The Comfort of Reading During Lockdown

Back in November, I set up the Haslemere Book Swap on Facebook as I was eager/nosy to know what everyone around me was reading, the group is informal and we share our passion for books. I love the fact that we all have different tastes, and some members are experimenting with new genres.

We are also so fortunate to have our own independent bookshop on our high street and I was wondering how they have managed to keep afloat during the pandemic. I spoke to Emily from Haslemere Book Shop to get a bird's eye view of their world during lockdown.

What were people reading during lockdown?

Our best-selling genre is always contemporary fiction, and that certainly hasn’t changed this year. I think people want to escape into a good story now more than ever! Some of our recent fiction bestsellers include: Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo, Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid (our current book club book!), Where the Crawdad’s Sing by Delia Owens and The Dutch House by Ann Patchett. We sold so many copies of Normal People after the TV adaption of Sally Rooney’s novel hit back in April and we also sold quite a few copies of Rebecca, when Netflix released their remake in October.

Have you noticed more people are reverting back to traditional books and abandoning their Kindles?

Oh definitely, we also find that people who do have e-readers often mix and match between the two. So many things are screen based at the moment that reading a book can be a good way to switch off and have an intentional screen break.

As a business, how have you adapted to the ever-changing Covid 19 rules?

It’s got so much easier as time has gone on! Back in March we had to change everything almost overnight - we suddenly had to figure out how to run the shop just by email and phone! There were a couple of weeks when it was completely overwhelming, especially with the demand for reading material because of the impending lockdown. One good thing was that it spurred us to create a website (in about 2 weeks!), something we had been planning on doing for ages. It now provides us with a constant flow of orders and enquiries (www.thehaslemerebookshop.co.uk).

We then had to figure out how to reopen our shop when the lockdown was lifted in June, and in some ways that was equally as tricky. Our shop is quite narrow so setting it up for social distancing was hard. We had to have one person on the door to limit the amount of people in the shop at one time, and we sadly decided to temporarily close our second-hand section. We also kept up our free local delivery service for people who were unable to leave their homes- we’ve discovered areas of Haslemere that we never knew existed before!

We’ve not been able to run any of our normal author events, or go into schools and community centres to read, but we have managed to keep our book club running! We have a zoom meeting every six weeks and it’s been lovely to stay in touch with our group.

We’re now much more geared up for operating the shop during lockdown. We can have most of our staff working safely at home and our wholesalers offer a brilliant service of delivering books directly to our customers. We definitely wouldn’t want to repeat the last 12 months, but it’s certainly challenged us to think more about the best way to run our shop and forced us to be adaptable! It’s also been so heartening to realise how well supported we are by the local community.

Have you noticed an increase in younger customers?

One of our best-selling children’s books of 2020 was an Usborne book called 100 Things to Know about Saving the Planet, which is incredibly encouraging! We also sold quite a few books from the Little People Big Dreams series; especially David Attenborough, Rosa Parks and Frida Khalo.

Some of bestselling children’s fiction books include: A Sprinkle of Sorcery which is the second books in Michelle Harrison’s magical Pinch of Magic series, The Castle of Tangled Magic by Sophie Anderson, and the latest books in the Most Unlady Like and Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.

For older readers, we’ve done well with Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman and also His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman - both on the back of their successful BBC adaptations! 

While we do sell a lot of new releases, we find that many of children’s bestsellers are old classics -  two of our bestselling picture books for 2020 were; Each Peach Pear Plum by Allan Ahlberg and Dogger by Shirley Hughes!

Have you had a chance to read or have you been too busy working? Personal recommendations?

Emily: Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips, The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel and Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid.

Sue: Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo, You Will be Safe Here by Damain Barr and Wintering by Katherine May 

Cathy: This Too Shall Pass by Julia Samuels, Dear Reader by Cathy Rentzenbrink and The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Helena: Salt Slow by Julia Armfield and Now we Shall be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller.

What have been your best-selling books so far in 2021?

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid (partly due to it being ours and Haslemere Book Swap's choice!) and also a new book by Sathnam Sanghera called Empireland which demonstrates how so much of what we consider to be modern Britain is actually rooted in our imperial past are the best-sellers so far.

We’re looking forward to finding out which other books will be big hits in the Haslemere Bookshop in 2021!

For book orders, contact the Haslemere Book Shop at hello@haslemerebookshop.co.uk