As our 10th birthday fast approaches, one word from far beyond our shores perfectly describes what is near and dear to me and to all of us at Books & Company. That word is Ubuntu.

Ubuntu has its origins in several of the Bantu languages of Southern Africa and means : ‘I am because you are’, and in many ways that perfectly sums up my gratitude for all that we have been able to accomplish together since we opened our doors on a beautiful Saturday morning in May 2009.

Running an independent bookshop is an enormous privilege and one that I am thankful for every single day. 

A life among books, full of stories and histories that engage and enlighten, written by authors who go out of their way to share ideas and emotions is a life that keeps you on your toes. It’s a life that constantly challenges the status quo and allows you to see all that you knew yesterday in a brand new light today. A life among books teaches empathy and opens your heart to differences and similarities, to exuberant joy and to tremendous pain. 

And that’s just the books themselves!

A bookshop takes all that magic and puts in the hands of booksellers and readers. It gives us the wonderful task of passing on all those emotions, all that empathy and all that exuberance to the customers who wander through our door to the jingle of the little bell.

The true wonder of a bookshop happens in that meeting with the customer. In the search for the perfect book, the perfect read, the perfect gift. The book that isn’t too scary, that isn’t too romantic, that isn’t too serious or too funny, and never one that is too boring. The book that makes you think, makes you want to be a better person, makes you laugh, makes you cry, makes you want to change the world. Done right, these are the best conversations.

Over the years we have had the great privilege of putting thousands of books in your hands and we take that job very seriously. We know that you will be sitting in a chair, on a bus, in the grass or on the beach reading what we suggested - and we want you to come back for more.

We also take very seriously our commitment to creating community. 

The past 10 years have brought so many wonderful people to the shop. Some have stayed in the country short term, some longer. Some visit monthly, some weekly and some even daily. Every single person has put their mark on the shop and made us who we are. The talks, the laughs, the commiseration; the hellos, the goodbyes and the ‘see you soons’. And in this wonderful age of easy communication, no-one is ever forgotten.

Running a bookshop is not a one woman show. It takes amazing, incredible, wonderful, talented, hard working, committed and dedicated colleagues and I have had the greatest fortune of working with them every day for the past 10 years. Thank you will never be enough!

And, of course, we need to have a birthday party, so we hope you will join us for a celebration on

Saturday, May 25 from 10:00 -15:00

In the spirit of Ubuntu, and in the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu : ’’A person is a person through other persons.’’

Thank you for allowing us to be who we are through you.

Warm regards,

Isabella & the staff of Books & Company 

The shop will be closed from Thursday April 18 to Monday April 22 (both days included). May we suggest we all take some time to STOP and smell the roses, frolic in the sun and catch up on some reading.

Enjoy!

Always exciting to see where the Man Booker International Prize is going to take us.

And the Shortlist nominees for 2019 are from:

Oman, Poland, Germany, France, Colombia and Chile.

In a time when facts are stranger than fiction, when one person’s truth is another person’s lie, when you wish that someone would call out ‘April Fools’ and bring the world back on track, we invite you to take a chance and venture out beyond your comfort zone.

We have wrapped and wrapped and wrapped lots of great, interesting, funny, sad, quirky, mind-bending, serious, scary, beautiful books in brown paper with no labels.

So mark your calendars and drop by the shop tomorrow 

Saturday March 30th and/or Monday April 1st 

where the window will be overflowing with books at 20,- a piece. 

The catch: you won’t know what you're getting, so what you get might be just what you didn’t know you were looking for.

We look forward to seeing you at the shop!
Your friendly Books & Company staff

Thank you!

Two little words, but if we could, we would shout them from the rooftops!

We would like to start the new year with a great - and grateful - thank you from the top of our bookshelves to the bottom of our hearts for your patronage, your support, your ideas, your smiles and your willingness to share with us your reading experiences and your lives. 

Thank you for being a part of the Books & Company community and for making 2018 such a succesful year. It goes without saying that we couldn’t have done it without you!

