Easter Over lets Confirm we are Here!

Well that's it, been for my Easter camping trip - got rained on, sun shone and then came home again!
So today we cleared off the Easter display and decided to confirm we are here and selling all sorts for everyone - yep that's right we put up a Confirmation and First Holy Communion display instead.
Frames, Cards, Dolls, Rosaries, Holding Crosses and even Scripture Verse Sweeties and lollipops!
It's scintillating and salivating in its awesome display of spring themes and colours.
White Doves fly around the place as Daffodils and wheatsheafs mix with the wine chalice for holy communion - this is of course to remind us of springtime picnics and folksy songs and enjoyable books like wind in the willows!
Honestly it's great and there really is a lot going on, including the stationary needed for the occasion - talking of that the new Church Registers from scm-canterbury are absolutely fantastic, really bright and chearful additions to brighten up humdrum things!
Ok moving on to things other than religious gifts and cards and staionery!
Puzzle books are in and there is an excellent range of handbag size now in ready for holiday season to begin!
Come by and get one soon oh and don't forget that I like my coffee with a shot of caramel!

This is what we Look Like!

This is our dedicated Religious, Christian Books & Church Supplies Section!

Christmas is here! Gifts, jewellery, Cards, Bibles and Kids Bible Books!

Nativity Sets now in stock! Bibles, Theology, Spirituality, Ministry, General Christian Life Etc

Church Supplies! Candles, Wafers, Church Stationary, Incense, Christian Music, Cards, Gifts etc.

Here are a few pictures of us for those who follow along on the blog but can't get in for whatever reason - as you will see we are a real bookshop for all we are open sided and open minded enough to be in a market hall.
Also you will note the picture of the Christian bit prove we have now moved into the pre-christmas season with lots of nativities and such now in stock - I challenge anyone out there who has recently been at meetings and have never been to see us to say we are not a real bookshop! Assuming makes... well we all know the adage! Come by and visit us and don't make assumptions based on the word Market - Marks & Spencers Started in a market! Starbucks started in a market and so did lots more! The market is fully enclosed and filled with specialist stalls as well as the mundane! A Science-fiction and Movie Memorabilia collectible specialist is the market! The Stamp Man for rare & collectible Stamps, Coins, Postcards and other such rare, treasured & exclusive finds is in the market! Artist Supplies & bespoke framing is in the market - Wendy the artist on artist supplies is a professional artist who is regularly commissioned for cover art and private work! She paints in the market and does art tuition in the market! Then of course there is us - not just a bookstall but a niche market book specialist - we import US fiction on a weekly basis covering Crime, Thrillers, Romance, Science-Fiction, LGBT and other markets - we are one of the few in the greater county and further afield that does so! We deal in specialist markets such as transport and military history - DVD's, Books & more! and of course there is my personal joy - our religious, christian & Church Supplies unit! Committed to serving Lincoln & Lincolnshire churches and faith communities, because no city should be without a Christian bookshop and resource centre.
Of course lets not forget Al's Arts & Crafty Bits also in the market and part of us - one of lincolnshires best papercraft suppliers for the last 5 years now!
Market is just a word, no one scoffs at going to the Supermarket but yet going to a Market Hall denotes something less worthy, something to be scorned and lessened - well put aside your preconceived notions and come visit Lincoln Central Market - you will be surprised at just how many upmarket (see there's that word again!) types pass through it and how many select customers it reaches out too - we have in the years I have now been here happily and repeatedly served on a weekly and monthly basis Judges, Bishops, MP's, Councillors, Doctors, Actors and just everything else on down. There's no shame in being in a market or visiting a market - the only shame is that some think there is and that's no shame on us, its just ashame that some can't work past a bias.
Ok rant over pictures following - enjoy and see you in the bookshop in the market tomorrow!

The Main Bookshop Pictures!

Science-Fiction, Horror, Military & Historical Fiction!

Large Print Books & Secondhand Crime & Thrillers Section

Our newest Niche Market -The LGBT Section - Small but growing!

The kids love to play in Pegasus Books! - Our Childrens section - almost impossible to keep tidy!

