Bull in a Chener shop

[steveo]

Whilst checking the sales of my wonderful book Guns Cash and Rock n Roll: The Managers in Cheners www.gunscashandrocknroll.co.uk, I mentioned the forum to the guv'nor. He was singularly unimpressed saying that he'd heard that the forum wanted his shop closed down 'because it's scruffy'. 'Surely not' I protested stoutly, and assured him that wonderful cuddly independent shops like his were just the ticket.

However, when checking past posts about the book shop, there is definitely a bit of a neg vibe.

I think everyone should pop in and reassure the wild haired one that we all love him and his Chener shop before he allows the paranoia to drive him out of the strip.

And buy books, lots of books; mine and even other people's as well.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Nice post steveo - I am (usually) on Chener's side and I don't want it closed down or replaced. But i wouldn't mind seeing it brushed up and looking less like a second-hand Christian bookshop

It also disturbs me that a shopkeeper is able to get all this feedback and distill it into one negative comment - retailing has moved on in 20 years - if he engaged he might actually... build a rapport with some new customers. Can't see where the reluctance to do that comes from

Edited for appalling typing

[wee quinnie]

I like Cheners.

Good points:

Interesting selection of books on the table.

And:

Not difficult to get round like the shop in the Village - (always jammers in there, as a result of huge piles of books being re-stocked) and not much room for manouevering).

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Oooh, Mr Sean, wounded to the quick - I spend half my time happily browsing round second-hand Christian book shops!

I like Chener's: would like it even more if he employed me there. What could be finer than working in the middle of loads of books?

Am loving the Biggles/Emil & the Detectives/Jennings/etc on display at the moment.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Spot on quinnie about the table - it's always well chosen stuff and presented in an accessible way

PGC - now, now - I didn't say there was anything WRONG with a secondhand Christian bookshop* but a shop looking to thrive on a busy retail street could look a leeetle bit more interested. I'm not arguing for style over substance.. just a bit of a spruce. CSHBSs (to coin a clumsy and unintelligible acronym) tend to be in back streets, with a more... forgiving clientele and aren't really competing in the same way, no?

* although you could probably guess what I really think. Not that I'd cause a to-do.... Oh dear me, no..

[Administrator]

Just for a bit of clarity, "the forum" is made up of the 4,485 registered users, the 1,900 people a day who visit it and the people who post on it. Some of them are a bit mad. "The forum" does not want the book shop or any shop to be closed down although "some people who express their opinion on the forum" may, there is a difference.

I just wanted to clarify that.

[d803cn]

I like this bookshop too. Admittedly it is the only bookshop. But I think I would still use it over a Waterstones etc. I would like to see it open earlier at the weekend, but I think that's more a reflection of the time your average shopper gets out of bed.

[Moos]

I like the bookshop and nowadays try to buy all my books there if I can, including the book club ones - happy to spend the extra quid or whatever rather than buy on the internet. If the chap is reading the Forum (which it sounds as though he isn't) I say thumbs up to him, and to the very nice young woman who works there (sorry PGC).

However it did take me a while of living in ED to get past the shop front. I thought it was a specialist comic book shop. Ahem.

[RosieH]

I've always liked the idea of Chener. Being a huge fan of Dylan Moran and Black Books, I see it as being a little bit like that, only marginally less dusty. No sense of welcome (I know, I know, others have had different experiences) but fabulous books on the table and me all hung over, meandering a bit and bumping into the table and not being able to choose anything, and when I've tried to catch someone's eye because my wits are too dulled to work it out for myself they've examined the undersides of their fingernails as if the answer to the Da Vinci Code were writ thereupon, and then bumbling off to buy some cheese instead from the warehouse because they let you taste it first.

what I really want is claret-fuelled abuse from the wild-haired one and I'd be throwing all my disposable cash at him.

come to think of it Steveo (I'm assuming your name is pronounced Steve-o rather than Estevio, which I rather fondly fancied) excellent book plugging. I need a new book, will check it out

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

I often have wild hair, am frequently claret-abusive - you see, I should be working there.