Despite the sunshine in the shop, it is difficult to ignore the fact that 2018 seemed shrouded in clouds and conflict. Indeed, the last couple of years have been full of pushing - and pushing back. 

While autocratic tendencies weaken in one corner of the world they pop up stronger in another, but leaders who pull apart rather than pull together have also been met with refusals to stand down, and heavy handed attempts at isolation have been met with greater insistence on community. 

At times, it seems that there is much to fret about, but it might also be worth changing lenses. As a customer recently pointed out in praise of British author P.G. Wodehouse: 'Anyone can see and write about ‘the holes in the road’, the real talent lies in seeing the humour.'

Yes, indeed, and perhaps we should focus less on the holes and more on the road itself?
There are many and very real societal issues in need of serious (re)consideration, issues of inequality and the environment to mention just two of the most pressing, and while talking about the lesser problems may be easier, certainly more popular and more politically opportune, it also serves as a distraction from the bigger, more complex discussions we need to have and the decisions we need to make about the direction we want to take.

So for 2019 let’s look up, avoid the holes and keep our eyes on the road.

Happy New Year!

Isabella & the staff of Books & Company
 

We hope you are home for the holidays enjoying time with your family, friends, good food a comfy chair and lots of great books! We are taking a few days off and look forward to seeing you back in the shop on January 2nd, 2019!

It has been a true pleasure to help curate and create a library for The Apartment’s gorgeous two bedroom apartment now available for rent.

Vogue magazine’s Brooke Bobb spent the night ‘inside Copenhagen’s Chicest Design Store’ and wrote a glowing review with a special mention of the library!

‘There were loads of books, too, from those on Cy Twombly to a tome dedicated to the Danish jewelry label Griegst. This, in fact, was a signature touch from the clever and curious proprietor. “The luxury of having time to read books is something that I prioritize when I travel,” Busck explained. “Therefore, it was important for me to fill the apartment with interesting literature on art, design, and architecture.” ’

We suggest taking a few minutes to read the wonderful review of The Apartment’s apartment in Vogue magazine, and leave you with the final words which perfectly sum up Brooke Bobb’s experience:

‘Again, I thought about all of the beautiful hotels, rentals, and resorts that I’ve stayed in. But at that kitchen table I thought, for the first time in my travels, I could really live here. A home sweet home, indeed.’

It has been the mother of all summers and at long last the rain is bringing back the green. We know you’ve bought lots of books - earning the heartfelt gratitude of booksellers everywhere - and we hope you have enjoyed disappearing into them. 

While we lay on beaches and in deckchairs under seemingly unending blue skies trying to ignore our devices (and perhaps the news), the sun did little to bring light and enlightenment into the darkness that seems to have invaded the hearts and minds of many of the world’s politicians.

They are still chasing that elusive electorate, not realizing that what we need is not to be chased but to be led. We need brave, honest and committed women and men who possess the courage to speak out against the mob(mentality), call out injustices and perhaps most importantly dare to imagine, voice and create a new and shared vision of a future that reflects the dreams of a bigger, more global community.

We know they are out there these would-be leaders. All we have to do is vote for them! 

So if you listen carefully, you will hear the pitter-patter of elections coming your way; they are local, they are national, they are close by and far away. This is the time to discuss, to challenge, to question; ourselves, each other and our politicians. Who are we, what are our values, who do we want to be? There is no time like the present to put our money where our mouth is - on small changes and seismic events - in order to show future generations that we did more than shake our heads and turn away. 

Welcome back! Let us pay attention. It matters and it’s going to be exciting!

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We are also very excited to be able to offer a list of wonderful events at the shop this Fall season. 

We hope you will find a talk, a concert or a book launch to inspire you! Check out our events to meet some of the inspiring speakers and performers we look forward to welcoming.

As always, we welcome your ideas, questions and thoughts and we look forward to seeing you at the shop, here on the website, on Facebook and on Instagram!

Kind regards,

Isabella & the staff of Books & Company