New Bookshop Opens

In the age of Amazon and Kindle, it's surprising to hear of a new independent bookshop opening its doors for business. 

Hydra, which launches in Old Market this week, aims to specialise in "radical" literature with an emphasis on hard-to-find independent publications covering politics, history, environmentalism and feminism. 

Run as a workers' co-operative, Hydra opens between 8.00 and and 6.00 pm Tuesday to Friday and on Saturday afternoons.

The venue also contains a coffee shop and can be hired as a meeting place. As it says, "a space for exchanging ideas as well as finding books."

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Free Clearout at Bristol's Book Barn

Spent a happy morning today with some younger clan members helping the The Book Barn (Central Trading Estate, Bath Road, BS4 3EH) clear its stock of several thousand books, thanks to a heads up via Twitter.

The Barn is a giant warehouse and is closing down. Having moved some of its more valuable stock to its North Somerset depot, the monster book seller is now literally giving away all its remaining books - as long as you're prepared to rummage.

The warehouse this morning was an incredible site. Shelves still line every wall but were 80% empty. Piles of books were strewn between every row, making some sections accessible to only the most dedicated climber. I would estimate there were five thousand books still there this morning - but that's nothing other than a wild guess.

People were helping themselves by the sack load, or car load, as some had driven into the warehouse and were piling up their vehicles with every conceivable title.

Our party came away with some classic fiction, American and European history, some pulp sci-fi paperbacks and who knows what else. It would be tempting to think that you could stock up and sell on but with so many free books now in circulation, I think eBay will be fairly full of job lots for a penny, collectible from Bristol sellers, for the next few months.

Word from the Alethian Wolf is that the give away has been extended for another week, apparently till the middle of next week, with any remaining titles being binned.

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Tiblisi, Georgia and Bristol

As events unfold in the Caucuses, Bristol residents may be unaware of the link that has existed for 20 years between their city and Tiblisi, the capital of the now war-torn nation of Georgia.

2008 is the 20th anniversary of the Bristol Tiblisi Association and a variety of events are being held to mark the fact, including The Falcon and the Unicorn - a cultural and literary exhibition currently running till October at the Central Library.

Stoke Bishop Councillor and former Lord Mayor of Bristol Peter Abraham made an official visit to Tiblisi in 2007 where he was hosted by the city's first elected mayor, Gigi Ugulava, tipped by some as the next President of Georgia (Russian invasions notwithstanding.)

It seems a timely opportunity to become better informed about the links between the two cities.

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Free eBooks for the Holidays

Fancy curling up with an old classic on your lap top, PDA or mobile?

I know, they'll never replace proper books, but, all said, ebooks do have their charms. Especially when they're free - in the sense of requiring no payment and having absolutely no strings attached whatsoever.

Open Access is a corner of the Internet which is doing very nicely, thank you, and which allows ordinary web surfers in Westbury on Trym, Baghdad or Buenos Aires to access masses of free software and - the point of this post - works of literature.

All of the following titles are free and legal - you are not robbing the (long-dead) author nor will your computer be taken over by nasty software from the Ukraine. Honest.

So, for the holidays, please allow Trym Tales the pleasure of recommending:

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

• The Marvelous Land Of Oz by L. Frank Baum

• A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

• Beowulf

• Ulysses by James Joyce

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

• The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli

• The Iliad by Homer

• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

• The Art of War by Sun Tzu

In case none of the above titles appeal, why not visit Project Gutenberg and search their listings of over 20,000 free ebooks ready to download today.

Go on, try it. You know you want to.

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A Store is Born

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I've now been able to integrate a book store into Trym Tales, featuring a range of titles that may be of interest to regular readers of this blog. You can take a look at it right here.

Here's a few Anticipated Questions about the store.

1. How does it work?

Easy. Just click on a title for full information about it, including cost and shipping details. Alternatively, click on the Amazon logo on the top right of the page to search their whole site for... anything at all.

2. Is it secure to use?

As the store is hosted by Amazon UK, all orders are handled by their secure payment and shipping service. So, yes, it's secure.

3. Why so few titles?

The titles are just representative. If you click on one of them, or the Amazon logo, you can access the entire Amazon range on any topic and genre.

4. Why just one page?

It's easier to change than create. Watch this space for a process on on-going store development. By the way, there's a scroll bar at the bottom of the store page. Its use will enable the whole store front to be seen.

Marvelous.

As always, comments and feedback are welcome.

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Trym Tales Books

The Witching Hour

Just got back from taking the kids to Waterstone's on Union Street to buy their copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows .

What a sight! I would estimate about 500 people were there. All ages - children through to grandparents.

The crowd was good humored and there was a real buzz of anticipation. Lots of fancy dress and a few bemused looks from the taxi drivers as they drove past.

I've seen queues on a Friday night in Bristol - outside the night clubs. I've never seen people queuing for a book. It was quite an event.