| Author | Message | ||
     Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.143.178.131 |
Just seen that the Murder One store in London is to close permanently this month. Already 2009 is getting off to a grim start for the book trade. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
Very, very sad, even though I don't go in there since they shut the New Worlds bit and moved across the road. I used to buy loads of stuff from there | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 85.158.137.195 |
I stopped when they moved as Andy Richards no longer had his stuff there. The new shop seemed full of Mills & Boon (or at least what I saw of it). | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.121.214.11 |
That is bad news. It's one of my first stops when I make my (very rare) visits to the capital. Happy new Year folkses | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Shit, damn, hellfire. Crime fiction loses its most important bookshop. And the number of independent genre-based bookshops in the English-speaking world is probably now about three. By the end of this year, there will be none. We blew it. We had a literary culture. It's gone. We're all like Wile E. Coyote before he notices that he's gone over the edge of the cliff... looks down... and falls. But he always gets back up. We can't. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
It's the only shop where I've been ejected from my own signing. | ||
| Chris_morris (Chris_morris) Username: Chris_morris Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 12.165.240.116 |
Were you singing too loudly, Ramsey? | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
Was that a case of Premature Ejection, Mr Campbell? | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.159.152.164 |
Hatchards in Picadilly has an ok crime section, although not as good... | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.231.223 |
I'm sorry to say, because it proves I'm neglectful myself, that I haven't been to this bookshop lately... but there is, in Thousand Oaks/Westlake Village (a money-soaked suburb, over the next hill from here in Simi Valley) a mysteries-only bookstore, that's been around for many years, well-respected, with book-signings, etc.: "Mysteries To Die For." So, Joel, out here in soCal at least, there's still hope.... (Don't forget "Dark Delicacies" either!) | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.143.178.131 |
And there's the brilliant Borderlands in San Francisco. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
One earthquake would take out all three of them. And that would be it. There's nothing left over here. Fantasy Centre's closing down this year, I believe. Not content with destroying all independent booksellers, Amazon is also destroying all independent publishers by demanding back-breaking discounts. Amazon is toxic waste. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.121.214.11 |
Forbidden planet? or is that owned by a larger chain? | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.240.238 |
Didn't Forbidden Planet close...? Are you referring to the famous one that used to be in the San Fernando Valley?... It's gone, methinks. So is A Change Of Hobbit, another formerly-well-known now-defunct speciality bookstore.... What about the porn bookshops? Are those still thriving? (By the way, if anyone's been wondering, I checked the internet the other day to see if the porn was still there. It is.) | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.167.124.223 |
I was in Murder One some five-six years ago- that was when there was only the Romance and Crime stuff left if I remember correctly. But then I think they moved from the old address to around the corner from Charing Cross? The Forbidden Planet in London had a tiny section of hardcover signed limiteds- this was two years ago. I went back to Charing Cross when I was in London for the Lisey's Story King reading/signing and it looked liked a fair number of the stores were closing- except Goldsboro which were expanding and seemingly doing well. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.255.58 |
Whoops - Dangerous Visions is the bookstore I meant! That's out of business now.... | ||
| Barbara Roden (Nebuly) Username: Nebuly Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 65.174.47.70 |
Sad news. Used to love going into Murder One when they were in their original location, and popping downstairs to see Andy's stuff. There was also a great Chinese bakery/restaurant on the corner just down from there, where I used to get steamed pork buns and almond cookies; when my brother visited us in England he went in there and startled the woman behind the counter by speaking to her in Cantonese; guess she didn't expect a six-foot-two, brown-haired gwai lo (literally, 'ghost person') to know any Cantonese. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.159.152.164 |
There was a short item on the local London News prog at 6.30 this evening, including a brief interview with Maxim Jakubowski. |