Win £100 worth of books (of your choice).

Earlier this year a few people suggested that I set up a Patreon page, to help me with the funding of some of the projects I was working on, as well as the ones I had plans to do.

 

The idea of a Patreon scheme is that if people like what you're doing, they can lob you a quid or two each month, to help you carry on doing it. In return, they can receive exclusive stuff from the person or organisation they're helping. 

Like this "I am in a train" badge, for example

So, anyway, I set one up. 

IT'S HERE. 

Now I am the first to admit that my updates on the Patreon have been few and far between. 

But it is one of my BIG THINGS of 2020 to use the Patreon more effectively, so that those people who have supported these schemes are rewarded. 

So, to start off 2020 with a bang, i'm going to give one person who supports the Patreon 

£100 worth of books (of their choice)!

You lot have been so good since I went online. You've supported the Greta Thunberg Crowdfunder, the #BuyAStrangerABook thing, the Shelter Campaign and all the other shizzle too. 

You've even bought books from me too!

So if you want a chance to win £100 worth of books, (and you want to help me out at the same time), join the Patreon. 

One person, chosen at random will win.

I'll announce the winner on Monday January 6th 2020. 

#BuyShelterABook - the final total

A couple of weeks ago I launched #BuyShelterABook. 

Essentially, I was trying to raise some money, so we could spend it on some books to send to Shelter. 

There are more details HERE

I'm absolutely thrilled to let you know that with your help, the total raised is.....

£2,180!!

The "sheltometer" was vandalised last night, but I hope you get the idea. 

THANK YOU so much to everyone who helped, by sharing the campaign with your friends or by donating. 

The next step is to get the books ordered and delivered to the various Shelter hubs around the country. 

I have wish lists from each of these hubs and will be getting the books delivered here this week, so that I can sort them and post them out early next week. 

Obviously, you can continue to donate this week, and i'll make sure the money is allocated to Shelter. 

I'll keep you posted on Twitter on my progress. 

S

#BuyShelterABook - Wish list

There's about a week left of this year's #BuyShelterABook campaign. 

(we're raising money to send books to Shelter, to help the people they support have a better time this year. CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS). 

Yesterday, we crept past the £1500 mark. AMAZING!!!!

But now it is time to appeal to publishers directly to donate books, so that they can be distributed to the 12 Shelter hubs around the UK. 

HELLO PUBLISHERS. SEND ME SOME BOOKS PLEASE!

I've gone through the wish lists from all the hubs and this is an annotated version of all of them.

You'll notice it's pretty general, so hopefully all you lovely publishers out there will be able to spare something. 

If you are not a publisher and would like to send a book, this is also encouraged. 

(address to post them to follows) 

-------------------------------------------------

A mix of books from babies to adults (this was a general feeling from the hubs).

YA and books for older children (requested by a number of different hubs)

Children’s books aged 2 – 11 (also requested by many of the hubs)

“Easy readers” 

Graphic novels would be EXCELLENT - they help with English language skills

Some self-help books, like going back to work or managing well being

“We have lots of single parent families often from diverse backgrounds”, so looking for “lovely inspirational books like the following” 

Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison

Dream Big, Little Leader by Vashti Harrison

Little Leaders: Visionary Women Around the World by Vashti Harrison

(these were specific books requested, so similar books would also be really appreciated)

Books in the following languages (this list is compiled from feedback from all the hubs. Language in order of requests)

Polish

Somali

Arabic

French

Urdu

Turkish

Farsi

Cooking on a budget.

self-help books, like going back to work or managing well being

Books with arts and crafts ideas or resources.

We have our older veterans - please send military history / war fiction and local history books for the Liverpool / Merseyside area would be a bonus.

Our clients have extremely varied literacy levels so some books that those with more basic literacy skills could enjoy would be good.

-------------------------------------------------------

Here is the address to send books to. 

Big Green Bookshop

#BuyShelterABook

PO Box 403

Hastings 

TN34 9LE

Yes, I realise this is absolutely shameless, but hey, Shelter.

Thanks.

Twitter Book Group - next book

The votes are now in to decide the next book to read for Twitter Book Group

and the winner is....

THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS by URSULA LE GUIN!!

Here is the groovy cover. 

Here is the groovy blurb.

"Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new' Two people, until recently strangers, find themselves on a long, tortuous and dangerous journey across the ice. One is an outcast, forced to leave his beloved homeland; the other is fleeing from a different kind of persecution. What they have in common is curiosity, about others and themselves, and an almost unshakeable belief that the world can be a better place.

As they journey for over 800 miles, across the harshest, most inhospitable landscape, they discover the true meaning of friendship, and of love."

Twitter Book Group is open to everyone (on Twitter). 

This is our sixth book and this is how it works. 

1. Agree a book to read. 

2. Get a copy of the book

3. Read it. 

4. Chat about it.

5. Give it marks out of 10

Yeah, pretty much just like a normal book group!

So, we've chosen the book. 

The next stage is to get a copy. There are many wonderful ways of doing this. Might I suggest that if you have the means and the inclination, you buy it from ME.

If you'd like to do this, please paypal £8.99 to biggreenbookshop@hotmail.com, using family and friends and then send me a DM, letting me know your address and add the word "URSULA". 

I don't charge any P+P for book club books. 

It's been decided by the current group that we hold the next discussion after Christmas, as some people may not have a chance to reading the book otherwise (it's 338 pages). So, the next Book Group discussion will start at Midday on Tuesday January 7th 2020.

++ UPDATE ++ UPDATE ++ UPDATE ++

WE WILL NOW BE DISCUSSING THE BOOK ON TUESDAY JANUARY 14TH FROM MIDDAY

The discussion usually lasts throughout the day and sometimes into the next day, so if you're not free at midday, don't worry.

We "meet" on Twitter. 

I've set up a DM (direct message) group on Twitter dedicated to the book group, so other people don't have to put up with our book chat, so if you want to join in, please  let me know on Twitter @biggreenbooks and i'll add you to it.

There are about 80 people in the Book Group and generally between 20 and 30 people read the book and chat, so it's not too chaotic and everyone who wants to, has a chance to voice their opinions.

Hope this sounds OK and please ask me if you have any questions.

#BuyShelterABook - Day 6

A  very quick update on this year's #BuyShelterABook Christmas campaign.

We've almost reached £1,500!!

(HERE is a quick reminder of what #BuyShelterABook is).

Two things that have happened:

1. People have been amazing and have donated more dosh!

2. Jackie Morris has put two of her incredible paintings up for sale, with the money going to books for Shelter. 

Water on ink on Two Rivers paper.
Each around 25 x 20 cm

They're £500 each, and if you're interested please contact Jackie on Twitter @JackieMorrisArt to discuss details. 

I'll be doing a separate blogpost for people who'd like to donate books, rather than dosh. I've had replies from all the Shelter hubs around the UK now, so I'll list the kind of books they'd like. 

If I get a chance, I'll do it later today. 

Thank you all so much. YOU ROCK. 

Twitter Book Group - November - The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

The Twitter Book Group "met" this week. 

(I started a Twitter Book Group earlier this year and this is the 6th book we've talked about. 

More information about it all can be found HERE)

This month, the book chosen via a Twitter poll was Shirley Jackson's classic "The Haunting of Hill House"

This is a cracking cover!! Well done Penguin. 

20 people in the group read it and were part of the discussion. It was ace. 

The book's written from the point of view of Eleanor, one of the people who's invited to Hill House for the summer to partake in an experiment. As the story slowly unfolds, we are never quite sure what is real and what is imagined. 

No spoilers here btw. 

There was a bit of a split in opinion. Whilst most of the group really enjoyed and found the writing superb, there was the feeling with a  few that it didn't really grab them and the story missed  sense of drama. 

Here are a few of the comments. 

It had the ability to "charm and unnerve me simultaneously"

"It has one of the best opening paragraphs I have ever read"

"eerie and sad"

"I think the house hates them as much as we do"

There was a TV series recently of the same name, but apparently it bears little resemblance to the book. 

Everyone who wanted to gave the book a mark out of 10 and this resulted in it getting an average mark of a VERY respectable 7.3. 

