Best New Books

Just a few of my favourites from the last few weeks - buy them!

Lyttleton's Britain - Iain Pattinson -a collection of the fantastic introductions given by the sadly-missed Humphrey Lyttleton at the beginning of episodes of 'I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue', these are wonderful, laugh-out-loud funny. Best humour book of the year, definitely!

Bad Science - Ben Goldacre - The Guardian's excellent science writer on health scares, the ethics of medical companies, and the media's mis-representation of various issues, this is brilliant stuff, important and also very funny..

Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman - and one that I haven't even read yet! But the extraordinary Mr Gaiman never disappoints, so I'm going to go right ahead and recommend it anyway.. It has been published in two beautiful editions, the children's one illustrated by Chris Riddell, the adult's by Dave McKean..

The Universe expands...

Will I ever stop talking about the universe? Probably not! As well as being a gorgeous piece of wrapping paper, it is a great map of our collective brain, one which will hopefully grow in different directions - and maybe, like all good universes, there'll be a sequel...

(if you haven't seen the image, its on the website (dulwichbooks.co.uk) & Facebook group page)

Wanted to start off talking (possibly to myself) about what's on there and why.. Starting with my favourite corner, which is - Fup by Jim Dodge, Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills and The Music of Chance by Paul Auster - the connection? Walls and fences.. Fup is about a duck, a wild pig, a very drunk man who may be immortal, and his fence-obsessed grandson. The latter two are about people being forced to build a fence and a wall respectively.. All very, very good!

Restraint of Beasts then leads to the similarly-themed Gold by Dan Rhodes (Lake District, isolation...), and Music of Chance leads to another Paul Auster, The New York Trilogy .. and then (to be continued..) ...

Perfect Credit Crunch Cure

It is a well proven fact that reading is proven to reduce stress, so what better way to cope with the economic downturn and the "r" than to pick up a new book and lose yourself in it.

Today we are recommending White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. This brilliant book won the Man Booker prize last week and is the story of Balram Halwai - the smartest boy in his village. His family is too poor for him to afford for him to finish school and he has to work in a teashop, breaking coals and wiping tables. But Balram gets his break when a rich man hires him as a chauffeur, and takes him to live in Delhi.

Of course if you do want to stay within the finanical world, the FT's Business Book of the Year: When Markets Collide offers a cogent picture of the rapidly changing world financial system. A book that is sure to become an overnight investment classic, it gets you up to speed on the new economic and investing landscape and provides a detailed blueprint for capitalizing on the phenomenal opportunities now available in that new investment landscape, while minimizing the new and challenging set of risks.

Universe!

Have you seen our fantastic Book Universe? A mind-map of some of our favourite books, linked by genre/type/subject, in the style of a star map - there are images of some of it on our website (dulwichbooks.co.uk), and you can buy the wrapping paper instore... Its very good!

Yes Sunday October 12th....

In case you have not seen the posters, we are now open every Sunday until the end of the year. Doors open at 11.0pm and close at 4.00pm (unless you are buying lots of books and we need to stay a little longer).

Sunday Opening
11.00am - 4.00pm

11 & half weeks to Christmas!!

OMG, being the first full week of October the realisation that Christmas is less than 12 weeks away is scary. Do we have enough books, can we display them properly, which book will go out of stock and the publisher unable to print enough in time.... and so on. I love it, these three months are very exciting in bookselling because they challenge you at all different level.