National Bookshop Day

I wasn't working on National Bookshop Day. But that didn't stop me from visiting Shearer's to take part in the fun. After taking full advantage of my non-working status (making the casuals wrap gifts for me, getting the children's specialist to locate and order books for my daughter, and clicking at staff members when I wanted something), I settled in for a latte from Froth (and even though I asked the girl who made it to do a dragon on the top, she gave me a leaf, which was acceptable. I guess. My partner said I could imagine the leaf was a plume of flame from a dragon and I had to point out to her - not for the first time - that dragons shoot out jets of flame. Not plumes.)

We had authors coming in all day to unveil their names on our newly updated 'name wall'. The name wall features the names of authors we've held events with and we used National Bookshop Day as an excuse to update it, adding over 50 new names! Edmund Capon, Margaret Wild, Charlotte Wood, Walter Mason, Jacqueline Harvey, Kelly Doust and Angelo Loukakis unveiled their names in person and answered a couple of questions for everyone present. We asked these authors to come in as they are all special people to us - we consider them part of the Shearer's flock!

For our customers, we gave away the very popular 'Keep Calm and Keep Reading' posters, tickets to the film Beginners and had almost 300 people enter the contest to win the 5 pack of new titles from our friends at Text Publishing. The prize was won by a member of the Saturday morning book club!

National Bookshop Day is a great initiative that went spectacularly well. The general vibe in the store (and online, where many booksellers are these days) was overwhelmingly positive and we wound up feeling very loved. It just went to show that for an industry that's been getting a hammering in the mainstream media lately there is still energy, enthusiasm, innovation and - most importantly - community support.

Thanks to the authors who took time out of their busy schedules to visit us and thanks to the customers who chose to spend their precious spare time in our little corner of Leichhardt.

Written by Mark

Our front counter in celebratory mode. Don't judge us on the mess - we're an independent bookshop, remember?

Margaret Wild, with our children's specialist Rachel, talks about her work.

Margaret Wild unveils her name on the 'name wall'.

Edmund Capon with Shearer's owner Barbara talks about his life in art.

Edmund Capon unveils his name.

Walter Mason with Barbara, talking about his writing.

Walter Mason unveils his name.

Walter's name is now on the wall!

Angelo Loukakis with Barbara, chatting about his work.

Angelo Loukakis unveils his name.

Jacqueline Harvey with Shearer's children's specialist Emma.

Jacqueline Harvey unveils her name.

Jacqueline Harvey's name is now on our wall!

Charlotte Wood with Barbara from Shearer's having a good laugh.

Charlotte Wood unveils her name.

Kelly Doust with Barbara chatting about her life in craft.

Kelly Doust unveils her name.