Autobiography, True Crime, and the beginning of Ladies & Saga Secondhand

Puzzles! Classic Literature, Secondhand Science-fiction & Horror

Always look up and not at your feet! Jigsaws, Paint-by-Numbers and lots more are up high!

Al's Arts & Crafty Bits, opposite the religious bit! Decoupage, Stamps etc - a papercraft heaven!

Hello & Welcome in!

Outside for Ladies & General Fiction, Westerns & Romance, The Entrance for Paranormal & Historical Fiction, inside for Pegasus Kids Books, Crime, Thrillers, Science Fiction, LGBT, DVD's, Audio Books, CD's, Jigsaws, Games and Arts, Secondhand Books Sections and lots more - oh and inside and passing through and across the aisle for Al's Arts & Crafty Bits and the Religious & Christian Books and Church Supplies!
Wow - not so little and yes very very real.

Shuffle, Sweat & Swines!

So Ok, for anyone not visiting the shop today - and that was quite a few of you! It was unbearably hot in the giant green house that is Central Market today. ( That is why I don't blame you for not visiting today - i bet you were all in the garden or at skeggy with the deckchair and knotted hankies on!)
Honestly I keep telling everyone about my market garden idea of growing my own Tomatoes, peas and lettuces on top of the shop but everyone keeps telling me I can't! I think it is just wrong of them - the swines!

Anyway today was swelteringly hot and so as per my usual want I was doing a bookshop shuffle again - this time in unit 3 - Unicorn Tree Christian Books!
Yes that's right - I was taking out bookcases and putting in slat wall and new units and it looks much bigger, brighter and better!

I have cleared out a lot of floorspace with judicious use of new units and slat wall that allows nice shiny things and gift cabinets to be suspended in the air, and there is also a new card unit that rests on top of nice new half shelving units that tidily display the multitued of candles we now have to keep in stock. It really does look good and not only did it tidy it up, make floor space and more gift and card space but believe it or not we fit in more books too!
Honestly with time and ingenuity I can build a tardis and disguise it as a bookshop!
So anyway we now have lots of gifts in to fill in the space we created - some very nice statues of the good shepherd and some nice standing Crosses as well. And Kids badges and notebooks came in from Hughes and Coleman as well.
Then add to that another delivery arrived and it was Atkinsons Parsons Pocket Books!
timed nicely to arrive with the Marston delivery of SPCK Church Pocket Book & Diaries! So there we go 2009 is here and it isn't even August.
So anyway then my rep arrives and begins showing me Christmas and Advent books - and believe it or not she even had some Lent 2009 material in her folder! Scary scary thought.
having said that I need to remind people that I will soon be placing my Advent Candle order and so if they could let me know in advance what size, type and colour sets they require then that would be good to ensure their orders are fulfilled!

So anyway I finish the shuffle, empty the boxes, enter them onto the machine and see the rep (by the way did i mention that minion no.1 was off yesterday and today with a summer flu! hence me being so hot, sticky and industrious?? and i had to give up my day off! minions and their germs! and they still expect to take time off to go on holiday working as a guide leader at Poachers later this month and they reckon thats not resting, what kind of minions are being germinated these days - no stamina!) so anyway as I was staying I have finished all this hard work and am just about to sit down and melt quietly in a corner when a delivery of 7 big boxes arrives! and this at gone 1pm!
That would be the Calender and Diary order for the general shop! yes we now have over 14 different styles of 2009 Diary in stock and and 19 different calenders for 2009! and even better yet I already sold some before I had priced them! and still people keep asking me for this years diary - sorry no we don't have any left in stock - its JULY already - you were supposed to get them in January at the latest, we even had them in February but we don't have them now as it would appear to be time for next years crop already!!!.
So thats the Calenders and diary's done - well at least the ones from that supplier, that just left the 3 boxes of stationery, stickers and over 24 jigsaws to do!
Yes we have fresh jigsaw designs in again - at the minute we are averaging selling a small jigsaw a day and a large jigsaw every 3 days! we are puzzled at how fast our lovely customers can do these things! - more trains and vintage cars in this batch than the last one.
Then there was an Ingram delivery as well - full of paranormal goodies, some manga and the new Batman Graphic novel! Lush.
- Talking of Lush and their glitter bath bombs, the new stickers that came in were all glitery too! wonderful Disney Princesses, WTP (that's Winnie the Pooh - it took me a good 2 minutes to figure that out when trying to match up what I had to the silly invoice -a lot of oh piglets was happening due to silly acronyms!) and Diego & Dora, along with stars and smiley faces - all with a glitter thing going on! Sparkly! -
anyway back to deliveries in today.

