Excitement at March House Books!

I don’t often buy books without first viewing them, but I couldn't resist this collection.

I'm offered books on an almost daily basis. Many are not for me, but when they are I either pay a visit or ask the seller to post them. Once I'm happy with condition I send a cheque.  If they are not up to scratch they are returned, with an appropriate amount to cover the seller's costs. 

On this occasion, the collection comprised over 250 books, and the seller lived several hours away. I could hardly ask him to post them, but on the other hand, I didn't want to ask Terry to make the six-hour round trip, to collect them. So I found a courier who could collect and deliver – and hey presto here they are.

I’ve had several conversations with the seller, so I know what's in the collection, but I have no real idea of condition – so fingers crossed!

Essential supplies to hand, a nice blank page in my stock book, and here we go -

Please visit March House Books to browse our stock. You may also enjoy the following links,

C L Hawley carries literary criticism and literary biography including books on Jane Austen, the Brontes, Mrs Gaskell, Sylvia Plath, William Morris, the thirties poets etc., plus a general academic stock, and books on Yorkshire and Lancashire including dialect poetry. 

Peakirk Books specialises in childrens books, has a good range of crime fiction and carries a general stock. Stephen Foster carries rare books and fine bindings.

StephenFoster carries rare books and fine bindings.

Amwell Book Company carries modern art, architecture and photography and has a shop in Central London. East Riding Books carries books on all aspects of music.

EastRiding Books carries books on all aspects of music.

Crossposted March House Books

Halloween presents?

A thought struck me the other day: do people buy Halloween presents, and if not, why not?

So many of what were once relatively minor dates in the liturgical calendar seem to have grown in importance since my youth and are now celebrated in all manner of ways. Halloween is one such and is almost universal; why not encourage the exchange of presents at Halloween as happens at the major events of Christmas and Easter?

I'm all for including Halloween and don't mind a bit if I'm setting a precedent. It's a long time between Easter and Christmas, especially for a child, and it will help to bridge that celebration desert somewhat. Several ibooknet members have what might be considered very suitable halloween gifts.

To get you in the Halloween mood try C. L. Hawley for an article about Dracula in the Critical Quarterly, Ghost Stories are being offerered by Orangeberry Books and by  G. A. Michael Sims who also has a particularly gross title about the gibbet called 'Hanging in Chains', and recipes for Pumpkin Soup and possibly even toffee apples can be found at Books & Bygones.

Top 10 kids' book blogs

Ibooknet member Barbara of March House Books has had her book blog listed in Tesco's Top 10 kids' book blogs.

Of Barbara's blog they say:

This beautiful blog is brimming with stunning illustrations that make it easy to lose an hour scrolling through. Bobby, the blogger, is a book dealer who specialises in vintage illustrations. She treats us to the gorgeous images from 1920s tales of little girls going to finishing school or exerts from Cecil Aldin’s 1905 “A Gay Dog”.

We're not surprised as March House Book Blog is one of the prettiest blogs around.

Also listed are the inspirational Playing by the Book and An Awfully Big Blog Adventure which is the joint effort of some wonderful children's authors.

Looking for a present for a book lover?

As lots of friends and relatives can be difficult to buy a gift for, gift vouchers and gift cards are very useful. An number of ibooknet sellers offer gift cards on their own websites, available to purchase online and in a wide variety of denominations. They can be spent online on the dealer's website and most dealers ship books to most countries. Here are a few dealers who sell gift cards, with a brief outline of the dealer's specialism, so you can select the card most likely to delight your recipient.

Bagot Books carries a general stock with an emphasis on UK travel/topography/history.

Jane Badger Books carries a wide range of pony books: everything from Ruby Ferguson to the Pullein-Thompsons, with many interesting detours between.

C L Hawley carries literary criticism and literary biography including books on Jane Austen, the Brontes, Mrs Gaskell, Sylvia Plath, William Morris, the thirties poets etc., plus a general academic stock, and books on Yorkshire and Lancashire including dialect poetry.


Peakirk Books specialises in childrens books, has a good range of crime fiction and carries a general stock.

Stephen Foster carries rare books and fine bindings.

Amwell Book Company carries modern art, architecture and photography and has a shop in Central London. You can read more about their shop here.

East Riding Books carries books on all aspects of music.

Marchhouse Books carries Children's and illustrated books plus a very small general stock.

The pictured book is:

a first edition of Fire in the Punchbowl from the stock of Jane Badger Books





N.B. individual dealers have their own terms and conditions so do read the individual websites properly and email the dealer if you are unsure.

National Poetry Day

There's lots happening for National Poetry Day 2011. The National Poetry Day poet in residence for 2011 is Jo Shapcott and she's written a poem on the theme of games especially for the day. You can read Jo Shapcott's poem here.

Faber and Faber meanwhile tweeted about their YouTube channel of poetry readings including this one of Simon Armitage reads 'Aviators' from Seeing Stars

More poetry news includes the awarding of the Forward Prize for Poetry last night to the four times nominated John Burnside. Burnside has finally won the Forward Poetry Prize for best collection with Black Cat Bone.

And in a happy poetic coincidence the Nobel Prize for Literature went to Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer.

Man Booker Prize 2011 Shortlist Announced

Two first time novelists and four independent publishers make the Man Booker Prize 2011 Shortlist of six:

Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending (Jonathan Cape - Random House)

Carol Birch Jamrach’s Menagerie (Canongate Books)

Patrick deWitt The Sisters Brothers (Granta)

Esi Edugyan Half Blood Blues (Serpent’s Tail)

Stephen Kelman Pigeon English (Bloomsbury)

A.D. Miller Snowdrops (Atlantic)

The shortlist was announced by Chair of Judges, author and former Director-General of MI5 Dame Stella Rimington, at a press conference held at Man’s London headquarters. The winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction will be announced on Tuesday 18 October at a dinner at London’s Guildhall and will be broadcast on the BBC.

25% off Children's Collectable Books

From Peakirk Books: TODAY OUR SALE BEGINS. We are having a big 'July summer Madness' 25% off all our stock sale starting today. Of course it is only available for stock bought on our own site at Peakirk Books because we can't afford to take 25% off stock on the other sites where we have to pay so much commission as well - we would then be trading at such a big loss.

If you want to take advantage of buying our books at a 25% discount - between July 1st and July 31st 2011, simply go to our own site, and purchase, using the e code MAD007 in the coupon box at the checkout, and you will automatically get the discount. We specialise in children's collectable books, but there are lots of other books there too - 26,000 of them! It's worth a browse.