The lowest mark was 5 and the highest was 9.5. 

Thanks to everyone who joined in. I'll be putting a poll up on twitter to help us decide what book to read next month in a minute, so please vote. 

If you want to get involved in future chats, tweet me @biggreenbooks with the hashtag #bgbookgroup. 

Bye! 

#BuyShelterABook - an update.

On Monday we launched our Christmas Campaign. 

#BuyShelterABook

The idea is to raise as much money as we can, so that we can send books to Shelter, to help the people they support have a better time this year. Info HERE.

-------------------------------------------------

If you want to donate to #BuyShelterABook,

please PayPal whatever you like to biggreenbookshop@hotmail.com (using family & friends),

and add the word “SHELTER” in the notes.

------------------------------------------------------

Last year we did something similar and you lot helped us raise £2,500 !!

This is what £2,500 worth of books looks like. 

These were posted off to the 12 hubs that Shelter has around the UK. We've been working closely with these hubs, so that we know the kind of books that they'd like. 

So, for example, the Merseyside hub supports a number older veterans and they'd like some  military history / war fiction and local history books for the Liverpool / Merseyside area.

And the hub in Bristol is looking for graphic novels and some books in Somali, Polish and Romanian. 

Most of the hubs are looking for kids books.

We want to make sure that we send appropriate titles to each of the hubs, so that they get the most out of them. 

Everyone likes a target, so i'm introducing The SHELTOMETER!

This will give you a running target of how much has been raised (including the £250 we're donating to the campaign). So far, after two days, you've helped raise around £800!

THIS IS AFTER DAY 2

I've set an ambitious target of £3,000, so we'll just have to see. 

I'll try and do an update every day or two. 

I'm also in the process of sorting out a PO Box at my local post office, if people want to donate books (I shall be bothering publishers shamelessly once this is sorted out). 

We only have a small flat, so getting books delivered here isn't the best idea!

Once I get the PO address, i'll let you know. 

PLEASE, can you share this with as many people as you can!

Twitter Book Group

Tomorrow, we'll be discussing the fifth book in the Twitter Book Group. 

It's The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson (wooooo, spooky!). 

Here's a bit of info about Twitter Book Club

we choose a new book each month, so if you'd like to be involved in December's discussion (or, if you want to chat about this month's), then please tweet me. 

I think this is the shortest blogpost i've ever done. 

Crowdfunder - Update.

Some of you may know that a few weeks ago, Melissa Harrison and I started a Crowdfunder to raise money to get 10 copies of Greta Thunberg's book of speeches into 100 different schools across the UK.
1,000 copies was an ambitious target, we thought.  

The Crowdfunder "ended" two or so weeks ago, and, thanks to your incredible generosity, we raised over £12,000!

(you can still donate money though, as the lovely people at Crowdfunder have decided to keep the option open for the forseeable future)

Not only was over £12,000 raised, but the publishers, Penguin, agreed to match however many copies we raised money for. So effectively, over £24,000 was raised!

We asked schools to get in touch with us to request copies for their schools. This was really important, as we didn't just want to send copies to random schools. We wanted the schools to be engaged in the project. 

So far we've had over 900 UK schools request copies!

The great news is that, because of all the money raised, we're able to send copies to the majority of schools who requested them. 

So what started off as an ambitious project to get copies to 100 schools has now turned into a phenomenon, and we're able to supply well over 800 schools with copies. 

That's over 8,000 copies of Greta's book, getting into the hands of school kids all over the UK!

Trying to organise the distribution has been a right laugh and i've spent MANY, MANY hours going through all the emails we got, deleting all the spam, contacting some of the schools asking for their full addresses, getting details of the right teacher to send the books to, and then adding all this information onto a huge spreadsheet!

I am now the king of copy and paste. 

The good news is that today, on the day of the Global Climate Strike, after midday, the first 400+ packages are being packed up to be sent to schools next week!

This is the most exciting bit of the whole project for me, because it means that very soon, what we've set out to do, is actually going to HAPPEN. 

We're so grateful to everyone who donated, shared and supported the project, and I hope that it will inspire a few young people to realise that they can make a difference. 

