Showing posts with label Ebooks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ebooks. Show all posts

Saturday, March 09, 2013

Mother's Day Edition

Tomorrow is Mothering Sunday, it's been fun in the shop as we headed towards this great annual event :D
Margaret Dickinson, our lovely local best selling author, had her new book out just in time for it again, and as is usual did her regular round of signing dates and so we had lots of signed copies whizzing out the shop, we still have a few left and in honour of Mother's Day we are offering them with a free £5 Voucher if you buy your Mother's Day Card at the same time :D
Of Course it's also Fairtrade Fortnight - see more about what we have been doing with that here: https://www.facebook.com/UnicornTreeBooks/posts/426424537445774 .. and just in case you wanted to blend Mother's Day and keep up with Fairtrade ethos then remember gifts come in fairtrade flavour too!
We can do chocolate or biscuits, you can even get Pasta and cook her a lovely meal ... or you could get her fairtrade jewellery, some lovely bracelets and necklaces both in ethnic stylings or silver ... or maybe she's the stationery type - lovely fairtrade gift sets, pens and notepads too...
And Last but not least on the Mothering Sunday theme, for the thoroughly modern mum ... how about a Kobo Glo?? Mothers Day offer of just £79, but be quick as we have very limited stock...


So there we go that's Mothering Sunday!

Now just to let you know next week is the first of the 2013 Lincoln Theological Society Lectures - it's on 'Judas, Jesus & The Cost of Salvation' and it's by Rev'd Canon Dr Anthony Cane.
We do have tickets still available - £5 for a good glass of wine and interesting lecture can't be bad can it! oh and of course the chance to browse the wonderful bookstall provided by us as always :D
The lecture is at Bishop Grosseteste University on Tuesday 12th March - Doors open at 7PM for a 7:30Pm Lecture.


and finally it's review time!All these reviews and indeed a geat many more can be found on the excellent Good Book Stall Website www.thegoodbookstall.org.uk - well worth checking out :D
All the books reviewed here (and don't forget to check out the review page we have on here as well!) and those found on www.thegoodbookstall.org.uk can also be found at or ordered from Unicorn Tree Books too, both in the shop and online at either www.lincolnbookshop.co.uk or www.lincolnchristianbookshop.co.uk or at the wonderful www.hive.co.uk (but please do remember to make us your favourite shop when you visit Hive! the online bookshop where every sale supports independent physical bookshops!)





Title – Operation Screwtape – The Art Of Spiritual War
Author – Andrew Farley
Format – Hardback
Price – £11.99
Publisher – Baker Books (Dist. Lion Hudson)
Date of Publication – February 2013
ISBN – 978-0-8010-1447-5
Reviewer – Melanie Carroll

In Operation Screwtape we find the continuation of C S Lewis’ classic Screwtape series. Farley has here updated the agenda, moved the discussion into the realm of technological advancement, of feel good church, of the health and prosperity gospel teaching and a few more familiar ideas as well, and in a voice so well matched to the original works he breaks down and highlights the inherent problems in these things, showing how sometimes what we think is good can actually be so bad for us, showing us how we trap ourselves in our own beliefs of unworthiness, confession, doubt and want. This really is an excellent book, a worthy successor to the original Screwtape letters and a real joy to read. One not just for the Lewis fans, but for anyone that would like a gentle, fun and easily understandable way to consider how we can be best protect ourselves from the traps of the enemy and our own making, and think on many things that we find in modern church teachings.

Title – Spiritual Care Of Dying And Bereaved People
Author – Penelope Wilcock
Format – Paperback
Price – £9.99
Publisher – BRF
Date of Publication – February 2013
ISBN – 978-0-85746-115-5
Reviewer – Melanie Carroll

Though not a new book, in some ways it does feel so, as it has been completely updated and expanded, losing the section on Aids, but growing to include amongst it a new indepth section on funerals that offers very practical helps, it also now includes more new personal insights from Penelope’s own life.
This book, as it’s predecessor did, has a gentle air of quiet sympathy and consideration to it that sometimes can be missing in books aimed at ‘pastoral’ ministry, but then in part that’s because this book isn’t just a guide for ministers and practitioners, this book is also a book for those journeying through these intense and painful experiences themselves, this book is not just written by someone more than eminently qualified from years in service working with the dying and bereaved but is written by a person who has gone through the experience personally, intensely and is not afraid to share that, but rather wants to. This book is real ‘spiritual care’ for both those on the journey of death and for those looking to work pastorally with them. An excellent book indeed on a deeply painful subject that I think it would be exceptionally hard to better.


