Independent Bookshop Week 2019

For all of those who just one click their latest release to their phone or Kindle are missing out the pleasure of walking into a bookshop and spending some time looking. If you are anything like me you will quite often you will find the book you were after and inevitably end up with a couple more. I can hear my overcrowded bookshelves crying softly…

Did you know that there are around 900 independent bookshops around the UK? This creates thousands of jobs in the local community as well as thousands of other jobs in publishing and associated industries. For every pound that you spend in an independent shop almost doubles in value as it transfers to the local economy.

My very local book shop is Gulliver’s Bookshop in Wimborne.:

This bookshop has been going fifty years this year and is run by bookshop angels. No really. The family that own and run it, surname is Angel. They also have a sister bookshop called Westbourne Books and now own the shop Square Records for those that want to choose something to listen with their chosen reading material. I am fairly clued up on new releases with regards to non fiction in the coming year, but every now and again there is something on their shelf that I haven’t come across.

Not only are they fifty years old, but this year they won Best Independent Bookshop in the South West and were a finalist for the overall award. Sadly they didn’t win (boo), but this is an acknowledgement of the effect they are having in the town. The other thing that they have been running for the past nine years if the Wimborne Literary Festival. I have been almost all of the years it has been running and they are great little events and a chance to meet some of my favourite authors.

If you’re not sure where your nearest independent bookshop is then you can find one here. Whilst they have been having a resurgence recently, you do have to use them or you will loose them.

Follow Gulliver’s on twitter here, and follow the hashtags #BookshopHeroes and #IndieBookshopWeek and @booksaremybag for news this week about other peoples favourite shops.

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6 Comments

  1. Margaret Skea

    Shared and tweeted – thank you.

    • admin

      Thank you, Margaret

  2. Liz Dexter

    We don’t have one in the whole of Birmingham, which is very upsetting. I wanted the Edge of the World Bookshop in Penzance to win the SW category – we always go and buy something there when we’re visiting!

    • admin

      Oh no, that is a shame, Liz. Hopefully, with the growth in interest in reading again, they will be an opportunity for one to open soon.

  3. What a dream team! I’m a huge advocate for local bookstores, and I’m lucky enough to live within walking distance of two of my favourites, and a short bus ride away from a couple more, here in Sydney. I make it a priority seek out independent and secondhand bookstores in every city I visit, and it always makes for an interesting adventure!

    • admin

      They are such a great little bookshop Sheree.

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