Another 400+ parcels are going out next week and then, as and when anyone else donates, I'll carry on supplying schools. 

YOU LOT ARE ACE.

#buyastrangerabook,

Each week I do this thing on Twitter called #buyastrangerabook. 

People buy strangers books. It's great. 

If you want a bit more info, here it is.

Anyway, a few months ago, when it was announced that David Cameron was going to be bringing out his autobiography "Look, it Wasn't My Fault" "For The Record", I wasn't that keen on the idea of selling it.

It was suggested that I did a special "#buyastrangerabookButNotCameron

Sounded good.

People suggested certain books to buy instead. A lot of people suggested, "James O'Brien's, How to Be Right...in a world gone wrong" and there were many other suggestions too

HOWEVER...

David Cameron got an £800k advance for this book, but profits from the sales of the book will be going to certain charities.

One of these is the Alzheimer's Society



I wouldn't want charities to miss out, so instead of selecting a certain book, I will donate £1 for every £10 I take today (that's about 38% of MY profit, I reckon) through #buyastrangerabook to The Alzheimer's Society.

Of course, you can simply donate money to them HERE.

That's it really.
Ta.

September's Book Club

I started a Twitter Book Club in June. 

So far, we've read and discussed Circe by Madeline Miller and Normal People by Sally Rooney.

This month the book chosen (via Twitter Poll), was Water Shall Refuse Them by Lucie Mcknight Hardy.

Here's the blurb:

The heatwave of 1976. Following the accidental drowning of her sister, sixteen-year-old Nif and her family move to a small village on the Welsh borders to escape their grief. But rural seclusion doesnt bring any relief. As her family unravels, Nif begins to put together her own form of witchcraft collecting talismans from the sun-starved land. That is, until she meets Mally, a teen boy who takes a keen interest in her, and has his own secret rites to divulge.

What's so great about a Book Club, is that you can discover things you didn't see when you first read it. People read books differently and the insights that can come from another person's perspective can add to the reading experience.

Anyway, 22 people read the book this month and scored it out of 10.

Overall, the writing throughout was praised and the majority of the group agreed that the author smashed it describing the heatwave and the atmosphere in the village.

The main character wasn't particularly likeable and some of the group struggled to feel empathy with any of the characters in the book.

The writing has been compared to Shirley Jackson, in a sense that there was this undercurrent of dread and discomfort throughout, which a couple of people agreed with, but a number of people said that they saw the "ending" before it finally happened.

In fact, the ending was the thing that frustrated most people (and the animal cruelty...). So whilst most people thought the writing was great, this was a bit of a downer.

Having said that, there were mixed feelings and the scores out of 10 reflected this, as marks ranged between 4 and 8.

The overall average was 6.1

So, if a bit of dark fiction is your thing, check it out.

NEXT month's book choice is When We Were Orphans, by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Here's the blurb;

England, the 1930s. Christopher Banks has become the country's most celebrated detective, his cases the talk of London society. Yet one unsolved crime has always haunted him: the mysterious disappearance of his parents, in old Shanghai, when he was a small boy. Moving between inter-war London and Shanghai, When We Were Orphans is a remarkable story of memory, intrigue and the need to return

The discussion will start on Tuesday October 15th from Midday. 

There's a special Twitter DM group where the discussion is held, so as not to clog up everyone's timeline with the chat, so if you want to be a part of Book Club, please tweet me @biggreenbooks with the hashtag #BGBookClub and i'll join you to the group. 

If you want to buy the book from me, you can paypal £8.99 to biggreenbookshop@hotmail.com, (using family and friends please) and then DM me your name, address and the word ORPHAN. 

I shall post it out to you asap. 

There are now over 80 people in the Book Club, and there's no pressure to read the book, so if you want to get involved, let me know. 

Crowdfunder

I'll make this as short as possible, as I know you're busy. 

About five weeks ago, Melissa Harrison and I started a Crowdfunder, to raise money in order to get copies of No One is Too Small To Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg into schools around the UK. 

There's a link HERE

The original goal was to raise enough to get 10 copies of the book into 100 different schools in 35 days.

So this is what happened;

1) We reached this target in less than two days

2) We added a very ambitious new "stretch target" which was more than three times our original.