Title – The Christian’s Secret Of A Happy Life
Author – Hannah Whitall Smith
Format – Paperback
Price – £3.99
Publisher – Spire (Baker – Dit. By Lion Hudson)
Date of Publication – January 2013
ISBN – 978-0-8007-8077-4
Reviewer – Melanie Carroll

A lovely exceptionally affordable edition of what is probably one of the best known ‘Quaker’ books out there. Though written over 100 years ago this book still reads as well today as it ever has, there are in these simple honest words and thoughts by Hannah Whitall Smith a timeless wisdom and beauty that encourages you on in your own faith. There is strength and purpose, courage and determination and unremitting faith on every page, and all of it simple to understand, easy to read and a blessing to recieve. ‘It depends only upon the fact of an entire surrender and an absolute trust. Anyone who will honestly use these two wings, and will faithfully persist in using them, will find they have mounted up with wings as an eagle, no matter how empty of all emotion they may have felt themselves to be before.’ (pp248).
A beautiful work and at a bargain price make this a brilliant book indeed.

Title – Christian Social Teachings – A Reader In Christian Social Ethics From The Bible To The Present
Author – Ed. George W Forell
Format – Paperback
Price – £25.99
Publisher – Augsburg (Dist. Alban)
Date of Publication – September 2012
ISBN – 978-0-8006-9860-7
Reviewer – Melanie Carroll

This is a revised and updated second edition of a book that would be more than at home on the bookcase and in the hands of anyone interesting in ethics and social theory, because it really does provide an insight to the development of our western social ethic. At the beginning of each chapter we get a brief introduction and overview to the authors and subject, followed by a well thought out selection of their writings – think of it as a well chosen tapa selection with all the delightful flavours encapsulated in small tasty easy to nibble bite sized pieces!
As we get to the contemporary issues we get good solid discussion on core topical issues (that probably would be just enough info and detail to scrape a pass grade on an essay if you hadn’t read anything else!).
The only downside with the book is that it is of course American and as such much of the topical discussion is from an American stance and that is a little different to the society we have here in the UK and that can cause some small issue. However on the whole it’s a solid tour through the subject and introduction to key authors and subjects.



Remember we are here to serve you and we really appreciate your support - go on Shop Local and use an Independent - it's better for all of us when we go local to go global ;-)
So we'll look forward to seeing you, recieving an email from you, chatting on the phone (01522 525557) with you or even facebooking or twittering with you when you come in for your books, gifts, cards, crafts, candles, stationery, ereader, fairtrade product or for anything else we sell!
- or indeed for any other reason too!

Tuesday, January 01, 2013

Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR FRIENDS AND CUSTOMERS!

 


 Don't forget to pop in and find out what's new in the shop ...

Remember we are here to serve you and we really appreciate your support - go on Shop Local and use an Independent - it's better for all of us when we go local to go global ;-)
So we'll look forward to seeing you, recieving an email from you, chatting on the phone (01522 525557) with you or even facebooking or twittering with you when you come in for your books, gifts, cards, crafts, candles, stationery, ereader, fairtrade product or for anything else we sell!
- or indeed for any other reason too!

Monday, February 13, 2012

IN STOCK NOW! 
Lincolnshires Favourite Author's New Book!
 Is it possible for a ten-year-old girl to fall in love? Jenny Mercer thought so. Evacuated to Lincolnshire from the East End of London at the outbreak of war, she is frightened of the wide open spaces and the huge skies. At first, she is treated badly by the two spinsters with whom she is billeted. But the kindly Thornton family soon makes her feel welcome. And no one more so than Georgie, the handsome RAF fighter pilot, who is caught up in the battle for Britain’s survival. When Georgie is posted missing, presumed killed, Jenny is devastated and there is more heartbreak when her mother demands that she return home to the dangerous city streets now under almost daily attack from enemy bombers. Dot never hides the fact that her daughter’s birth was a mistake and kindness and care towards Jenny comes, not from her mother, but from their neighbours across the street, the Hutton family. The only other person to show concern for Jenny is, strangely, Dot’s ‘fancy man’, Arthur Osborne, who moves into the terraced house. But is Arthur only interested in the girl because she can be useful to him? No one will suspect a ten-year-old of being involved with the Black Market. When the law comes a little too close for Arthur’s comfort, the family flees in the night under the protection of the blackout, heading north out of the city. But to Jenny’s disappointment, it is not back to Lincolnshire but into the hills and dales of Derbyshire where they are always on the move, always on the run. There, Jenny is caught up in a life of deception, obliged to do whatever her mother and Arthur demand of her, when all she really wants is to go back to Lincolnshire. For Jenny has never given up hope that one day, Georgie will come back…

