When we published our little book Conversations on the Coast, we decided in about 2 seconds that we would banish Amazon from selling them. They tell you what they will sell it for and also what they will pay you (the publisher) A bit like the big supermarkets dictate price to the growers. They are big scary bullies who pinch stuff and sell them cheap in the playground.
The main reason I really can't stand them is because of the carnage they and other big internet retailers have caused to bookshops on our high street. Bookshops and record shops are one of the greatest pleasures of strolling down a high street , and the thought of these big bullies pushing them into history, is not worth thinking about, and I will indeed do all I can in my small way to not let them have their way.
You can find our book on our little website, it will be wrapped and sent with a nice little letterpress card, or you can also find it in about 20 little independent bookshops around the country, all at £14 (£1 goes to Parkinsons UK) including the Book Barge.
I have known of The Book Barge for some time. I missed the opportunity to visit Sarah and her lovely narrow boat when she visited Bristol last summer on her 6 month journey through Britain's waterways. At that time Harriet and I would regularly check Sarah's blog, detailing her encounters along the way.
Unfortunately, the Bristol 'encounter' involved a few run-ins with the harbourmaster who said that 'health and safety' meant that the public couldn't visit the Book Barge via the slipways in the harbour. Sarah had this announced to her by two bobbies who visited the boat and read aloud (slightly embarrassed by all accounts) some ancient bylaw which stated this fact.
Sarah ingeniously spotted a loophole in the small print which allowed friends to visit by request. Friends were quickly made by email who were then invited to board, a kind of internet book dating if you like. The harbourmaster sought to counter this and quickly closed the loophole of the friends invite. So, ever inventive, our bonny heroine then found that crew of a vessel could board at any time. So she then, in the time honoured tradition, recruited like billy-o. And of course if crew wanted to borrow a book and make a book sized donation to ship funds, then she would happily oblige. After all, a well-read crew is a happy crew.
Sarah wrote of these encounters in her blog in a much better and funnier way than I can recount here.
But to cut to the chase, I visited Sarah's lovely boat last Thursday and did a little Slowcoast presentation to some of the good local folk who braved the cold evening. The boat is moored in the wonderfully named village of Barton under Needwood near Lichfield.
The little boat is lined with books (no surprise there), but it's the kind of shop/boat that has old and new books of the sort that I'm sure I would choose (if I was a little more literary anyhow), beautifully bound old volumes sit alongside familiar new ones, children's books at one end. Lots of nice little stools and cushions to sit and browse.
A little plate of homemade cup cakes sits on Sarah's desk, a lovely old gym horse that has been carefully remade for its new purpose. A pot of tea is only ever 5 minutes brew time away.
Sarah made a little viewing screen from serviettes for my presentation which went a little wrong when I couldn't get the on-loan projector to behave, this went further adrift when the mp4s didn't work on the projector (I blame Apple for this as well). I felt a little like the bloke with the wobbly bottom lip in Masterchef last week, but remembered the bullying tactics of the chef bloke who comperes the show to see him through, and quickly adapted my laptop to be viewed by most of the audience.
After, we retired to the local pub and supped nice local ale (Marstons and Banks). Before a few of us made makeshift beds on the floor of the barge. I've got to say it was a cold enough to make me keep my head inside the sleeping bag for much of the night.
In the morning I took a few quick snaps of the marina and the lovely Book Barge before saying my goodbyes and heading back to Bristol. On the drive I was pondering what the difference is between a barge and a narrow boat, are they the same or is it a little like the horse and pony thing? What about a long boat? Is that a viking barge?
I would recommend a visit to Sarah's lovely little floating book shop. It is moored on the Barton Marina all winter open sometime after ten each day.
Sarah has exciting plans afoot for another journey, but I will leave her to tell you stories of adventures past and future. You can visit the Book Barge website here and Sarah's blog here where you can also read stories from last year's adventure.
So here's to doing something for the love of it. Something I suspect the good folk of Amazon and iTunes know very little about.
Cracking blog. The only thing I'd say about Amazon is that in many places they have won. For instance in Scotland we effectively only have Waterstones and those only in the cities. Unfortunately without Amazon we would now have little access to affordable books outside Oxfam!
Posted by: Charlie Coull | August 29, 2012 at 04:14 PM