3) Penguin UK agreed to match the number of copies we raised money for and send those out on our behalf.

4) We reached our new stretch target of £10,000 (which was essentially £20,000, with Penguin's kind offer), with ten days to go.

5) We were encouraged by the lovely people at Crowdfunder to try and stretch it a little more.

6) On Saturday, with two days to go, we hit this target of £12,500.

All these books (I reckon about 9,000) will be going to schools in the UK who have asked for copies. (we're not just randomly sending copies out to schools). 

We've had over 1,100 emails sent to our dedicated "Great for Schools" email address. If I cut out the duplicated requests from schools and the spam, I think we may be able to send copies to EVERY school in the UK who's asked for copies. 

As we wrote on the crowdfunder description, "the title of the book sums up why we think this book is so important. Not only is it a rallying cry for why we must all wake up and fight to protect the living planet, but it’s also an inspirational book with the potential to empower future generations by showing them that no matter who you are, you really can make a difference".

The Crowdfunder is about to end, and so now the next part of the project will begin. Getting the books to the schools. 

I'm in the process of going through the 1,100 emails and adding the contact details of all the schools onto a spreadsheet. I'm hoping that once we've fixed a date with one of the suppliers, I can visit their warehouse to "help" with the packing. 

This whole process has been incredible. There's been so much support from so many people and we're overwhelmed by how much you've got behind it. 

THANK YOU!!

Twitter Book Club - next month's book choice.

So, the third month of Twitter Book Club. 

This month the group asked if we could choose from a shortlist of books published by independent publishers, so we did. 

I put a poll up on Twitter and asked people to help us choose which book to read. 

 Twitter voted and the book that has been chosen to read this month is Water Shall Refuse Them by Lucie McKnight Hardy.

'The heatwave of 1976. Following the accidental drowning of her sister, sixteen-year-old Nif and her family move to a small village on the Welsh borders to escape their grief. But rural seclusion doesn't bring any relief.

As her family unravels, Nif begins to put together her own form of witchcraft - collecting talismans from the sun-starved land. That is, until she meets Mally, a teen boy who takes a keen interest in her, and has his own secret rites to divulge. Reminiscent of the suspense of Shirley Jackson and soaked in the folk horror of the British landscape, Water Shall Refuse Them is an atmospheric coming-of-age novel and a thrilling debut'

Sounds groovy! I can't wait to get stuck in. 

(looks groovy too)

The book's published by Dead Ink books. They are good. Check out their website HERE. 

Now then, if you want to join in with next month's discussion, it's happening on Tuesday September 10th, from midday and will continue for ages I imagine.

To join the Book Club, just tweet me (@biggreenbooks) and ask to be added to the Book Club group. 

If you want to buy the book, you can paypal the dosh (£9.99) to biggreenbookshop@hotmail.com (using family and friends please) and then send me a DM with your name and address. 

I shall get a copy posted out asap. 

We currently have 61 people in Twitter Book Club and we'd love more. 

Message me if you have any more questions. 

THANKS!

Twitter Book Club (part three)

Last month Twitter Book Club discussed Normal People by Sally Rooney. 

This book was chosen in a Twitter poll, from a shortlist of 4 books, based on suggestions from people on Twitter. 

It was discussed via a DM group on Twitter, so as not to fill everyone else's timeline with chat. There are currently 50 people in the Twitter Book Group. Not all of these people read the book (and I wouldn't expect them to), but hopefully, those in the group who didn't, got an interesting insight into the book!

In fact, I am delighted to tell you that 26 people (at least) read the book in the Group. I know this because, I asked those who had read it, to score it out of 10. And, as you might have guessed, 26 people did just that. 

The discussion about the book was VERY lively. It really was mixed. 

Some people found the lack of punctuation frustrating. There was a good chat about how likeable the characters were and how this impacted on their enjoyment of the book. 

Some found it very powerful and thought provoking and a true insight into two people's struggles to find a place for themselves. 

However, I think the biggest discussion was about the ending...

I am mindful of not spoiling the book for anyone who hasn't read it, so that's all I shall say. 