Remember we are here to serve you and we really appreciate your support - go on Shop Local and use an Independent - it's better for all of us when we go local to go global ;-)

So we'll look forward to seeing you, recieving an email from you, chatting on the phone (01522 525557) with you or even facebooking or twittering with you when you purchase your copy of Jenny's War - or indeed for any other reason too!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

An Ebook Reader Christmas? You can still support Local Bookshops!

Despite what everyone seems to be saying ebooks & your local bookshop don't have to be a mutually exclusive proposition - in fact there are a few ways you can happily use both, thus benefitting your local community and your digital drive!

Here are our very easy suggestions:

Go to our webshop http://www.lincolnbookshop.co.uk/ & use our ebook affilliate links - this is perfect for buying Kindles on and for buying kindle books through - as each sale using this link helps us just a little and costs you nothing more than to favourite the site and click through for your purchases of any amazon product ;-)

Come into the shop (or email/phone/tweet/Facebook us) and buy a National Book Token from us & then you can buy ebooks with it at http://www.hive.co.uk/shop/lincoln/unicorn-tree-books-crafts/
Hive has multiple ebook formats available (though not kindle) and you can also buy Google Ebooks through them as well.
Every single sale from hive.co.uk helps an independent bookshop - not always us depending on where you are but it will always be supporting a local independent bookshop! (and sometimes it's even been known for the books to be cheaper than Amazon's price!).

So there you go - easy ways it can be an Ebook Christmas without being Scrooge like for your local Independent Bookshop here on the High Street or in The Market :D
Remember we are here to serve you and we really appreciate your support - go on Shop Local - it's better for all of us when we go local to go global ;-)

So we'll look forward to seeing you, recieving an email from you, chatting on the phone (01522 525557) with you or even facebooking or twittering with you!
Oh and happy season, may the coffee be good and the chocolate be rich and may it be a cool yule and a Blessed Christmas & New Year to all you friends out there!
 

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Polskie książki teraz dostępny! - Polish books available!

Polskie książki teraz dostępny przy Unicorn Tree Books!

Wielu głównych autorów fikcji i style zarządzili w - inne tytuły mogą być zarządzone na życzenie!

Yes, That's right, Polish books coming to Unicorn Tree Books soon!
Many top fiction authors and styles ordered in - other titles can be ordered on request! 


We are really happy to say that we are now able to source a wide range of books in Polish so that we can better serve our new neighbours and friends here in Lincoln and across Lincolnshire. 

We are committed to really being a bookshop that serves the community we are in, and so getting in Polish books really was an important item on our list of how we can better serve the community. 


We are really happy to have found a supplier in Gardner's Books that also feels that committment and is carrying polish language titles as part of their stock range too, the added benefit here is that these books are also available on www.hive.co.uk - the website that supports independent local bookshops through every sale of a book or ebook download.

The first selection of fiction in Polish will be here in the shop and on the shelves by Wednesday 21st December, with an expanded range to follow in mid January. 

It's hoped the choice should appeal to a broad range of readers with some crime, thriller, romance and childrens books too!

We are starting out with a small selection but as people come in and let us know what they are interested in and as they spread the word we really hope to be able to grow the range and space given to these books to really be able to serve our growing multi-lingual community.

Books can be ordered - just let us know the title you are after and we'll do our best to get it.
Remember you can either pop in to the shop to order in store (and check the shleves to see what we already have in stock) or you can go online to www.hive.co.uk where you can then have them delivered either to your home or arrange to collect them direct from Unicorn Tree Books.



Remember we are here to serve you and we really appreciate your support - go on Shop Local - it's better for all of us when we go local to go global ;-)


So we'll look forward to seeing you, recieving an email from you, chatting on the phone (01522 525557) with you or even facebooking or twittering with you!