We also have a copies of 'The Shack' in - we have sold quite a few of these already and this was a top up order just in, along with it came one of Todd Bentleys books - just in time for God channel to take it off screen I note. Hmm I feel sorry for the fill-in pastors as I suppose it could feel a bit like a slap not being worthy of air time if it ain't Mr Bentley doing the impartation! Still God moves in myserious ways, His wonders to perform! Back to the Shack though, as thats also a book that shows God doing wonders in a different way than we would necessarily expect.
The Shack is a good book and well worth the read - feeling lazy here so instead of reviewing it myself I am including a couple of links for you all to follow to find out more about the book - except to say i heartily endorse the book, it is a great read!
http://www.thegoodbookstall.org.uk/review/9780964729230/william-p-young/the-shack/
This gives the publishers blurb (by the way this site is an excellent site for all types of Christian Book reviews! and is well worth looking at regularly - not least because the bookshop boss that is I does regular reviews for it - nothing like self aggrandisement there!)
http://www.christianbookshops.org.uk/reviews/shack.htm - Phil Groom's great website offers this review which is independent of the publisher!
By the way just ignore all the buy from someone else buttons on the sites please folks and remember to come back to me, after all we miss you and amuse you much more than they do!

So anyway as you can tell today was a busy day and it really is well worth popping in and visiting the shop, take in the new look at unit 3 and maybe check out a jigsaw or 24!

Anway its late and I am still hot and feeling tired so am going to say tattybye and see you in the shop tomorrow!

electrical mayhem

HI all,

Well if you have been in this week, which I know of course you will have been! then you will know that the week was totally disrupted by the comedy duo and all round great guys - Dennis & Brian - the electricians who had the delightful job of trying to sort out something like 10 years of messed up wiring! we are talking attack of the killer cables, light switch from hell and find the hidden live socket! Its been fun and noisy, dusty and generally crowded in the space usually dedicated to browsers and books! still at least I can sleep well now knowing that my bookshop will not be an electrical short short of a blazing inferno!

I took this time to sort out some older stock that was cluttering up the place and got moved to make space for ladders and electricians and am now having a buster of a sale - hardbacks are marked at 20p each or 10 for £1.00 and once those are gone there will be no more hardback fiction taken in as it just is a dying medium to a larger extent ( though personal complaint here - I wish the darn publishers would stop with this stupid US type large paperback format - again its functionally useless as it don't fit a bag so wrecks the concept of portability, everyone complains at the extra price, and it ruins the look & flow of a bookcase - so come on guys can we just have standard paperbacks please, and if you ahve to keep a larger format then go with a special edition hardback for collectors!).
So anyway hardbacks done, overstocks of paperbacks - well there's the secondhand ones at 50p each or 5 for £1.00, and then on the unread and never owned before stock we have a yellow sticker offer going - any 4 yellow stickered books for only £5.00 - again top authors and titles.

I also rejigged the Jigsaws! as we had a new batch of over 6 large box loads in - new fantasy and gothic jigsaws in, a great collection called 'Wanted" where hidden in the wonderfully manic pictures are wanted characters you have to find - these are great!
For the kids we have glow in the dark scooby doo! (did I ever tell you all that the worst nightmare I ever had involved Scooby Doo! he was behind me as we ran up a never ending staircase trying to get away from what I now know to be the demon hoards of minions incapable of alphabeticising and the customers whose favourite puzzle mags got misdirected to aberdeen! I mean how do you mistake aberdeen for lincoln??), so anyway along with Scooby and gang there are some fantastic Famous Five jigsaws, which include the story that you read, a jigsaw to do and in the jigsaw the clues and answers that allow you to solve the mystery - again great concept fun. Jigsaws just seem to get cleverer!