The book has led a few people in the Book Club to search out Sally's other book, so that's a good thing!

26 people gave it marks out of 10 (and the marks given ranged from 1 to 10!) and the average mark for Normal People is a very creditable 5.9. 

Thanks to everyone who joined in. If you want to be added to the group for next month get in touch with me on Twitter (@biggreenbooks) and i'll add you to the Group. 

We are now going to choose next month's book, which will be discussed on Tuesday September 10th.

A Twitter Poll will be going up in the next hour. This month, the shortlist will be from a selection of books that may have gone under the radar or may not have been seen stacked up on the tables of Waterstones. You know what I mean.

anyway.

EVERYONE CAN VOTE. 

Twitter Book Club - continued

Last month our Twitter Book Club was born. And d'you know what? It didn't go too badly at all!

HERE is a link to a blogpost I wrote about it.


The concept;

• Agree a book you're going to all read. 
• Buy it. 
• Read it. 
• Talk about it. (this is the important bit)
• Give it marks out of 10

So last month, Circe by Madeline Miller was chosen.

I'm delighted to say that more than 20 people asked to join the Book Club. 

I'm equally delighted to say that more than half of these people read the book and joined in the discussion on Twitter. 

It was universally loved. 

I'll give you a couple of quotes from people. 

"I adore her writing, it’s so lyrical and mysterious, a very fitting tone, whilst still being accessible and light. I’m really quite new to Greek Mythology, I know the real basics but not much else and I love the way other characters are described and their relationships weaved in. Enough to spark and interest and to not make you feel ... lacking but done smartly enough to let those with more knowledge fill in the gaps"

"It made me want to go back to the old Ray Harryhausen films as well. And I can't help thinking about how excruciating it would be to give birth to a Minotaur!"

"I loved the tone of the book, how the Gods had (often flawed) personalities. Great feminist undercurrents- strong women throughout, good slant on relationships." 

"I've never really been interested in Greek Mythology and this book has certainly changed that. I'm also really interested now in how the original myths shaped the worldview of Greeks and then Romans."

Anyway, there was loads more too (you'll have to join in if you want to hear all the comments!). 

So we then gave it points out of 10. 

14 people marked it. The lowest mark was 7 and the highest was 9 and the average was 8.375. 

Boom! That's a pretty impressive start. 

We have now chosen August's Book Club book. 

We shall be reading Normal People by Sally Rooney next. 

I am a bookshop. I would like you to buy the book from me. So, if you'd like to get involved, please paypal £8.99 to biggreenbookshop@hotmail.com, using family and friends and then send me a DM, letting me know your address.

Alternatively, you can buy it from the website (it's £9.99 on there, cos paypal take a quid if you buy it this way and i'm not charging P+P). Link HERE

The Book Group will start the book discussion on the second Tuesday of each month from now on, from midday. The conversation can continue for a day or so, or for as long as you like!
We will then give marks out of 10 on the Thursday.
So in August we will start the chat on Tuesday August 13th.
That should give us all plenty of time to read the book!

If you want to join the Book Club, tweet me (@biggreenbooks) with the hashtag #BGBookClub

and i'll add you to the group!

If you have any questions, please get in touch and i'll try and answer them. 

Thanks!

Bloody Paperwork

When the shop closed at the end of January, I thought, "OK, that's that". A lovely person wanted to take on the lease for the shop, so I reckoned it'd get sorted in a few weeks.

I'm a simple soul. Sometimes, being a simple soul is great. But sometimes it isn't...

Today is June 27th. I am still paying rent for the shop. 

It's a bit of a tosser.

I should have known it might have taken longer, having experienced a similar thing when we tried to get the lease to the shop ourselves in 2008. If you want to read about our woes, we did a blog. It's here.

Anyway, whilst I really want to spend ALL my time banging on about books and trying to save the world from angry unicorns pretending to be rhinos, I've been spending a load of my time doing bloody paperwork trying to finalise the lease thing.

So, apologies to all the rhinos out there. And also soz about not smashing the world in the face about how ace books are in the last couple of weeks.

I'll be back in full action very soon.

Ta.

New Life - an update

I don't use this blog as much as I should.

