Author! Author! @UoMSALC bring #salcbooks to Blackwell's

Academics from the University of Manchester will launch not just one but nearly two dozen books tonight in Blackwell's.

The School of Arts, Languages and Cultures (SALC) have many publications to their name. The latest releases will be celebrated in the bookshop from 5.30pm. Book topics range from Indian philosophy to gay identity, from The Bayeux Tapestry to the communities of the Iron Age.

We've hosted our SALC chums many times before, and we're delighted to have them again. We may even ply them with wine...

Search for #salcbooks on Twitter for more information.

Please can all publishers do books like this? Thanks...

Complicated title.

Cute cover.

Maybe Oxford University Press could republish Jane Austin's Persuasion as 'A Narrative Of Emotional Constancy And Naval Nooky'. And then put a kitten on the cover.

Books and beyond: feel a bit spoiled for choice?

We have so many amazing works by authors and academics across the millions of pages that comprise our bookshop, it's easy to forget how much more we do.

Walking across the shop floor just now, we made a mental list of our new non-book product ranges...

- Lovely leather satchels
- Really retro gifts (harmonicas, yoyos and plenty more)
- Stacks of art supplies
- Board games including Manchester Monopoly (our road is blue)
- Monster gadget holders
- Pencil cases and pencil cases and pencil cases
- Nooks - either pronunciation is correct
- Fully wub-proof headphones! (Skrillex made us write that one.)
- Brand new bike accessories
- Actual charts of actual super powers. Special discount given if you are Iron Man.
- Boozy maps including the Manchester pub crawl
- Vintage knick-knack tins
- Boom Balls! (Yes, that's a real thing.)
- Gaga Mars? Amen! (that's an anagram of 'anagram games')
- Giant Microbe soft toys!
- Free balloons (sorry, too late, we've just given those away)

All new booky goodness in Blackwell's

Expect a bit of reorganisation over the next few days in Blackwell's Manchester.

Our travel department will move to our first floor (although you'll still be able to buy your A-Zs at our downstairs till as usual) and we're going to order in lashings more of the following:

- graphic novels.

- science fiction.

- children's books.

You'll notice a few sections move on the first floor (including sociology, film & media, education and engineering), so do bear with us while we shift things around. If you see a book flying towards you, duck.

And once we're done (we'll let you know), come and ogle our newly-reorganised, better-stocked booky goodness!

Top five Reader! Read Faster! blog posts

What have you been reading most, recently?

1 The Almost Lizard book launch (it's happened now... we all had a good time). Mentions cats.

2 Blackwell's Manchester bookseller shortlisted for Bookseller Industry Award. Results in a month's time!

3 The MEN Newsdesk raises a glass to Pub Stops of Manchester. Like the tube, only pint-shaped.

4 Googly Eye Books.  Worth a look. Geddit? Oh never mind.

5 New name for books? Robot & Frank gives us food for thought.

With preparations underway for the launch of 2013's inevitable bestseller...

...it already seems the Dan Brown Inferno book cover is looking upon us ominously.

Sales joy in Manchester for Suzanne Collins, @jasperfforde & @nook_uk

Our top sellers for March have been announced.

The third volume of the Hunger Games kept Gone Girl off our fiction top spot in March - one of two Suzanne Collins books in our top five. Gone Girl is a huge new success for 2013 and was expected to be our bestseller.

Jasper Fforde and Jackie Kay topped our sales of coursebooks, while our lovely Nook tablets continue to be a hit with customers.

As with every month, we have awarded sales awards for titles that did particularly well. Click through to our Bestsellers page for more.

Tetris lights... TETRIS LIGHTS!

Tetris lights!

If you take off a tetromino, its light turns off. When you put a tetromino back on, it lights up. And you can have them in any combination! Tetris lights! TETRIS LIGHTS!

This is one of the many really smashing gift items on sale at Blackwell's Manchester, although we might still be too excited to sell one to you. Tetris lights! ACTUAL TETRIS LIGHTS! Eeeeee!

A dollop of contronyms

Here are some words for you to puzzle over: a whole load of words that are their own opposites.

Mental Floss: 14 Words That Are Their Own Opposites

Daily Writing Tips: 75 Contronyms (Words with Contradictory Meanings)

It brings to mind the Albert Camus short story, L'Hôte. Its title has two contradictory meanings that reflect the nature of the characters in the story.

Contranyms are literally awe-ful but not awfully literal.

The @MENnewsdesk raises a glass to Pub Stops of Manchester

Aaaah, drinking. That essential brain lubricant behind many a degree.

The Manchester Evening News today features the spectacular Pub Stops of Manchester map. It's a Tube-style diagram of 550 local watering holes. Its creator, teacher John Coats, says “I would imagine that it will be up quite a few student walls.”

True, but the problem is whether they'll be put up straight after 550 pints. (That was a joke, not a challenge.)

It's one of our bestselling items here at Blackwell's. Come and find them dotted around the shop, preferably when sober.