Jesteśmy bardzo szczęśliwi z tego,  że jesteśmy teraz w stanie pozyskać szeroki wachlarz książek po polsku, tak abyśmy mogli lepiej służyć naszym nowych sąsiadów i przyjaciół w Lincoln oraz w Lincolnshire

Jesteśmy zajęci się naprawdę będąc księgarnią, która pracuje dla społeczności jesteśmy w, zatem dostając po polsku książki naprawdę był ważną rzeczą na naszej liście z jak lepiej możemy pracować dla społeczności.


Cieszymy się znaleźć w Gardners Books dostawca, który jest zobowiązany do dostarczania książek również po polsku jako część ich pasma towaru. teżdodatkowa korzyść oto to te książki są również dostępne na www.hive.co.uk - serwis internetowy, który podtrzymuje niezależne lokalne księgarnie przez każdą sprzedaż książki albo ebook pobieranie danych.


Pierwsze książki fikcji po polsku będzie tu w sklepie i na półkach przed środą, z rozszerzonym zakresem nastąpić później w styczniu.
Miało nadzieję, że wybór będzie pracować dla szerokiego zakresu czytelników z jakimś kryminałem, romans i childrens książki również!


Startujemy z małym wyborem ale jako ludzie odwiedzać i mówić nam jakich książek oni chcą, i ponieważ oni rozpowszechniają wiadomość o naszym serwisie, naprawdę mamy nadzieję móc rosnąć zakres i przestrzeń daną tym książkom aby naprawdę móc pracować dla naszej rosnącej wielo-językowej społeczności.


Książki można zamawiać - daj nam znać tytuł szukasz, a my dołożymy wszelkich starań, aby je zdobyć.Pamiętaj, możesz wstąpić do sklepu na zamówienie w sklepie (i sprawdzić shleves aby zobaczyć, co mamy już w sprzedaży) lub możesz zobaczyć w Internecie www.hive.co.uk gdzie można je dostarczony do domu lub zorganizować je odebrać bezpośrednio z Książki Unicorn Tree Books.


Pamiętać, że mamy tu obsłużyć cię i dziękuję za twoje wsparcie.
Proszę robić zakupy Lokalny - to jest lepsze na wszystko gdy idziemy do pobliskich sklepów do mieć globalnych rzeczy; -)

Więc nie będziemy móc się doczekać widzenia cię, recieving e-mail od ciebie, gadając przez telefon (01522 525557) z tobą albo nawet facebooking albo świergocząc z tobą!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

we are part of the Hive network and it's competition time!



The Hive network is great because it supports independent bookshops across the country - every purchase you make on hive.co.uk supports the nearest local bookshop or the bookshop you choose, It's a great place for getting books and ebooks! it also includes google books too!

You can find us there too! http://www.hive.co.uk/shop/lincoln/unicorn-tree-books-crafts/

Of course as great as this is we still really love seeing you in person and servng you directly because we really are here to serve you and we really appreciate your support - go on Shop Local - it's better for all of us when we go local to go global ;-)

So we'll look forward to seeing you, recieving an email from you, chatting on the phone (01522 525557) with you or even facebooking or twittering with you!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Christian Resources Together Trade Retreat

It has been my great pleasure to escape the confines of the wonderful Unicorn Tree these last couple of days (minions of old were conscripted in to fill the empty seat of the wonderul bookshop boss - I am informed the shop still stands ready for my great return tomorrow - remember i'll be the one sipping on the caramel flavour nectar of the coffee bean!) and go to the Christian Resources Together retreat which is a meeting together of Christian retailers and suppliers/publishers. 
It is a wonderful time for keeping informed, social chats, networking and friend making and inbetween the coffee breaks there are even some rather good seminars, talks and useful training type things.
I was extremely flattered to be invited to contribute a  little something to a wonderfully entitled session being given by the great Eddie Olliffe on 'Albatross, Dodo or Jewel - is there still a place on the high street for Christian bookshops to shine!'
I did say to one of the other people also asked to contribute thoughts, the rather clever Steve Mitchell, that sandwiched between Him, Eddie and the very insightful Andrew Lacey, it was obvious I was to be comedic value - God having a rather grand humour decided to prove that one right and as I took my stage debut I promptly fell up it into a rather full slapstick faceplant! ahh well luckily my ego is such it provided an ample cushion and I picked myself up, dusted off and started all over again!
The following piece is a much longer version of what I said (much, much longer and what I said was too long for the squeezed time space given - mea culpe, Eddie).
It's not necessarily of great interest to all you lovely shoppers but it does perhaps give you a feel for the things facing a lowly bookshop boss these days, and not just this bookshop boss but many others and their cheerful minions too - so please do try to think of us here in the shops and when you can please buy local and support your indie businesses as we really do need you all more than ever these days!

