how the hell you make a bookshop work in the 21st century.

At the heart of it, it is difficult to over-emphasise just how demanding bookselling is on a day-to-day basis. Retail is physically demanding anyway, but bookselling has the added intellectual exertion that comes from a constant shifting of the mental gears as you switch between “recommendations for a bright 5 year old who likes dragons” to “a 60th birthday present for my Uncle who doesn’t read much” to books on infant sleep problems, diabetes and bereavement.

Those last subjects hint at a third element, one unique I believe to independent community retailing; the emotional demand that comes from sharing with customers, and them sharing back. It is the most incredible thing, and is what Anna Dreda at Wenlock Books once described to me as the magic that can happen in a bookshop when you recommend just the right book. There are plenty of people who get ground up by modern life, who – for all kinds of reasons – find they suddenly don’t fit into the neat systems of megalithic and Internet-powered modern business, and are in danger of getting squashed by the tectonic plates. At that particular moment, local community retailing – and bookshops in particular – provide a haven from the madness, and a place where they can simply talk to someone who can, in a very basic way, sit them down, give them a cup of tea, try to understand their problems, and genuinely care enough to work hard to suggest some answers. Sometimes this does not involve books even.

Many of our customers have become friends, and we have watched children grow up (and even start working in the shop). On the flip side, Abingdon has many families who are here for a short time, and it is always sad to see cherished customers moving away (although we try to recommend them a good bookshop before they do).

In the first year we were open, a customer (who we now know extremely well) described us as “sentimental amateurs”, and that was probably a not altogether inaccurate description of how we started. But as we’ve grown in confidence, as we’ve understood what we do well (and more importantly, what we don’t do well) I like to think we’ve hung on to all that’s good about sentimentality (caring about our customers) and amateurish-ness (open to new ideas) but this is now housed under thicker, and more rugged bookseller skin that allow us to run a much more professional and effective operation.

We genuinely feel very positive and upbeat about the future of our shop, and thanks to the fantastic staff that we have – past and present – we feel it is running better than ever, and we are still enjoying the experience. What may happen in the future next five years – with profound changes underway given the current economic and technological revolution in the book world – is a whole ‘nother question - and one for a different blog post methinks...

For now, this Saturday, Nicki and I will be in the shop to celebrate heartily with whoever comes in. Thank you seems a fairly inadequate expression for how we feel, but really – a heartfelt thank you to the many, many wonderful people who have helped make the shop the success that it is.

If you are in Abingdon on Saturday, please do drop in for some champagne because we would love to see you. I’m sure five years has seen plenty of changes in your life – why not come in and mark this as well? And if you can’t make it to the shop, post a happy birthday message below, tweet something suitably birthday-ish, or drop by our Facebook page and let us know you’re thinking of us. It means a great deal to know you’re with us, we’ve come a long way in five years and we couldn’t have done it without you.

Oh, and we found the bubble machine, repaired it. And it’s ready to roll on Saturday…

With very best wishes,

Mark & Nicki Thornton
Mostly Books, July 2011

Now We Are Three

It's our third birthday tomorrow. We haven't got anything special planned, but Nicki and I will be in the shop together (now a regular Wednesday event) and our Wednesday evening bookgroup meets, well, in the evening. We started our first bookgroup almost as soon as we opened, and for me it's still one of the highlights. To be honest, we're pretty shattered, coming down off a rather ambitious events programme over the past few weeks, so a nice quiet Wednesday doing some admin and talking about books with customers will be very enjoyable. Whilst the economic climate couldn't be more different, the actual weather tomorrow will be pretty similar to when we opened. And I do love selling books in my shorts... I think it's worth saying that Nicki and I continue to love running the shop, we are so grateful for the continued support of everyone in the town, and we've lots of plans for events and activities in the coming months and years. A heartfelt and sincere thank you to everyone who supports us, and allows us to continue doing what we do. So - have a slice of birthday cake on us wherever you are, and in the meantime, please enjoy some pictures from our Alice in Wonderland party held in the shop today. Alison was very hot in those ears, and apparently that's a Mutant Ninja (Mock) Turtle. Thanks to Esther for the pics...and for the use of her children!

"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad." "How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here." (With thank to Roy H Williams and his timely memo...)

Resting on our Laurels

We wish.

After the Reading Quest Children's Party last Saturday, we had four events this week (not counting our regular storytime on Thursday afternoon). Even for us, this is a bit rediculous and, as you can imagine, we're really enjoying the luxury of having two days off in a row for the bank holiday.

On Tuesday we celebrated Kipper's Birthday with a big party in the shop and garden.

The children who filled the garden waited patiently, put on their Kipper Ears and waitied patiently through the games and stories...but let's face it, there was only one thing they were all waiting for:
Alison had baked one of her amazing cakes. And her reputation is spreading, so lots of eager little hands crowded round for a piece. Cake was to feature heavily later in the week (he said, cunningly foreshadowing this post...).

On Thursday, I went with local science fiction author Ben Jeapes for an event at John Mason School.
The event took the format of two workshops, and whilst I skulked around at the back ready to sell books, Ben got the kids imagining their own alternative worlds and bizarre lifeforms. The creative energy and ideas flung up during the day were impressive - and surprising. Ben has written a great post about the workshop over on his blog.

Friday night we had our first wine event at the shop. Richard Liwicki of our local award-winning Bothy Vineyard hosted a brilliant tasting session of Bothy wines:

We also welcomed David Harvey. He is a young, gifted new author who is incredibly passionate about British wine. He talked about and signed copies of his new book Grape Britain. I'll post about this seperately - it was a fantastic evening - but here's a shot of the author during the signing:

Once we'd cleared the shop up it was rather late - but no time to rest, because we were back in early on Saturday to prepare for a big party to say thank you to everyone in and around Abingdon who helped us win our award.

We served champagne all day. Our new mayor mayor (newly elected last week) Patrick Lonergan, came at 11am for the big event - cutting the cake - accompanied by the town crier.(Note the high-tech Blackberry with his speech on it - very impressive). Abingdon mayors have a tradition of having specific themes for their term, and Pat's is focused on town centre safety and vitality, which chimes nicely with small independent shops.

We toasted The Queen, Abingdon and Mostly Books. Again, all the children there were waiting patiently, but Ben here isn't fooling anyone (despite a pair of Kipper's Ears we found in the back of the shop):
He's waiting for the main event - the cake:

Thanks to everyone who came on Saturday to make it a very special day for Nicki and I. We collapsed Saturday night, exhausted but extremely happy. Thank you to everyone.