Fun with Fangs

Trade is slow today because of the snow. Low to the surprise of everyone, except Sam, has announced that he isn't coming in because he's going to spend a few months in his villa in Spain . This is akin to discovering that the nice old man you stopped to chat to about the weather as he bought the old Hayes manuals every Saturday was once a lead scientist in Nazi Germany's Rocket programme. I mean it doesn't change the fact that he seems like a nice bloke but you are left wondering what else is going on that you don't know about. (True story- ask Two, it happened him )

Anyway back to Low, apparent not only does he have a villa in Spain but a couple of vineyards, a small village or two, rather a lot of land and a hereditary title. It turns out that Low is actually a person of great importance slumming it here for a change of pace . When/if he comes back he has promised to bring me a few bottles of the rather nice red wine that his favourite vineyard produced a few years ago. See I said ages ago that Low was a dark horse.

Some new stock is going on the on-line shop tonight including an Anne Rice book called Master of the Bones. I guess Anne Rice is mother of the modern chick-bit-lit genre although to follow the metaphor Emily Bronte is a cousin at remove and Mary Shelley a grandmother from the Gothic novel side of the family. I read a lot from this genre and I must admit some of them are pretty dire. Anne Rice herself gets a little over-wrought and I believe I've had a mini rant about Laurell K Hamilton before. But occasionally you come across a little gem like Carrie Vaughn , writer of the Kitty Norville Series or the rather wonderful C. E. Murphy , The Walker Papers. The latter I particularly recommend and not just because the author was gracious enough to reply to a fan email I sent her.

So why are these kind of books so popular? I've always been a fan of the horror novel and I think in some ways this is just a feminization of that genre. This is not to say, Stephen King for example has not written some good female characters , I enjoyed the novel The Girl who loved Tom Jordan immensely. But this genre offers us something more, is it the romance elements , they are certainly enjoyable; or is it the episodic nature of many of the books which encourage a soap opera like addiction at worse and a real engagement with the characters at best? Well maybe. I know that I love the escapism of the what if .. elements in these books, what if the supernatural , the eerie, was real? What if werewolves really existed , how would they escape detection in our CCTV age ? If magic was real what jobs would witches and wizards do ? If vampires lived up the road from you what changes would society have to make ? And you know if you absolute had to kiss one, how the hell would you go about it ?

See we talked about books finally. Any comments you'd like to share, please do drop us a line. It would be great to hear from you.

Must Try Harder

I have been remiss in adding to this blog, Minion One keeps telling me. She's not averse to poking me when she's telling me, either, which simply reinforces the fact that she has very sharp fingernails that can pierce even the thickest T-shirt.  While Sam doesn't know a blog from a wiki, he fully supports One in her endeavours and has asked me twice this week whether I've "scripted anything for the electronic shop diary?" Low, the skeletal Goth who sometimes works in the nether regions of the shop, avoids me claiming my soul is "too dark a mirror" for him to look upon.

Even Malcolm's been staring at me with more disdain than usual.

It's been over a month since my lady friend broke up with me and I think I've just about worn out everyone's sympathy, even One's.  She's been a great friend but even the best of friends get bored of the same old story over and over.

So here's a promise - I shall attend Sam's Midsummer party this Sunday and buck up my ideas, get back on track and, at the very least, be more cheerful than Low.

And who knows?  Maybe I'll meet someone at the party?

The lurker in the shadows

Low doesn’t do hot weather whilst Two, Malcolm and I collapse into shady corners of the shop and demand ice-cream, Low ignores the sun and just keeps going. He doesn’t sweat or slow down he just keeps moving quietly and slowly round in the shadows.

Low is as previously mentioned the long standing, stand-in for the shop. He worked here before I arrived. Legend has it he worked here in the time of the sainted Ozzy, Sam's much missed partner in crime. (Ozzy is another story, Sam claims he was the wittiest and most intelligent being, excluding himself of course, who ever set foot in the shop. Ozzy is currently apparently traveling.)

But back to Low, Low is a Goth and alarmingly skeletal. Small children seem to find him utterly fascinating whilst he tends to unnerve adult customers who haven’t previously met him.

Sam maintains Lowe is in fact a confused corporeal spirit whose is unaware that he’s actually dead. Sam will say that type of thing, shake his head and add

A great shame! Someone should tell him, and help him cross to the other side! I would myself you know but he works for peanuts and I can’t afford to lose him.

Low is a good bloke. He is quiet but I think he’s just shy. He likes to hum while he works and he’s pretty tuneful. He has also been helping me get the courtyard back into shape so we have a nice shady little garden out there. The man definitely has a touch of genius with roses though.I don’t know what he did with them but the air round here is heavy with the scent of these velvety black red roses and they’re showing no signs of fading.

I find him pretty restful company . Two who is not yet quite his normal cheerful self says he is a poseur who knows nothing of the real pain of life. Much as I love two if he doesn't buck up soon I'm going to have kick his arse.

Hay on Wye

Just a quick one tonight as Minion two and I are off to the Hay on Wye Festival in a few minutes. If you are a second hand book shop fan (and if you aren’t why are you reading this?) you must visit Hay. The town centre is small but contains 30 odd major book shops some of which are specialist and others general. Plus it is beautiful and has a fudge shop. Only don’t try to stay in the town during the festival unless you have had the foresight to book 3 years in advance.

Two and I are just going to watch Dylan Moran, whose character in the TV series Black Books is the very pinnacle of second hand book shop keepers and of course have a look at some books.

We are busy again at the moment and our favourite stand in book seller Low is working with us I’ll write later this week and introduce Low to you properly