Anyway see you in the shop soon, and don't forget mines a caramel latte if you feel like stopping by to chat :-)

How can our trade best communicate the good news in an increasingly post retail era and to a progressively digital era.

Just the kind of question I always loved when studying! So falling back on academic principles I’m going to break the question down into sections!

So first off then: how can our trade communicate the good news.
(For me this raises two main questions that need considering first off,
the simple one of – how do we communicate the good news already?
Then: how do we ourselves experience or define that good news or indeed what the good news is.
You see much of our answer to the bigger question as a whole depends on the answers we give to these questions and how we predicate our response to the questions and issues in relation to being an albatross, dodo or jewel I think.)

My response to the question of good news issues can be summed up in the fact that we are the good news not the books we sell, the books are tools but we are the witness, the living proof and so therefore it is our actions in the heart of the community, our local community, that actually communicates the good news and not the books/music/gifts we sell.
(This is really quite a freeing idea if we properly embrace it …
Think being sent out and not needing two coats etc, think about being the witness by the sharing of verbal word, attitude and action and not by written books or arcane wwjd codes! Think radical hospitality as just a few ways this works.)

So ok that’s a great theory or spiritually fulfilling outlook but in practice our job is actually to sell Christian product and to be a solvent venture while doing it or we aren’t in our trade or in business! So how do we reconcile these things – turn the theory to practical expression when the way we’ve done it before doesn’t seem to be working so well anymore?

Is it coffee shops, more secularisation and hiding our light under a bushel, a little bit of abramic selling out or peter like denial to survive?

No and Yes.

Yes – we widen our outreach to where it should be – the wider community, that’s the wider secular community and not just the churched community, after all that’s where the good news needs to be if we are talking of us communicating it! Because surely those in the churches already have it (though they might need a bit of re-education and a reminder on occasion).

So is this selling out?  Shouldn’t be, but ask yourself what your local community needs, is it really another coffee shop sandwiched in between the others on the high streets? Or could it do with a general bookshop/stationers, toy shop, health food store, secondhand bookshop to fill the library decrease gap, haberdashery or hardware store etc etc etc
All these things are not in anyway in conflict with Christian books and do nothing to lessen the communicating of the Good News – however there is not a reason to my mind for the Christian Books to be shunted to the back of the shop to make room for these others things so as to make the shop more acceptable to the secular shoppers, instead they should work together in tandem so that the buyers/browsers of one interact with the buyers/browsers of the other and in so doing act as witnesses together and build up the community as a whole and show clearly that being a Christian is not an extreme sport for the minority or radicalised but is instead something normal, real and liveable (and in so doing make the questions askable and the witness real) – the good news communicated through people that’s the original model after all.

Does this potential broadening of our retail offer and widening of our customer base dilute or alter our message? No!

Does this lessen our trade focus and offer? Not really – after all TMD for example aren’t lessened by the range of items they distribute, nor are Kevin Mayhew as they broaden their offerings either.

Does this broadening make us viable – possibly is the only answer here because the factors are many that determine viability but it’s certainly stands a chance of improving viability if done right!

(So does changing the focus, broadening the base make us an albatross, dodo, or jewel –as we  try to communicate the good news, well I think that really depends on how we see that good news and answer those first two questions.)

Ok ‘ in an increasingly Post Retail Era’?
I don’t think so. In fact I would go on to say that we now consume more than ever before, we buy more for less and use less for more! But it’s mostly all retail orientated still, yes people are all about cheaper and easier but not about not buying! The venue may have changed but the game of consumerism hasn’t!

But our shops are struggling, our sales are dropping like the proverbial stone in a mill pond, yes but that’s not because people aren’t buying it’s just they aren’t buying from us sadly.

(So is that due to us being retail dodo’s then – old fashioned, ugly, twee and outdated albatross shops? Or buried jewels hidden in sunken treasure chests?  )

Are we avoided because of how we look or act, what we stock or don’t or where we are situated in other words?
Possibly so.

There is for me a consideration we all need to look at and think on and that’s the fact that we in many ways over the years have managed to ghettoise ourselves to some extent, we have isolated ourselves on the desert island of being ‘Christian’ bookshops and by default and accident inferred we only serve Christians and that’s who we are there for etc
In some cases we have even gone one step further and not only infer we only serve Christians but in fact we only serve ‘Our type’ of Christian! We sometimes forget how easy it is to become trapped in our pride and prejudice and in turn become bastions of bigotry  - ‘ I am of Apollos, I am of Paul’ and when we do this we become our own downfall as we stop communicating the good news fully outwards.

