Thinking of how I can trick romance authors into promoting their books with a one sentences description of what actually happens again. We gotta ease off the trope only vibes. WHAT HAPPENS!

Next year I’ll continue to avoid targets, challenges and anything that gamifies reading. Instead focusing on just enjoying reading. I hope to catch up on traditional gothic, non-western sci-fi and more crime fic I’ve also just ordered Castle of Ollada (1795) and Verne’s Castle of the Carpathians

Anyone else feel like we should be getting friends & family in to cheer us on and tell us we're almost there like they do lining marathon routes? Would it be weird? Should we have a training program to build up for this (15 laps around the shop carrying 20 paperbacks?) Do we need carbs or protein?

If the sale is proving anything it'sthat you can't have enough books. There are some amazing things half price so come and grab something before its all gone. Unless you can't do crowds...

Ok, since this has come up four times in the last three days: REPUTABLE LITERARY AGENTS WILL NOT CHARGE YOU MONEY. IF A LITERARY AGENT WANTS TO CHARGE YOU FOR AN "EXPEDITED ACCESS PACKAGE" THIS IS A SCAM.

Mostly got books for Christmas & I'm very happy about it. Lifeboat at the End of the World is a review copy that I'm currently reading. It's very good so look out for that in March (if it arrives Christmas week it's a present, yes?). Did you get any books you're particularly excited about yesterday?

Happy Christmas everyone.

And if you still have presents to get - books are really easy to wrap! And pretty good gifts for almost everyone

Solidarity with all the retail workers today - one last push and then its home for Christmas (before it all starts again for the sales) we can do this!

If you like a book? Review it. Ask your library to buy it. If you can afford it, buy a copy for a friend. Recommend it wherever you're social. Send the author an email, or a skeet, or a Ko-Fi. Write fanfic. Blow under the wings of the paper airplane so it can fly a little farther.

Before you all go home for breaks you really deserve - any publishers publicity folk seeing this - thank you for all the support over the year. I've had some gorgeous things come through in the last few days that have made it feel like Christmas in the good way. You're the best

Such a good cocktail book if anyone needs a last minute present www.instagram.com/p/DSmhLE4DJ1...

Who's ready for today?

And hey, looking for a last minute gift? We have so many amazing recommendations that we can tailor just for your needs

Gearing up for a day of explaining its unlikely to be available before Christmas now. Be kind to shop workers over the next couple of days (and always).

What a day. Now on the right side of a pizza and a large glass of red, settling down for chapter 2 of The Dark Is Rising, and a readalong of a Christmas themed Georgette Heyer short story (Snowdrift). Back at the coal face tomorrow.

December has come around fast! As promised, I'm going to try and post a daily advent thread of my top science fiction, fantasy, horror and spec fic books published in 2025 🤞 The bookshop gets a bit mad this month, but I'll try my best to keep up 🎄📚🪐 #SFF #Booksky

Vacation read: activated! Thanks @haileypiperfights.bsky.social 🥰

"Tonight will be bad, and tomorrow will be beyond imagining" I realise my copy of The Dark is Rising is in storage, so this year I might listen to it instead. Or maybe buy a new copy tomorrow & catch up. Easily 1 of my favourite Christmas books. Do you know it? www.waterstones.com/book/the-dar...

Some of the books seeing this bookseller through the Christmas season, some solid Christmas present suggestions in there too, especially for the food and drink fans

@penguinhuddleuk.bsky.social making a bookseller very happy today. To say she's passionate about Alchemised is an understatement so there coukd have been no nicer surprise in the post.

It's Jane Austen's birthday- we have all sorts of editions of her books from paperback to clothbound classic editions, and a ton of recommendations for great books to read around her, inspired by her, or that inspired her...

