Mr B
Nic Bottomley owns and manages Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights (www.mrbsemporium.com) which he opened with his wife Juliette in June 2006. Nic had no previous bookselling experience, which allows him to harbour the idealist notion that through its service, book selection and ambience Mr B’s can become everything that a proper bookshop should be (including successful) notwithstanding the competitive market. Mr B’s was named Independent Bookshop of the Year for the UK and Ireland in 2008 at the British Book Awards and Best Bath-based Retailer at the 2008 Bath Life Awards. In his previous life Nic was a solicitor specialising in derivatives and other mind-numbing fi nancial transactions in the London and Prague offi ces of a magic circle law firm – a life he gleefully left behind in order to create Mr B’s.
Introduction by Mr B
It seems somehow odd for a bookseller to write an introduction to an anthology of new writing. As a reader I can appreciate new writing, and as a bookseller perhaps I can spot writing that will sell; but I can’t write. And yet my words have to precede this showcase of new talent. It’s like a cow giving the introduction to a veterinary school graduation ceremony. Sort of. You see. I can’t even do metaphors.
I can look at new writing from beneath two hats.
With my reader’s hat on, for me the best new writing is refreshing and exciting. Reading a “classic” or a book you haven’t got round to reading by a personal favourite author is wonderful and guarantees you enjoyment, but it’s also comfortable and safe. Reading something by a new writer is more challenging, more surprising and, when it’s good, more rewarding because you feel like you have unearthed a gem.
I consider the experience of the two book groups we run at Mr B’s. The books chosen by the groups over the last two years tend towards twentieth century literary
fiction but we’ve tried a good smattering of quality new writing too. What’s noticeable is that the new writing often provokes the best book group discussions.
The tendency of a good new writer to experiment with style, the freshness of their voice and, above all, the personal experience and emotional investment that goes into a fi rst published work inevitably creates a strong reaction in the reader. Sometimes the reactions are polarised - Ben Dolnick’s debut novel “Zoology” was detested by some of the Mr B’s book groupers, admired by others. But sometimes the book groupers are more united in their admiration of a new novel than they are when reading a modern classic - Tahmima Anam’s excellent “A Golden Age” is a case in point - and the readers are more excited at the same time, because they feel they’ve made a discovery and are proud to be supporting and “in the know” about a new author of genuine quality.
To an avid reader, new writing is like a high-risk stock. You invest valuable reading hours in something that has no track record and if it’s bad then you lose everything - time that could have been spent on Steinbeck or Murakami has gone forever. But if it’s good then as well as savouring the words, there’s a bonus dividend in the form of the buzz of a great new fi nd.
Are my metaphor’s improving? Maybe. At least there was no cow in it.
And now to switch to my bookselling hat. I have a theory that there are 5 elements to thriving as an independent bookseller. Most briefl y described they are impeccable service, a dynamic and enjoyable shopping environment, constant innovation, strong community links and – and here’s the important one for the time being - a varied, diff erent and exciting stock.
So when I read a new novel, or poetry collection or short story collection that’s brilliant and perhaps not yet widely known I’m excited not only as a reader but also as a bookseller, because my fifth key to a thriving business has just been given a boost. Th e book is of both personal and commercial value to me.