This is my second post in as many days. This level of blogging can never last!

Anyway, it's a bit of a personal one.

It's kind of an update about how things are going.

The Big Green Bookshop (the physical bookshop)  closed at the beginning of this year.
Katie and I moved out of London to the south coast in January with our kids. It's been the best thing we've ever done. 

Katie and I had always wanted to live by the seaside, but having the shop and owning our flat in London, we felt a bit trapped.

Much as I loved the shop, it had kind of taken over my life. It was all I thought about. I woke up in the middle of the night worrying about what needed to be done. I got the train to the shop at stupid early o'clock to try and catch up with stuff. I didn't realise it at the time, but it was doing my head in.

I was not in a good way and it affected my life badly.

Thankfully, I have the most incredible girlfriend in the world and the most brilliant kids, who I love completely and have been nothing but amazing.

So, we did it. We moved.

And it has been incredible.
Katie now has a brilliant job, that she loves. The kids are really happy at their new school. And I am getting my priorities right. Yes, the Bookshop is ace, but there are far more important things. And I'm not going to ever forget that again.

Looking back, I thought things were OK. But they weren't. Now, I can focus on my family and our new life here. And that's really all that matters.

Don't let this stop you buying books from me, we need the dosh! But I thought it was important to let you know.

#buybooks

Twitter Book Club

Recently I had the idea that maybe I should try to do a @biggreenbooks Twitter Book Club.

Book Clubs at the Big Green Bookshop were really great.

The concept;

• Agree a book you're going to all read. 
• Buy it. 
• Read it. 
• Talk about it. (this is the important bit)
• Give it marks out of 10

So a couple of weeks ago I asked what people thought the first Twitter Book Club book should be. 

And here is the result. 

The winner is Circe by Madeline Miller. 

So, how does @biggreenbooks Twitter Book Club work?

Here's what I thought. 

We need to have some time to read the book, so let's set a date in early July to discuss the book. 

I have chosen Friday July 5th. Book chat will start at midday.

We can discuss the book on twitter without annoying everyone else who isn't involved. 

So I can set up a DM (direct message) group, so that nobody else has to put up with our book chat. 

If you want to join this group, send me a message using this hashtag #BGBookCirce 

You can send it to me any time between now and then. I'll add you to the group.

We can, of course still discuss it on normal Twitter, using the same hashtag. 

Most book groups meet for a couple of hours, but the beauty of #BGBookCirce is that the conversation can continue longer (you don't have to be around on July 5th, but you can catch up later and still get involved).

After the discussion, we will give marks out of 10 by Monday 8th July and the results will be announced on Tuesday 9th  July. 

I am a bookshop. I would like you to buy the book from me. So, if you'd like to get involved, please paypal £8.99 to biggreenbookshop@hotmail.com, using family and friends and then send me a DM, letting me know your address.

Alternatively, you can buy it from the website (it's £9.99 on there, cos paypal take a quid if you buy it this way and i'm not charging P+P). Link HERE.

I will do a new shortlist for August's book just before the meeting, so that if you want to join in again, you'll know what the next book is. 

If you have any other ideas, i'd be delighted to hear them. This is all new to me, so I want to get it right. 

Hope this all sounds good. 

World Book Night

Today is World Book Night. 

It's pretty cool. 

It's a national celebration of reading and it's run by The Reading Agency (who are also pretty cool). 

You can read all about it HERE.

One of the big aims of World Book Night is to give people who, for one reason or another don't read regularly, a chance to get their hands on a book. And getting a book into someone's hands is something i'm all for. 

So I was delighted when they got in touch with me recently and asked if I could do a special #buyastrangerabook day on Twitter to help mark World Book Night. 

And so here we are. 

For those of you who don't know what #buyastrangerabook is, then it's pretty simple. 

People can either ask for a book, which is then paid for by another person, or else people pledge money, or tweet me that they will #buyastrangerabook and then, when someone asks for a book, they pay for it. 

The Big Issue wrote about it HERE.

The Independent wrote about it RIGHT HERE.

So, to kick off this very special day, the lovely people in the World Book Night cave have asked me to give away five books. 

For FREE!