On the Christian Side, well ok the 2009 Church Diairies are in -out - and in again!!, The 2009 Lectionaries are in - and there's a shed load of new books in this week from SCM-Canterbury, Church House, SPCK and Alban, along with Jeff Lucas's new book - well worth a read though at the minute I am reading his 'Prodigal Friendly Church' (Zondervan - 97803102678249 - £8.99) which is an excellent read and really speaks volume I can agree with!
Lots more cards now in and all in all the shelves are pretty full - but luckily people are beginnning to come in more now, oh yeah and Book Agents are now being canvassed for, there is a cool new leaflet all about the schemes we are offering on this one, but we are offering the service not just to churches but to Schools and other community groups and ventures too!

News - SSG declared Bankruptcy in the US Courts under Chapter 11 protection, but then founded a new managment company called ENC Management and told all remaining staff there jobs were gone and they would have to apply to the US courts if they wanted redundancy or their currently owed wages, however they could apply for their jobs to ENC and this would not be covered by TUPE - there are questions as to the rights of this situation, and at last report they had recanted on the last part whilst they sort a legal opinion! http://www.thebookseller.com/news/61032-st-stephen-the-great-files-for-bankruptcy.html & http://www.thebookseller.com/news/61032-st-stephen-the-great-files-for-bankruptcy.html & http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/chester-news/local-chester-news/2008/06/13/jobs-worry-at-bookshop-59067-21065437/

cool or what - this raises a wonderful ethical question - how many ways can be found to hurt people and continue to try it on??
So anyway its an interesting proposition going on here - I tell you if this was fiction non of us would buy the book as it would be just way too unbelievable!
More details on all this can be found here:
http://christianbookshopsblog.org.uk/2008/06/04/new-name-for-ssg/#comments
and here:
http://www.cartoonchurch.com/blog/category/save-the-spck/

OHH and we want to say congrats to the minion no.2 also known as Snowflake (and Eunice to her mum!) as she just got a new full time job (though she assures me she will still be available for saturday cover - after all she is the only minion that doesn't sing the alphabet whilst tidying the shelves!!). As I am sure you will all remember she was one of the staff sacked by email without notice by the SSG bookshops directors based in Texas! well done Eunice and enjoy - we know without doubt that you will be an excellent edition to your new employers team and will excel at the job as thats just who and how you are!

So that leaves one of the four that were so wrongly treated by them still looking for a job - again I put out a plea to you all that if you know of a job for a hardworking dedicated member of staff that has excellent office based, and shop based, skills, that was in charge of SPCK Lincolns Goods Inwards operations, then please get in touch and I will pass the details on! I can personally vouch for this member of staff and can assure you she is well worth hiring and a committed team player but more than able to organise herself and others (yes even bookshop bosses! so that just shows you what amazing skills she has!).

Oh yeah and we now have our LGBT Fiction section up and running now - we are intending our shop to be one that really serves the needs of Lincoln's Communities and outreaches, networks and welcomes everyone - after all its through our actions that we build community and show the light! - especially now the electricians have put new fittings and tubes in.

Ok other news and worthy mentions -
i want to wish my cohort Pinky ( who is also of course the teams Childrens Section Advisor) a big hug and get well soon as she fell off her Scooter last week (probably practicing dangerous curby stunts as pinky knows no fear!) and has broke her leg in two places and is in plaster to her knee! As you can imagine this puts a bit of a damper on our regular schemes to take over the world during the next 6 weeks while she heals up - but we are sure we can find other things to do to amuse ourselves! ( the colouring books are incredibly good fun and amazingly therapeutic, but we are not sure what people mean when they keep telling us that there are other colours to use then red, black, purple & Pink and we are meant to colour inside the lines!)

Minion no. 1 might provide some enjoyment for us yet! though of course she is taking up her Counselling Placement in the next few weeks (don't panic this has been arranged as a day off thing, so she will still be in store three days a week for you all to torture!) - for which we wish her all the best - we are sure that she will find all the help she needs!
oops of course we mean we are sure that she will recieve lots of assistance as she continues to grow her own skills as a training counsellor! No really we are sure minion no.1 will rock at this and many people will benefit from her assistance and we wish her all the best and are proud of her.

