Not yet obsolete

So, the debate on the 'future of publishing and bookselling' continues on a daily basis. Predictions of doom aside, the argument changes daily as one side or the other take the view that only digital publishers will survive or that there is a significant market share for print. Never mind the 'reading differently' argument that flares between those who read regularly on an e-reader compared to those who are staying with the bound and printed book last explained by Edward Stourton in the FT and Lucy Mangan in Stylist (link to be added when I find it), though I'm with Joanna Trollope in thinking that books do furnish a room and it isn't a crisis to have tottering heaps of books on the floor. That's only a signal that you might want to sift through your collection and consider rehoming a bag or two to the nearest charity shop or selling a few on.

Step on to any commuter train, airport lounge or bus this spring and you do see rather more e-readers, that's true. It's rather like the sudden proliferation of ipods that you saw about ten years ago when more and more people found that they could use one of these shiny electronic toys and they were suddenly the accessory to be seen with. You'll also see large numbers of people leafing through a bound book or the newspaper, not to mention the scratchy top notes or thumping bass emitting from every set of headphones in the vicinity.

What I'd like to know and find some statistical analysis on, is how many people have an e-reader and don't use it. Or only use an e-reader while travelling as this is so much easier than carrying one paperback in a bag that has the 'in case I finish it' spare book tucked inside. I'd also like to know how many books people buy, borrow or download each week. Readers seem to use their library as much as they do their bookshop, depending on how close to payday it is.

Small publishers can and do survive. I might have a list that's developed slowly, but I do produce beautiful books of very high quality and that takes time. Some publishers, like me, promote the rare, the almost-forgotten and something hand-picked and interesting. I hope that isn't the fate of the printed book in years to come.

Wren-spotting

Look who I found on the frontage of the V&A at the weekend! A quick snap from the mobile's camera and I can add Christopher Wren to the blog. It really does pay to look up once in a while and look at details in the stoneware, carvings, faded painted advertising to see who has occupied the same buildings over the years. All sorts of layers adding interest to the modern city. Putting the title 'Wren-spotting' makes me think of birds as well as architects, then remembered the blackbird I spied the other week. He or she is nesting in the ivy in Lincoln's Inn and is so proud of the location, singing away and watching commuters on the bus as they pass. I'm trying to see more of London, so take a ride on the upper deck and watch the world go by. I can only really visit the City at weekends, so don't experience the same weekday bustle, but enough of the spirit of Five Farthings remains, even if there doesn't appear to be much of a residential community. There are still tiny independent coffee shops, the odd butcher and general hardware shop slotted in between coffee chains, clothes shops and banks.

Saturday outing

Promising spring-like day (sunshine and blue sky - I've missed you) and public transport that worked made getting to the V&A a pleasure yesterday. I decided against taking the tube and took a circuitous bus route - I had time and the chance to sit at the front on the upper deck - to the museum. It was lovely just to see the daffodils and crocus in flower in Hyde Park and watch the tourists peddling enthusiastically alongside the park on Boris bikes. They've been a wonderful addition to London and I'll summon enough courage eventually to have a try. Just not on Hyde Park Corner, I'm sure most of you will understand that that's best done by bus. South Kensington as lovely as ever with enticing scents of croissants and sugar and a visit to Patisserie Valerie was the second pleasure on the way home.

We did the exhausting slow museum shuffle round the Cecil Beaton Royal Portraits exhibition taking time to gaze at each photograph and read each label. All clearly explained and hung at the right height - museums don't always get that right, so it's good for my neck when they do. This is a crowded exhibition, but no-one rushes you through and those that want to dash in and out can. After visiting the exhibition, I realised that I'd never read a serious Royal biography as I've never felt the need to do so. I picked up a copy of Marion Crawford's The Little Princesses from a charity shop and gave it straight back. A little too sugary for my tastes and a bit fawning. However, this is the Jubilee Year and all sorts of books are being released. I'll need to study a few blurbs and see what catches my eye.

Wonderful Waterstone's Piccadilly on the way home yielded a signed first of Joanna Trollope's The Soldier's Wife, so I treated myself to one copy and stored up a list of 'will read soon' novels. If it helps anyone else, they do have loads of signed copies in stock. I wish I could afford every book I like the look of, but I'd be out of business if I tried that.

Spring day and Joanna Trollope

Yesterday was a warmish, blue-sky-ed day when scarves were just a splash of colour round your coat rather than wrapped three times round your neck to keep the cold out. I went for a quiet walk (without gloves!) and did the supermarket shopping before coming back to deal with the website and business emails. I still feel surprise and pleasure when someone emails to say that they like the appearance and the stories of The Whicharts and Five Farthings. This is usually a good weekend to sort out the paperwork as orders dip slightly, though they often rise the following week when payday arrives.

I've finished reading Joanna Trollope's The Soldier's Wife this week and really recommend it. I don't seem to have many of her novels left - I suspect I sent quite a few of the paperbacks to the charity shop when lack of space forced me to prune back the growing bookshelves. I did find a copy of The Choir tucked behind a bit of double-shelving, so have started on Chapter One and have been drawn back into the world of Aldminster. Some years later and set on an army base, The Soldier's Wife is one of her best - a fascinating character study of a marriage drifting and the effect the army has on wife and children. It might provide camaraderie to the men, but the effect on wife and children is to be isolated and set aside, even from their extended family. There's a painful scene between Dan (army husband) and small daughter who very simply states that 'We're all here because of you' with brutal, childish candour showing her unhappiness at being expected to cope and put up with the sustained absences of a much-loved father. I'd summarise the book as a study in loneliness where a loving family is struggling to communicate and make each other happy. Noel Streatfeild wrote in a similar vein about husbands with a vocation rather than a profession. In her case, the fathers were vicars, not army men, but the isolation from the family is still true.

