Monday 23 November 2009

ENDANGERED SPECIES

BORDERS UK ARE UNDER THREAT FROM SUPERMARKETS & ONLINE SUPPLIERS. THERE IS ROOM FOR REAL BOOKSHOPS TOO. IF YOU ARE IN THE UK & YOU VALUE BOOKS GO TO BORDERS AND BUY A BOOK TODAY. HELP SAVE REAL BOOKSHOPS!
On a more cheerful note, my after school activities have been lively this week. I met a lovely group of readers at Ruislip Manor Library, I've been invited to speak to an audience at the King's Fund in Oxford Circus, and I'm visiting a local school for an evening event. After my busy week, I'm signing at Collectormania Olympia on Saturday & Borders in Cambridge on Sunday.
(I just discovered that PETER FIRTH from SPOOKS will be at Collectormania. I'm so excited! Peter Firth and I - and a mere few thousand other people - at the same event!)

9 comments:

Pat said...

Good to see you are still smiling:)

Felicity Grace Terry said...

Not just Borders, Waterstones are having the same problem as I#m sure are many other 'proper' book shops who are all being seriously undercut by the supermarkets. What to do? Buy the book at the vastly cheaper price or support the likes of Borders etc? An interesting dilemma.

Michael said...

The nearest Borders is about 12 miles away in Preston. Our bookshops in Blackburn went under long before discount book selling came in, back in the days when only geeks had an Internet connection. Now the nearest thing we have to a bookshop is a few racks in a tiny WHSmiths.

Leigh Russell said...

A worried smile, Pat but :) all the same.

Leigh Russell said...

Petty Witter, you're absolutely right, this is a worry for all bookshops, but Borders has reached crisis point. Google Borders to see the news - here's just one link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8373806.stm

Leigh Russell said...

Hi Michael - you are the future. (But can't you order by phone from Borders in Preston?? - although I do realise it's too late for Borders, even if you rush the 12 miles to buy a book.)

Guillaume said...

I live reak bookstores, particularly Waterstone's and Borders. There is barely any choice in supermarkets, nothing but the best sellers, and even then, only the recent ones. Besides, the pleasure is not the same.

Leigh Russell said...

I quite agree, Guillaume. Encourage everyone you know to buy a book for Christmas in a real bookshop. Let's all do what we can to stop the demise of the bookshops!

Michael said...

I've used the Borders at Preston quite a bit. Although I wouldn't even attempt to get to get to the retail park it's located on at this time of the year. Really bad traffic bottleneck there. It took 45 mins to get from the edge of town to Borders last time I tried it at Xmas. Add another 30 odd mins to get out. Book buying needs to be 'pop in and browse' again; a relaxing experience. Retail parks that service half of a county don't really provide that. To do this bookstores need to re-invade our town centres. I used to buy 30+ books a year in Blackburn's bookshops but it didn't stop them from closing. :(