There are few things we love more than getting to know the people behind our favourite independent bookshops. This time in our Meet the Bookshop series, we're heading to Stirling to chat with Leanne from The Book Book. We talk favourite reads, much-loved regulars, the little details that make a bookshop special, and a rather lovely story about an unexpected visit from Robin Ince!
I think it's special in different ways to different people! For me, it is special because it is a space that is really conducive to a network of communities. We have a lot of regulars who come for different reasons - book club regulars, author event regulars, late night Wednesday regulars, people that come early in the morning to do some work, students who appear only during term-time, families that come late afternoon for hot chocolates... I've always loved the idea of having a space where there's always a familiar face and I know that this is probably the most important aspect of the shop for my staff, ex-staff, longtime regulars. It's like the Central Perk/Cheers vibe isn't it?
Everyone always comments on how big it is inside compared to how unassuming it looks from the front. "I walk past this place every day, I didn't know it was like THIS inside!"
We always think we are an open book (haha) but then customers come in and are like 'so, what's the deal with the books? Are they for sale...?' So actually there's probably a lot that people don't know. I asked Jasmine what she thinks and she said "A lot of people tell us how much this was also their dream, but they don't realise how much hard work goes in to a shop like this" and I'm inclined to agree!
My dad (who lives in Australia) built our shelf that displays kids non-fiction and board books. It's shaped like a wee house! It was an idea we had from before the shop opened and I'm glad I waited for him to come over to build it for me. Again, the things that I love most are probably not what customers would think about! For example, we have a really beautiful light in our window that Jasmine and I lusted after for years before we bought it (we thought it was too expensive, it was about £300!) But no one else seems to notice or care about it as much as we do! At the moment I'm still riding the high of getting our shop front renovated last year. Also, whenever we restock the new books and it's looking particularly excellent, we do gaze admiringly at them for longer than necessary.
Being surrounded by books all day every day is kind of the dream for people like us.
Honestly, we speak to so many people every day and they're mostly positive interactions so it's hard to think specifically! But I will cheat and tell you something recent about our favourite regular customer, Jim, who has been reading Normally Weird & Weirdly Normal by Robin Ince, and telling me about it every day. He'd highlighted bits of the book he wanted to pass on to people and would read me out passages that particularly spoke to him. Then one morning a few weeks ago, Robin Ince himself appears in the shop! I messaged Jim (who was at that very moment at home reading the book) and he rushed down, and now I have some very cute photos of the two of them chatting to each other.
Definitely The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. Also Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon. For children, my go-to picture book recommendation is Mouse's Wood (or any other in the series) by Alice Melvin.
Spread the word! Post pictures on your socials. Talk about it to people. Buy stuff!
Leanne went on to answer a couple of our wildcard questions and I love that she did!
I get weirdly defensive about how amazingly readable and enjoyable some of the classics are, but I don't necessarily think they're overlooked (maybe just misunderstood/sidelined by the regular reader). I do think Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is one of the best books ever written and I always use it as my go-to classics recommendation.
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. I came across it when I was 17 and working part-time in a library. It was the first contemporary literary fiction I'd ever read and I was like 'Oh my God, books can be like this?!' It also led to me reading other similar books and in the process discovering a lot of books which I still to this day class as my 'favourite books'. I used it as an example in my personal essay to get into Uni. I wrote about it in my undergrad dissertation. I presented about it at a conference before I did my Masters (in front of David Mitchell himself...). I made my book club read it a couple of years ago. Funnily enough, Jim, the regular I mentioned before, didn't like it and we frequently have arguments about its genius. It really ignited a love of reading as an adult for me though, so maybe if I hadn't read it, I wouldn't have studied English at Uni and I wouldn't have met Jasmine and we wouldn't have opened the shop. Crazy how things snowball like that!