Just because they love books and they want to do it.

Tweet me at @biggreenbooks and five lucky people will get books. 

If you would like to #buyastrangerabook today, tweet me and let's make this the most amazing World Book Night ever. 

Another Catch Up. I went to Twitter HQ!

I really need to add "write a blog post" to my daily list of stuff to do...

Anyway, what's happened recently?

Well, I guess a rather exciting thing for me was that last Wednesday, I went to Twitter UK's headquarters, to talk to about 100 people about #BuyAStrangerABook!

Twitter have been huge supporters of this initiative. Before Christmas, they contacted me to ask if I could send them a mix of books for them to send to some of their favourite people off Twitter.

So, I did. 

And they did. 

a parcel sent to @greg_jenner

And then, last month, they asked me if I could come and talk to people about #BuyAStrangerABook, for a thing they were doing called #StandWithThem. 

So, I did. 

yikes!

It was nerve racking, but everyone there was amazing, and it was such a great opportunity to tell more people about it.

Oh yeah, the other people on the panel, who btw do superballistic things on Twitter, were:

 Femi Oluwole (@femi_sorry)

...and Susie Dent (susie_dent)

Follow them both immediately, if you don't already.

What else happened...?

Oh yeah. There's a thing the shop does, called The Big Green Book Club. 

It's a subscription service, where we post you a book each month, based on your own personal tastes (we send out a simple questionnaire, which gives us an idea of the kind of books to send out)

It's great, and at the moment, there are around 150 people in the Club. 

Well, anyway the questionnaires were sent here to my new place from the Bookshop in early January. 

But they didn't turn up. 

That was a bit of a blow. Thankfully, there's a record of Club members names on the computer (which also got lost in the post, but has now arrived!), so I spent a fair time going through emails and piecing together all the details from there. 

It's done (I think) and apart from about three people, whose books are finally being sorted today, I have posted them all off. 

I sent off the "I am in a train" badges to all the Patreon members (if you want to join our Patreon, you can join HERE), and have arranged a meeting with someone from Patreon, so that I can use the darned thing properly!

A huge thanks to the publishers who've sent us books. My kids are delighted and have got stuck into them already. 

Reviews will be forthcoming very soon, I promise.

Those are all the main things I've done. 

Last Week

I haven't written on here since last Monday. Yeah, sorry about that. Here's a catch up. 

The Independent Bookshop Alliance was relaunched last week. The idea is that Indie Bookshops work together to have a more level playing field in the industry. 

It's a big project, but hopefully, once i've got myself sorted a bit more, I can dedicate more time to making this a reality. 

Wednesday's #buyastrangerabook day on Twitter was, once again, an absolute joy and 23 strangers were gifted books. 

I'm off to London next week, to do a talk about #buyastrangerabook. That should be loads of fun (not nervous in the slightest...) and i'll let you know more about that nearer the time. 

On Thursday I woke up stupidly early (4.30am) and caught the first train from Hastings to London. 

Too early...

My mission? To pick up a few essentials from The Big Green Bookshop to take back to base. 

With the help of Mark (@markymarket) we filled a Zipvan with bookcases, a table and a few books and headed off. 

You need to go up 43 steps to get to our flat. I counted them. These are things one notices, when one is carrying bookcases. 

To cut a long story short, the bookcases are up and the "office" is almost ready. 

...still waiting for the PC to turn up after being couriered from the bookshop, but I am assured that it won't be much longer. 

The Patreon scheme (which has been launched to help fund some of the projects that we're currently doing and plan to do in the future) reached a little milestone on Friday. Those of you who have joined, I'll be posting out your EXCLUSIVE "I am in a train" badges next week. 

Shiny things!

I'm still working out the logistics of this Patreon thing, but the first newsletter will be going out very soon too (as soon as my daughter has finished her comic strip)

In other news last week, Katie and I watched Stan & Ollie at the cinema. It was brilliant and I cried twice.

The kids are really enjoying their new school. They've made some lovely new friends and they don't actually moan when it's time to go. It's a 15 minute walk to get there. But what a lovely walk it is. 

Going to pay some bills now and possibly eat cheese on toast.