Independent Booksellers Week: Chorleywood Bookshop

Today marks the end of Independent Booksellers Week. A week when we can all celebrate our love of books and Bookshops and support our local independent Bookshops. There have been fab events going on all week to celebrate. One of my favourite Bookshops is Choleywood bookshop. I first found out about these guys when they supported author Jackie Marchant when she came into my school. They were the booksellers that sold her book Dougal Trump on both of the days that she visited my school. Since then they have been back into my school several times with a range of fabulous authors, including the lovely Laura Dockrill. I've also been to events they have put on in the local community featuring authors like Bill Bryson and Jaqueline Wilson!

They are a small bookshop in Chorleywood with another branch in Gerrards Cross but they provide a vital service to the local community. The events they hold are always massively popular and they use local schools and halls to hold them which means that they can have a greater capacity. They have a fabulous knowledge when it comes to books and if they don't have sometime that a customer is lookng for, they can have it there for them the next day. 

Since they've visited my school, whenever I pop into the bookshop or see them at one of their events, they always greet me by name and thank me for tweeting and blogging about them and their events. It is so lovely to get such a great personalised service and something you don't get anywhere else other than an independent bookshop. 

As parts of Independent Booksellers Week, there was a bookshop crawl yesterday where people had to visit as many independent Bookshops as they could supporting them by buying a book. I had a very busy day yesterday but I did make the journey to a Chorleywood books and bought a book. This is what I bought...

Bookshops had stickers to give to people who supported them during independent booksellers week, unfortunately the stickers were no longer in the shop as they had been taken to another fabulous event that the bookshop had on yesterday afternoon. Instead they gave me some bookmarks and some of the signage from the shop door that they had with the independent booksellers logo on it, to prove that I had indeed visited them and bought a book. 

I also supported them this week by attending their event that they had on last Monday with film critic mark kermode who talked about, and then signed, his latest book Hatchet Job. This was a fab night and I will be bringing you a post about that event soon. 

The general message of this post is that I've enjoyed supporting independent booksellers week and if you don't know who your local independent bookseller is then seek them out, you may find a real hidden gem like I did who can provide you not only with books, but also fabulous events and a cheery welcome whenever you pop in! 

Random House Blogger Brunch Jan 2014

I was lucky enough to be invited to another blogger brunch by Random House last month. This is a chance to see what fabulous books they are going to be publishing over the next few months. Its also a chance for us to meet one or two of their authors, find out what books are going to be turned into films very soon, and of course it is a chance for us to catch up with other bloggers!

There are some awesome sounding books coming out in the next few months and we were lucky enough to get some of them in our fabulous goody bags. 

Bird by Crystal Chan is out on 30th January and is about a girl who's brother dies the day she is born and on her Birthday one year she finds a mysterious boy with the same name as her bother sitting in her oak tree...

Running Girl by Simon Mason came out on 12th January and is the first in a new YA crime series starting Garvie Smith...

The Name on Your Wrist came out last year in ebook but has just come out in paperback and was the winner of The Sony Young Movellist of the Year award...

The final book in our goody bag was Echo boy by Matt Haig. This comes out on 27th March and here is the blurb: 

Audrey's father taught her that to stay human in the modern world, she had to build a moat around herself; a moat of books and music, philosophy and dreams. A moat that makes Audrey different from the echoes: sophisticated, emotionless machines, built to resemble humans and to work for human masters. Daniel is an echo - but he's not like the others. He feels a connection with Audrey; a feeling Daniel knows he was never designed to have, and cannot explain. And when Audrey is placed in terrible danger, he's determined to save her. The Echo Boy is a powerful story about love, loss and what makes us truly human.

We were lucky enough to meet Matt Haig at this event and he was lovely enough to sign our books. He talked about how it's feels to be writing for a new audience, having only written children's and adults fictions before. He said that because this is a YA book, it's feels like it is his debut novel entirely, rather than just his debut novel for this audience! He said he set out to write an entirely different book and then this happened. He hasn't written anything which falls into the sci fi genre before and he feels like it's not really real. The thing that helped write this book with a teen voice for a YA audience was the fact that it was written in the first person and so it was easier for the teen voice to come across, it came naturally. 

Although this is a sci fi book and therefore not my usual kind of thing, hearing him read from it and talk about about it, I really want to read this novel now! 

Some of the other books that Random house showed us which I quite fancy reading were: 

Bet Your Life by Jane Casey, out on 13thFebruary

The forbidden Library by Django Wexler, out on 10th April

 Heart Break Girl by Malorie Blackman, out on 22nd May

The fearless by Emma Pass, out on 24th April

The Tin Snail by Cameron McAllister, out on 8th April

Web of Darkness by Bali Rai, out on 5th June

The Boy in The Tower by Polly Ho-Yen, out on 3rd July

Darcy Burdock Hi So Much by Laura Dockrill, out on 27th February

So many fab sounding books to add to my to read list and many movies I now want to go and see following the books. 

Let me know in the comments below if you'd like to see a review of any of these books particularly before the others.

Thanks so much to Random House for hosting this event, their blogger events are always so much fun and so well organised. 

The Book Blogger Test (Tagged by Laura)

So I was tagged to do The Book Blogger Test, excited to be tagged because this test looks like fun!

1. What are your top three book hates?

I hate books that are bound really tightly, I'm a spine breaker so I like one that's easy to bend.
I hate when books get grubby-inevitable when they're in and out my handbag though...
I hate when books in a series don't match, make them all the same design!

2. Describe your perfect reading spot...

A big comfy chair where I can curl my feet under me but my back is supported, if this could be in the sunshine that would be awesome!

3. Tell us three book confessions...

I always judge a book by its cover. Books with small writing will always go to the bottom of my TBR. I arrive at work extra early so I can read at my desk before work.

4. When was the last time you cried at a book?

Last week reading The Life List by Lori Nelson Spielman.

5. How many books are on your bedside table?

I'm currently reading something on Kindle so almost 200 on there (oh dear) plus Love Letters of Great Men and Women, dipping in and out of that right now.

6. What's your favourite snack whilst you're reading?

 Does wine count as a snack? I love coffee and a book or wine and a book so what food stuff goes with both of those? CHOCOLATE!

7. Name three books you'd recommend to everyone...

One Day by David Nicholls
The Complete Notes by Bill Bryson
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

8. Show us a picture of your favourite shelf on your bookcase...

My shelves are double thickness so it'll have to be two photos...

Love my hardback shelf!

9. Write how much books mean to you in just 3 words...

I Heart Books!

10. What is your biggest reading secret?

I'm a lazy reader so I can't stand reading about people that are much older or younger than me, live on other planets or in other times-hideous I know!

I tag

Kerrie @readandrepeat

Amanda @onemorepage

Debbie @snugglingonsofa

Natalie @flutterbybat

Emma @emmaiswriting