[RosieH]

you should you should - then i could bimble in and you would throw books at me, and those would be the ones I'd buy.

i've just been into Waterstones - i didn't know what to do with myself with all those gaudy covers - how are you to tell a Marian Keyes (only 411 days since the last one!) from the latest Dostoevsky when they're all in pastels with "interesting" typefaces n that?

[Moos]

it's called "matt lam", that touchy-feely book cover stuff, and apparently it's all the rage. I get a crick in the neck wandering round all the tables in book shops.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Avoid all gold covers (except Charlie Higson); avoid all pastel covers (except Jane Austen); avoid all scantily dressed ladies covers (except Alistair MacLean): everything else should be ok (except if recommended by Metro).

[bawdy-nan]

I really like Chener books. They've a good choice, are friendly and helpful, have great window displays. I don't give a monkeys about the signage or whatever else people moan about.

I wish they took book tokens but I'm assuming there's a reason they don't...

Good luck to them

[Moos]

Slightly out-of-focus photos in tasteful shades of ashes-of-roses / mustard / slate blue appear to be v. trendy among peddlers of quality litrachure. My personal favourites though are the versions of children's books sold in concealingly "adult" covers - Harry Potter in grown-up stylee. Hee hee. Just buy it and read it if you want to!

[citizenED]

I was in there on Saturday and bought Rob Sheffield's "Love is a Mix Tape" (hope my brother isn't reading this as it's his birthday present!)

I love Chener's. I trust the table - it's like a literary oracle. I love the bucket. And that sign. I live in hope they hold out with the call to modernise that sign - it's an institution already. It's a little oasis of boho in an increasingly corporate LL.

Viva Chener!

[monica]

Im in interested in Jane Austen at the mo, went into chener and bought 2 great books of her lifestory in which i am throughly enjoying at the mo, i intend to go and buy the whole collection of the austens from chener, its a great treasure trove of books and nostalgia

[SimonM]

I think Chener has always had a pretty good press in here. For every person who has grumbled at the seedy exterior half a dozen have leapt in to defend and indeed practically eulogise the place! Maybe someone should print out all the threads on it and present it to Mr Kennedy (it is still he is it not??)

[SeanMacGabhann]

This!

Perfect encapsulation Mr ed... er.. Mr Citizen? Whatever. Nail on head

[david_carnell]

citizenED Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I was in there on Saturday and bought Rob

> Sheffield's "Love is a Mix Tape" (hope my brother

> isn't reading this as it's his birthday present!)

>

> I love Chener's. I trust the table - it's like a

> literary oracle. I love the bucket. And that sign.

> I live in hope they hold out with the call to

> modernise that sign - it's an institution already.

> It's a little oasis of boho in an increasingly

> corporate LL.

> Viva Chener!

Agree. With everything.

[HonaloochieB]

I like Chener and make a point of buying at least one book a month from them. The only small complaint I have about them is their failure a couple of years ago to get me a copy of the compilation of Sniffing Glue. Actually I never bothered to order it from anywhere else, so perhaps they saved me twenty notes.

OK so, scrub that, no complaints from me at all.

Chener books, they forget to order you stuff that in hindsight you really don't need, thereby saving you dosh.

Tell them they can use that one in their advertising if they want.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Steveo - you going to print this thread out and show the guv'nor? Might give him a little lift..

[Brendan]

"the forum" isn't a entity anymore than "the airwaves" or "the english language" are. It is hardly has some kind of unified voice. It is just a tool for people to sepak to each other with.

[Amelie]

I like Chener Books, but could wish its selection of crime fiction and fantasy was a bit more up to date. Murder One on the Charing Cross Road is my favourite book shop for this reason.

[HonaloochieB]

Right with you there Amelie, for crime not sc-fi. Great shop.