The End of the World is Nigh

Luckily the future is in safe hands...

The Lesser-Spotted Spacey

A rare sighting indeed, the Spacey stopped by Waterloo for a brief peruse and a purchase. Obviously on his summer migration who knows when the Spacey will return to the C&P hunting grounds...

The Sun Is Shining, "F" Came By With The Beers...

...and I'm working on a blog about space travel!

(Stephen Hawking and Richard Branson go into faux orbit with a bunch of Russian oligarchs and Branson Brand Bimbos and probably Bill Gates or some other SUPER NERD but following an Arthur Ransomesque WE DIDN'T MEAN TO GO TO SEA style incident they discover they are in fact en-route to Mars.)

Chill with Santana while I work on the details...

Trouble cycling

As a keen and regular cyclist we have many near misses and occasional run ins with irate drivers who, for some reason, hate us! But it's a whole other level entirely when even the police offer their opinion:



Now, I'm no real fan of the Critical Mass rides here in London but really, isn't that a little over the top?

When...

...will people start to take us seriously?

(Maybe the lovin' spoonful sends out the wrong sort of message? Is it a crime to have fun and run bookshops? But we can't be that bad at it if we're onto our second shop in a mere 3 years. And so far we have not wasted sh*tloads of other peeps money.)

As you can see from the link above we've been dead keen 0n this for some considerable time and now Blackwells are in there.

Gadzooks if we had the money we'd be Printing on Demand already.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - anyone out there with a few quid to spare drop us a line...

Forget e-books. The revolution starts here.

That's Better

I love the lovin' and the uke but this song just needs nothing - it's perfect.

A Crazy Ukulele Hippy Version

What Did I Do To Deserve...

...customers (ok friends really - but we met through the shop) who bring me beer on a hot afternoon?

Is this a job?

All the financial anxiety and precarious relationship to money in general is worth it when the likes of "F" are around.

"F" - we salute you!

On A Lighter Note...

Claire and I were photographed by Barry Lategan on Saturday morning. He read about us in the Evening Standard where Simon Sebag Montefiore mentioned our "charming" bookshop in his Londoner's Diary.

And this week Timeout have us in a battle of the books.

It's Chelsea VS Peckham.

Our Chelsea top 10

1: Sashenka by Simon Sebag Monteifiore (It really is our no 1 cynics!)

2: The Owl and the Pussycat (lovely US boardbook)

3: Ottolenghi The Cookbook (Signed)

4: Selected Letters of Julian Maclaren-Ross

5: The Pledge by Friedrich Durrenmatt

Review Bookshop (My real local bookshop)

1: The Brother Gardeners by Andrea Wulf

2: Drinking for England by Fergus Linnane

3: Derelict London (Selling well at C & P Lower Marsh - itself an ex-Derelict London website location)

4: Careless by Deborah Robertson

5: Uncommon Arrangements by Katie Roiphe

Is my life weird these days or what?

A note to the BA

If you want me to do something for you for which I am not receiving payment or frankly, have any interest in, then it is neither URGENT! nor ESSENTIAL.

Kind Regards

Something For The Weekend

I was reading Paula Fox in the Paris Review when she mentioned walking into a friend's apartment and hearing this...

Youtube - I salute you!

Inspiration!

I've had a flash of inspiration thanks to those retail geniuses at Asda

In order to increase C&P's market share to a very tasty 0.008% and therefore a great investment target for all those hedge funders out there this week coming all books at C&P stores are reduced to ONE POUND* Yes, that's right folks you heard correctly, ONE POUND ONLY*

You see, it's footfall is the name of the game, punters through the door. Bugger this profit nonsense...

*stickered items only

When was the last time you backed up your data?

...erm...

..er..

.I.

hmmm

I'm Reading two Great Books...

...one before drinks and one after.

Before drinks (this is a book that demands concentration and attention) I'm reading The Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser. It's a brilliant narrative that works on several levels. On one level a man loses his dog and sets out to find it. On another level he thinks about his relationship with his elderly and increasingly decrepit mother. On another level we're thinking back to his childhood in India. On another level he thinks back over a failed marriage and the failing relationship he is having with an artist. On another level the artist may be a murderer or insane or perhaps just weird. Then there are discussions of art, reality, painting, writing - the main character, Tom, is writing a critical book on Henry James. There is an air of generalised menace that permeates the whole book - as though all of these layers are just a distraction from some vast and deadly something that is going to happen...If I had to mention books that this is a bit like I would go for a blend of Siri Hustvedt's What I Loved and JM Coetzee's Disgrace.

There's a quote from James at the start "The whole of anything can never be told" and that holds true for descriptions of this book. Let's just say that in my opinion this is Literature.

Then after drinks (because this is a book that makes being sober seem kind of wrong) is what I'm convinced will end up a kind of warped classic - the awesomely messed up Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock.

The dude worked in a meatpacking plant after leaving school then moved up in the world to a position in a paper mill where he remained for thirty two years honing his literary skills.

The stories are DARK but very funny. You will giggle like an evil sprite then feel all guilty when you are more sober. All the best jokes are a bit evil aren't they? Oh, that's just me is it? Well look - if you thought We Need To Talk About Kevin was more darkly comic that outrageously offensive then you'll probably like Knockemstiff...

The case for the prosecution...

... rests.

I'm going to regret this...

...but picture the scene.

Boy meets girl or boy meets boy or girl meets girl or boy meets sheep or (just picture a pre-romantic encounter that suits your preference ok?) and one of them is reading a book.

Instant potential conversation (less likely to give you cancer than a cig more to talk about etc). Marie blogged a while ago about two people who met after they saw each other in the park reading Gods Behaving Badly.

I mean who hasn't (at an earlier stage in their development) wandered about with a book under their arm or sat in a cafe reading a book because they thought it made them look cool/sophisticated/intelligent etc?

Now what happens when it's an e-reader? You go to the park and sit on a bench?

Mobbed by geeks.

You are on the tube?

Mobbed by geeks.

You are in a cafe?

Mobbed by geeks.

Forget the book - it's romance that should be on the endangered species list!

And another thing:

Two geeks meet. They both have their e-readers. They "shock horror" compare libraries! Now there's no opportunity to pretend you have read all of Thomas Pynchon's work then rush out to your friendly local bookseller ask who the hell this Pynchon dude is then buy books and sit at home reading for years in preparation for the first date...

Respect the books...

When I used to go out...

I would know everyone that I saw,

Now I go out alone if I go out at all...

Too caught up...

...to remember young Master Finn's 2nd birthday. Public apologies Mrs M Crockatt and happy birthday to your (and Matthew's) lovely boy. He has a fine right foot on him - a potential Bullard for sure.

Who said it was gonna be easy

It's been a long day...



I honestly, properly shouldn't but it's just not as much fun as it used to be when we were young, whipper snapping upstarts. Too much money at stake, too many responsibilities. The next and the biggest challenge - how to channel the spirit of Lower Marsh into the next biggish thing.

Maybe more pop music would help!



Moan, moan, moan. Ignore me, it's late...

Hopefully Matthew will delete this post before anyone gets a chance to read it.