This isn't a book to read to make you happy, though it's a book to read for its flawed characters who intrigue as much as they infuriate. I hadn't read a Joanna Trollope for years and now I'm wondering why. I think I'll start again with Daughters-in-Law.

Saturday and catching up

I'll try and link a couple of things that have caught my interest this week. The first - a friend has volunteered with the Mass Observation Project and I'm delighted for her. I've read a couple of the books and some parts were fascinating, though other parts were hastily skipped over. I hadn't realised that this was an ongoing project and am pleased to hear it. I know there are occasional attempts to have some sort of internet archive, but nothing quite has the range of Mass Observation. Some sort of blog archive might be useful though.

The next is a new-to-me blog by Clothes in Books - it does exactly as the title says. I know my customers tend to read Girls Own novels, so are familiar with Anne's desire for puffed sleeves or Pauline's wish for elegance in spite of having a budget of pennies, but 'Clothes' (I don't know the writer's name) has taken all sorts of quotes from fiction, added an illustration and a commentary. They were kind enough to mention The Whicharts earlier in the month, though not my enduring memory of Maimie's love of new clothes at any opportunity. I'm still thrilled that people are rediscovering a lost/forgotten Noel Streatfeild and find it an interesting read. It's pushed me to reread Jane Eyre and look at the visit to the silk warehouse and witness her horror of bright colours and ostentation.

I've been continuing in much the same way as usual : searching for suitable novels to add to the list and seeking out copyright holders of those novels already shortlisted.

Up in the air

Hearing the unwelcome words 'And now, in a change to some listings...' usually means that the drama you wanted to watch has been replaced by sport or that repeated time-filler, Top of the Pops 2'. BBC2 appear to be making it increasingly difficult for anyone to watch Pan Am, though I suspect any ratings for sport are higher, so drama is moved without much notice. Then again, moving everything for sport seems to be BBC policy and, as a drama fan, I dislike it. That's not to say that Pan Am is the best drama import, more that it's a relaxing way to spend an hour or so watching moving pictures with the most elegant costumes. Life 'in the air' has lost whatever glamour it might have had and isn't the subject for teenage novels any more. Though someone may decide that realism is necessary and commission a novel from the perspective of modern cabin crew.

I've been rereading the rather nice Air Hostess Ann (Pamela Hawken, 1952) this week. Unlike the Pan Am girls who fly in and out of New York looking immaculate, Ann works in the thick London fogs and is busy off-duty fixing the boiler instead of being wooed by handsome politicians. Ann is one of a series of 'career novels for girls' that flourished in the 1950s and 1960s. Many are collected and prices tend to be on the high side, but Ann is reassuringly affordable. I also found another oddity I'd picked up from somewhere on my shelves set slightly earlier and published slightly later, so in the post-1945 chaos when small airlines went from boom to bust in a terrifyingly short time. Head in the Clouds (1958) is by Muriel Hanning-Lee and a rattling collection of memories of flying with celebrities, animals, students and how to cope with flights around the world that took weeks to complete with endless stops to refuel. Both Ann and Muriel earn their wings being kind, capable and good at their jobs, so not quite as dramatic as Pan Am's reliance on spies, scandal and perfect costumes.

You are what you read

Most of my buyers are already keen readers or serious collectors of vintage fiction or Noel Streatfeild fans who have discovered the 'almost forgotten' novel The Whicharts. Some are both. I suspect many also would enjoy a modern novel that reminds you of the pleasure of revisiting childhood favourites. Then it might remind you of the number of books you've got rid of, replaced and purchased again over the years. I've just spent most of the afternoon reading the second half of The Secret of Happy Ever After. I've enjoyed it hugely and recommend it. Lucy Dillon's a new author to me and I'll search out her other books in a browse of Waterstone's next week. No, I'm not omitting the apostrophe from Waterstone's - it doesn't look right. Lucy's book is a lovely gentle read that fitted in well with a week full of train journeys and an afternoon enjoying the white light reflecting off the snow and wondering if the thaw was beginning or whether we'll have another deluge of snowflakes as soon as it gets dark tonight. To return to the book, it's a great page-turner with plenty of references to childhood reading and returning to old book friends for comfort once you're grown-up. The author's obviously a Dodie Smith fan and elements of Elinor M. Brent-Dyer and Judy Blume feature in a story of developing business and families and the occasional incompatibility of the two. It's an interesting take on the step-family that Gwendoline Courtney did so well in Elizabeth of the Garret Theatre, though Lucy Dillon's heroine is understandably frustrated by her selfish step-daughters who don't behave in the way she, rather idealistically, hopes. You do feel so sorry for her and her three step-daughters who don't appreciate the Christmas present of vintage editions (some signed) of children's books that any book-collector would love, but that three teenagers who don't read much for pleasure simply don't understand.