Anyway so ok then thats about all the news from the bookshop for now and the bookshop boss seriously needs a rest after all the activity of the week - yay sunday!, so I shall see you all in the shop next week!

(This post has been edited as a safeguard - for the reasons as to why this may have been necessary visit http://www.cartoonchurch.com/blog/category/save-the-spck, Oops now wait you cant - I guess you better go here instead: http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/series/cease-and-desist-notice-on-dave-walker/ Should I be notified personally and directly by the concerned parties of anything then I will of course let you know and then take any further necessary actions as may be required)

The time to be giving!

Ha! Tis the season to be giving! 

That did not mean for the minions to be giving me the snuffley nose and sore throats they have been suffering with this last week!

Anyway winter aches and frosty fevers aside - though minion one remains out on sickly leave with no voice (ahh bliss I hear the voices echo inside my head! peace at last after tumultous days of orders to be more minion like and less boss like!) - all is still well with the shop and tomorrow we have smiley minion in to share the day with - perhaps I can share the snuffle and scratch along, pass it on as it were, after all a trouble shared and all that lark!

Today we pretty much sold out of Advent Candles, though we still have Advent Calenders in. We also had a delivery of Christmas Colouring books and indeed general Colouring books, large print wordsearch came in at last as well and lots of secondhand books were returned - but then they would be as I was alone and trying to rearrange the shelves again! 

Military history, Historical fiction (of the not boddice romance ripping kind) and Spy books got shifted out the flipside of the wall by science fiction and True Crime got a centre court place where the spy fiction used to be.

Lots more calenders got put out and I just generally tried to fill in and tidy up displays.

I put an order in for lots more books which should arrive early next week, as were getting a tad low on James Patterson, Colin Forbes, Maureen Lee and Meg Hutchinson. So by mid week we should be chocker block full again.

I am hoping to send in an order for some more Revell and Airfix model kits this week, along with Doctor Who stuff, as we have had a made run on both of those this last few weeks, but then they do make good presents! As do the Jigsaws and Jigrolls to store the Jigsaws on!

So anyway life is sniffley but all good fun, just lots of work to be done and do. 

Come by and visit and don't forget to bring the sympathy and I will then think about providing the Tea! Though if you really care about a poor beleagured bookshopboss, make mine a starbucks latte with a shot of almond syrup, or if you are going into Nero's then it's a caramelatte!

See you in the shop tomorrow.

Ooh Christian Books, Magazines & More

Ohh, There was another 40 Books added to the Christian section today, including the christian top 20 sellers. That was more work than you might think, some of those resources just would not fit the shelves and the hardbacks wouldnt stand and there was more! but I have to say at least the bay looks good and I had people looking and saying they would be back. We can hope.
There was also a delivery of magazines, back issues of Trail, Country Walking, Hike, Camping, The Spectator & Business News magazine. SO I had to completely rejig the front to get them out on display, now lets hope they sell. Puzzle mag delivery today - can you explain to me how come I can have a fresh delievery in and yet be assured by some that either A) there are no... insert puzzle titles of choice! or B)they ahve had all the magazines on display!
Ohh I tell you it makes my head hurt!
Yesterday in the down pour it rained in the bookshop, emergency plans sped into action and pieces of wood and shelf backing sprang into action as worthy protective forces for the most problematic drops and soon we were dry again - of course this was probably helped by the fact that the rain stopped quickly being just a summer squall.
There is a 3 for £5 promotion on books at the minute. I have been around with my little yellow highlighter colouring in labels, and any yellow labels now deonte they are part of the promotion and instead of 2 for £5 you now get 3 for £5 if the books have a yellow sticker! how cool is that for a summer promotion. Anyway if you are reading this then hurry in as once the books are gone they are gone and there are some pretty good authors in the promo!
So ok thats it the end of the blog for today as the bookshopboss is tired and gets to do it all again tomorrow - who knows maybe my american delivery from Ingrams will appear to cheer me up a little! its just like christmas everytime the american box arrives!