This evening in Grasmere! 7pm! #IndieBookshopWeek

It's June and #IndieBookshopWeek is fast approaching. Join us in Grasmere Village Hall on Wednesday June 17th to hear us talk with Katie Clapham about her bookselling life, and owning a small indie, through her shiny new book 'Receipts from the Bookshop'. Tickets here!

Happy publication week to these excellent books...

Blue sky and fluffy white clouds chasing across the sky above the bookshop. Bicycles on the Fred Whitton chasing along the roads (not in picture).

A week today! Join us for the online launch of @beewyld.bsky.social's new book #TheApothecaryByTheSea - a year in an Orkney Garden - pictured here during a glorious #Grasmere #GoldenHour. Vik will be interviewed by our own co-captain @pollyrowena.bsky.social - April 28th, 7.30pm BST. 
Link in bio.

A YEAR IN AN ORKNEY GARDEN? Yes please! I just pre-ordered THE APOTHECARY BY THE SEA by Victoria Bennett. Looking forward to the (virtual) book launch @samreadbookseller.bsky.social on April 28. Vik will be in conversation with the wonderful @pollyrowena.bsky.social 🥰 #naturewriting #booksky

Fabulous haul from the glorious @samreadbookseller.bsky.social in Grasmere.

Be like Katie Holten! Come along to the online launch for #TheApothecaryByTheSea, Tuesday April 28th, 7.30pm BST. Ticket info here: #BookSky #NatureWriting #Orkney #Gardening

A spell of Good Friday without sideways rain, as a wealth of good reading heads out the bookshop door.

Spring equinox aurora in Grasmere

Weekend bookshop sunshine in Grasmere and new books flooding onto the bookshelves.

Fresh bursts of blue sky and weekend sunshine across the bookshop window.

Friday afternoon bookshop, sunshine!

However you feel about Valentine’s day we are aflame with books to fall in love with/by, and will always help you find "the one". As the sun lit the snow on the tops pink at shop closing this afternoon, we put together this little stack of #RecommendedReads on love and loving. #BookSky #Valentines

A dusting of snow on the fells beyond the bookshop hustle and bustle.

Celebrating paperback publication day for @mwcraven.bsky.social's #TheFinalVow with a visit and signing. Catch your signed Final Vows and selected backlist on the shelves whilst you can! #ChooseBookshops #IndieBookshops #CumbriaCulture #CumbriaCrime #BookSky

An eclectic longlist for the 2026 Women's Prize for non-fiction! @womensprize.bsky.social Take a look at the titles here... www.samreadbooks.co.uk/shop/women-s...

A top (withens) amount of Emily Brontë's #WutheringHeights selling from the bookshelves at present. Moody, passionate, and that's just the booksellers...

Always great to see so many browsers out and about in Grasmere this time of the year.

New paperback fiction on the bookshop table right now...

On the Tenth Day of Christmas, Grasmere is bathed in sunshine from dry stone wall to jackdaw wing.

A last glimpse of light in the Grasmere sky for 2025. Wishing you all a happy new year and we'll see you back in the bookshop on Friday 2nd January 2026 (doors open at 10am!)

Our 20 top selling books at Sam Read's for 2025 look like this! Top 5 were: 1. Rory Stewart, Middleland 2. Polly Atkin, The Company of Owls HB 3. Esther Rutter, All Before Me 4. David Nicholls, You Are Here 5. Stephen G Rae, Folklore of the Lake District

Morning sunshine in Grasmere on the third day of Christmas. Here for all your bookish wants and needs until 5pm.

Swathed in sunshine in Grasmere on a calm and clear Christmas Eve

⭐🎄We're open on Christmas Eve until 5pm. From 4pm you can join in the carols on Moss Parrock and drift in for your last minute presents. After that, we'll be back open again on Saturday 27th December at 10am!🎄⭐

Much needed sunshine on the bookshop corner on these short winter days.

The bookshop's lighted windows and the bustle of Christmas book buying

The extraordinary sight of sun on bookshop!

Your bookshop-adjacent Grasmere heron content for today. Some ducks seemed to take a dim view of this.

Last year’s standout from my @samreadbookseller.bsky.social haul was @herdyshepherd.bsky.social #ThePlaceOfTides. This year’s is #TheCompanyOfOwls. We all DO need lights to follow. Thank you @pollyrowena.bsky.social

I made a booklist on @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social about some lovely people I've met (many through my job at @samreadbookseller.bsky.social ) and their beautiful books.

We don't condone favouritism, but if there was a more exciting bookshop encounter than @witchmountain.bsky.social had today when Bert the tawny owl and his domesticated humans came into the shop for their winter visit, pray do tell. We wonder what the tawny owls who live across the street thought?

Perfect day in Lakes yesterday. Shopping at Hawkshead Xmas market. Food at Chester’s by the River, then booking at @samreadbookseller.bsky.social

In our algorithm-hammered world, what a delight to step into a proper, independent bookshop with a niche request ("Have you got a pictorial guide to cow breeds, simple as a Dorling Kindersley book, but for adults?") and get an unfazed, helpful and successful response. @samreadbookseller.bsky.social

Squeezing out some of the last, and best, of the late autumn sunshine in Grasmere.

Congratulations to the 2025 Nero Fiction Award shortlistees!

Like a living anecdote from #Middleland about Cumbrian small business we've been extra busy spinning many plates, so it's taken us longer than planned, but the captioned video of our fantastic event with @rory-stewart.bsky.social and @herdyshepherd.bsky.social is now here to watch.

Grasmere today on student field trip - dwelling perpectives & 'taskscapes' - & managed to disappear for 10 to buy Ghosts of the Farm @nicolawriting.bsky.social from @samreadbookseller.bsky.social - winding back towards M6 & the weekend...

Happy birthday and welcome to the bookselling world!

Fleeting glimpses of sun on the fells in late autumn light and discoveries aplenty being made amongst the bookshelves.

Lordy, it's November, people. This means only another 8 weeks before the days begin to lengthen. C'mon, we can do it!

Autumn weekend sunshine on the bookshop

Very brief appearance of a double rainbow over the shop and the half-term crowds this afternoon. #MyHeartLeapsUp

About last night … a little snippet of the brilliant discussion between @herdyshepherd.bsky.social and @rory-stewart.bsky.social we hosted last night at Kendal leisure centre. Thanks to everyone who came along and everyone who made this possible!

GORGEOUS scene, I love the Sam Read Booksellers, they are a total JOY to visit in Cumbria x #SupportLocalBookShops

Morning sunshine on the bookshop corner.

Today marks 2 years since @likewinterblue.bsky.social and @pollyrowena.bsky.social took the helm of the shop. What a busy 2 years it's been! We're celebrating with our biggest event by a very long way next week, only possible because of our brilliant bookselling team and so much community support.

Very reassuring, in these harrowing times, to have a stack of books from @samreadbookseller.bsky.social to come home to. Worth every square inch of space they occupied in my suitcase. A much anticipated part of every UK visit.