I know this sounds really harsh and believe me I’m not casting stones as I’m not without sin but I do believe it is something we need to give real thought to as we outreach out – radical hospitality means talking the log out of our eye so we can use the wood to build bridges, inroads of communication and community centres.

The truth is if we open our doors wider there are lots of people out there shopping and browsing daily – it is still a national pastime.

However they aren’t using us and it’s not just because the doors are too narrow and people like playing at shop the net night and ebay gambling, it is however down to wanting more for less and I’m sorry to say there isn’t much we can do about this – it’s a producers and publishers fix, -  because while they give in and sell their  product at prices that allow their product to be devalued to such an extent that consumer mindset is full price is a rip off (and then don’t play with a fair trade ethos at heart by allowing independents the sort of terms that would ensure a more level playing field so that we can compete on price) well this seems like something we can’t beat doesn’t it.

But is it? I think we can and should campaign, shout and educate both in trade and in the secular arena – buy local campaigns, being honest in name, shame and explain tactics and finally at the end of the day if it is cheaper from Amazon then buy it from there! Of course then tell your supplier/publisher what you are doing and why – (also point out that though that may make their figures look good if they extrapolate the sheer numbers of indie customers doing that currently and then work out the outcome when those indies finally go under what the final impact to them may be maybe they’ll see that working with us is better for all, especially as there isn’t a bookshop in the country, secular or Christian, that doesn’t daily see customers come in to browse and choose books and then say to their friends or ebook/download tool _ I’ll get it from Amazon now I’ve seen it! So how many end sales lost will that really be??) Yes this is a double edged sword I’m playing with here but sometimes ‘I count my losses as gain’

So talking of Amazon what about this increasingly progressively digital generation!

First off perhaps we need to stop blaming the internet for our problems – after all the internet is just an inanimate object, a tool – it’s people that buy and that use the internet! If we are going to ascribe blame (and really should this be a blame game?) then let’s ascribe it correctly.

Wouldn’t it be better to stop seeing Amazon, Eden etc etc as the enemy and instead see them as a colleague the way we do each other – yes maybe not a best friend after all if you are on my back doorstep you are my competitor but not my enemy, we can still be friends and collegues – that same holds with internet shops, indeed they can in some cases even be an admirable ally!
Marketplace, A-shops, ebay, affiliate schemes etc all can be a radical tool in shop survival – after all in the immortal words of another big boy – every little bit helps.
We use the tools at our disposal and should thank god for them instead of bemoaning them and wailing lamentations of doom.

In this progressively digital generation there are still people out there that don’t want kindles and ebooks, that still enjoy the sensation of a real book and it’s ability to be shared with others, still people that like going in bookshops and so the rumours of the books demise are much exaggerated I think, and so too the end of all high street and independent bookshops!
However we can’t and mustn’t deny kindles and ebooks and other downloadable materials, so I advocate that here is the time we use our online competition as ally! An affiliate percentage is better than nothing while we petition our trade partners to work with us in finding a solution we can use well, be it a Christian offering like Gardners Hive, or a shop based scheme for digital download cards or cloud & app based download offerings etc. I’m not sure of the solution but I am sure we need to be working on it right now and together.

So yes it’s an increasingly digital generation but we can still be at the heart of it if we use the tools available to us.  Websites can be done cheaply – very cheaply and no one should be without one, if only for the avenue of online advertising it can open up!

Something worth remembering is that this digital generation want to be part of a community! Facebook, twitter, blogging and social networking are all proof of the want to be part of a community – yes it’s different than before but it’s still a want to be part of something more – we can be part of that something more, we can still be aprt of that community.

Lets not forget as well that the digital generation, regardless of their age, are still coming into town on Saturdays, they still want to see live bands, meet up with each other, go to the cinema, out for food, attend conventions and other events or group meetings, see their fave authors and interact with them etc – this all still leaves the door wide open for us – but probably only if we’ve widened the door for them first.


Books are not dead, our trade is not dead but it may be that they are being redefined – and to answer Eddies larger question (which I wasn’t asked to do!) yes we can still shine as jewels set in an ephod breastplate made from gold tested in the refiners fire.

Melanie Carroll