Probably the best thing about this December is Sandi Toksvig & the splendid publicity team @littlebrown.bsky.social sending us the big tin of M&S Belgian chocolate biscuits as a thank you. Extremely classy; we're now even bigger fans of both Sandi & Little Brown

Christmas shoppers have meant thst despite glimpsing lots of lovely dogs in the shop I haven't been able to say hello to them. Is this the worst thing about December 🧐

I’ve just bought my mum Sarah Crossan’s brilliant YA ‘Where the Heart Should Be’ for her Christmas. What other great kids / YA books should we be gifting to grown-ups who don’t generally read children’s books? #KidsBooksFriday #KidLitUK #UKKidLit #KidLit

It's the time of year when people are putting out lists of best books of the year. So why not tell an author you've loved their book this year? Because not being on those lists makes many authors sad. You can make them happy!

The moment we've all been waiting for has arrived... Get DOUBLE (TRIPLE WHEN YOU SPEND OVER £100!!!) PLUS STAMPS from now until midnight Monday 🤩 Not a Plus member? Sign up here for free: www.waterstones.com/plus

The Artist by Lucy Steeds wins Waterstones book of the year

Good morning and on this 'Blue Friday.' If you are able, please do buy your books from bricks and mortar bookshops or: Bookshop.org.uk They pay all their taxes and don't waste money on phallic space dreams. @thebookseller.com

Started this the other day and so far completely agree with this assessment. Can't wait to finish it.

"Dickensian"

Read this via @suw.bsky.social - I like @ghostgeek because although she is a pretty full-on skeptic she doesn't deny that there is some deeply weird stuff going on sometimes and never tries to hand wave it away 'It's just SCIENCE!'

😍 this book - a core memory from childhood, and do read Erin Kelly's The Skeleton Key. A twisty murder mystery inspired in part by the hunt for the golden hare

Day off, remaining under the blanket and demanding tea to go with my books...

Loved by booksellers and readers from day one, THE ARTIST by Lucy Steeds is our #BookOfTheYear 2025 & THE CAFE AT THE EDGE OF THE WOODS by Mikey Please is our Children's #BookOfTheYear! 🎉 & Gift of the Year is Tim Siadatan's PADELLA! 🎁 Find them here: www.waterstones.com/category/cul...

With this year's re-issue of Katharine Briggs's Dictionary of Fairies, Matthias Egeler's book on Elves and Fairies and my new history of Fairies coming in spring, it feels as though we are living through a moment of reawakening for fairy studies

With Christmas only a month away its been a struggle to get away from the till long enough to make proper friends with #DogsInBookshops but today I managed it...

Nottingham - home to fans of crime since the Twelfth Century. Come along and hear us discuss Victorian murders and modern-day misdeeds as we discuss Ambrose Parry and the forthcoming Quite Ugly One Evening at Waterstones on Thursday. www.waterstones.com/events/an-ev...

New on the blog today, my thoughts on LADY L. by Romain Gary. A delightful, picaresque novella of love, secrets & political ideals. Highly recommended for anyone who likes Maupassant, Louise de Vilmorin or THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE... #BookSky 💙📚 #FilmSky jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/11/23/l...

Opened this @thebookseller.com article earlier thinking it might be interesting (as a writer and a bookseller). When we were taking over @samreadbookseller.bsky.social I kept joking Louise Erdrich and Ann Patchett were my new role models as great writers who set up bookshops. #WriterBooksellers

Rather liked the quiet despair and frozen inner and outer landscapes of the film #WinterinSokcho, replicated the feel of the book very well #FilmSky

Having fun with Uneasy Elixirs for a post work cocktail. This is the Q.R.V. No. 222, and very good it is. There are mocktails in here too

I'll be attending!

Impossible how good reading is. You mean I just point my face at the paper for a bit and it does a whole update on my brain?

I'm not going back to Substack. I will continue to post my newsletters from Ghost. But I did have to get back in there, just to post this and let people who thought I'd vanished know about this utter nightmare: substack.com/home/post/p-...

Stir up Sunday today so up early(ish) before work to feed the cakes and puddings and catch up on a bit of reading. I'm really enjoying @valmcdermid.bsky.social Winter, she's capturing everything I love about the season.