EVERYTHING WAS ACTUALLY FINE

Blackwell's played host to the launch of Socrates Adams' debut novel on Friday.

Crispin Best, Chris Killen and Joe Stretch read from their latest work before Socrates took to the stage, while host and Blackwell's deputy manager Ian Carrington tried his best to embarrass them all by reading their recent tweets.

Thanks to everyone who came down, listened so attentively, bought a book, or got one signed - and a special thanks to everyone who contributed to the 200 empty bottles of beer as seen in the picture below. You can also see our youngest attendee paying absolutely no attention to Socrates reading from Everything's Fine.

More events like this are planned for the future. Watch READER! READ FASTER! for more.

AND OUR BEST SELLER LAST WEEK WAS...

…oh.

This was meant to be a blog post about how Socrates Adams' Everything's Fine was our best selling book of this week.

But as our picture suggests, it seems there are more law students wanting to pass exams than there are fans of modern fiction.

Oh. Ah well. You're still coming to the Everything's Fine launch on Friday, aren't you?

BOOKS THAT RUB OFF ON YOUR SKIN

You may want to avert your eyes when you enter our bookshop.

We have a 'dirty books' display. Here is a photo which was recently featured on the blog of Bookkake books.

With a blog dedicated to literature, publishing, and the occasional filthy story, Bookkake are a print-on-demand publisher dedicated to transgressive literature.

Filth. Lovely, literature-filled filth!

Incidentally, several of our booksellers produced an anthology last year. Quickies: Short Stories For Adults is a collection of comtemporary smutty fiction.

It is available in our shop and from the editors' website. And here is one of the stories by a Blackweller: The Yarning Of Good Whum.

SOCRATES ADAMS: EVERYTHING'S FINE BOOK LAUNCH

Everything's Fine, the debut novel from Socrates Adams, will get its official launch at Blackwell's on January 27th.

Socrates was a key part of Manchester's influential literature night No Point In Not Being Friends. He blogs at Chicken & Pies and last year blew our socks off with a story called Wide And Deep on Metazen.

Nightjar Press's Nicholas Royle describes him as a writer who hits "notes of absurdity and tenderness at the same time". Everything's Fine is a remarkable read and is the second title from the publishing house Transmission Print.

The launch will start at 6.30pm at Blackwell's on Oxford Road on Friday, January 27th. There will be a reading or three, there will be booze and there will be plenty of copies of the book for you to buy and get signed / framed.

If you can't wait until the official launch, Socrates is headlining Bad Language at the Castle Hotel at 7.30pm on Wednesday January 25th. We can't recommend that night enough, although if you don't come to our event too, our heavies will have you breathing through a tube.

("Tube". That's relevant. If you want to know why, you'll have to buy the book.)

WHAT DOES AN ACADEMIC BOOKSHOP SELL AT CHRISTMAS?

The turkey's mouldy and Santa's bloated corpse is buried with the Christmas tree under the patio. And yet, we all remember Christmas 2011 with fond memories, don’t we? No?

Apparently, retail had a stonking Christmas rush, so it’s time for us to take stock of our seasonal sales. How did we do? What did we sell? Here are our genuine best-sellers from the beginning of December until Christmas eve 2011.

This is what people buy in an academic bookshop for Christmas presents. It looks like there was no shortage of Chrimbo spirit…

1. Blackstone's Statutes on Property Law 

Blackstone's have a reputation for accuracy, reliability, and authority, just like Santa on his Christmas run. This shows you what to do when you have a fat man dressed in red & white on your property.

2. Blackstone's EU Treaties and Legislation 

Do Europeans know it's Christmas time? Find out in this fascinating stocking filler. Ideal for your racist granddad.

3. Law Express: Contract Law 

A revision guide which will come in useful when you get to the end of January and realise you can't pay your mortgage.

4. Pezzino's Business Economics 

You know that bit before when I said retailers did well over Christmas? We're still going to be living in the gutters and eating gruel in the long term. This book explains how.

5. Financial Statement Analysis 

You spend HOW MUCH on socks for Uncle Keith?! / This says you spend £400 at Jigsaw and you told me you were only going for a coffee in the Triangle shopping centre. / Those premium calls on the phone bill - that's not a Lapland number, is it? / etc etc

BLOGGER, BLOG SLOWER

We are mid-40s William Faulkner or post-Mocking Bird Lee. It has been such a long time since we published anything, we've forgotten what words look like.

Truth be told, it got very busy in the bookshop. Combined with a web browser that needs to be wound up then run in front of with a red flag, we've simply got on with selling books rather than updating READER! READ FASTER!

As the bard said, "Reputation for blogging, reputation for blogging, reputation for blogging! O, I have lost my reputation for blogging!"

Normal service will be resumed in two shakes of a fop's quill.

SCIENCE SATURDAY STARTS THIS WEEKEND

We're delighted to be hosting a number of Oxford University Press authors for Manchester Science Festival.

The events take place over the next two Saturdays and they are free: no booking is required. Just turn up. We did this last year and it turned out to be interesting, beguiling and thoroughly relaxing. We'll have sofas for the early birds. Oh and free wine and nibbles.

Here's what's happing on the first Saturday...

Science Saturday 1: October 22nd. 11am – noon
The Private Life Of Atoms

Peter Atkins, author of Reactions, explains the processes involved in chemical reactions by introducing a 'tool kit' of basic reactions, such as precipitation, corrosion, and catalysis, and shows how these building blocks are brought together in more complex processes such as photosynthesis.

Science Saturday 1: October 22nd. 2pm – 3pm
A History In 40 Moments

Utterly beautiful. Profoundly disconcerting. Quantum theory is quite simply the most successful account of the physical universe ever devised. The pursuit of its implications has been the driving motivation of physicists for 100 years. Jim Baggott traces the story, the personalities and the rivalries, through 40 turning-point moments.

Science Saturday 1: October 22nd. 3.30pm – 4.30pm
Quantum Field Theory And The Hunt For An Ordinary Universe

Forty or so years ago, three physicists - Peter Higgs, Gerard 't Hooft, and James Bjorken - made the spectacular breakthroughs that led to the world's largest experiment, the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Played out against a backdrop of high politics, low behaviour, and billion dollar budgets, Frank Close tells the story of their work and its implications!

Here's what's happing on the second Saturday...

Science Saturday 2: October 29th. 11am – noon

Essays From The Cutting Edge

From 19 talented young scientists comes an exciting volume of essays about the future of science, including cutting edge research across a wide range of fields. William McEwan will report on his contribution, DNA synthesis and the creation of molecular tools.

Science Saturday 2: October 29th. 2pm – 3pm

Relativity For All

Andrew Steane will give a lively and visual introduction to Einstein's theory of relativity. He brings to life the excitement of this fascinating subject for a general audience.



Science Saturday 2: October 29th. 3.30pm – 4.30pm
Mathematics, Magic And Playing The Guitar

Pure mathematical gold! David Acheson, author of 1089 And All That, makes mathematics accessible to everyone. This entertaining journey through the subject includes some fascinating puzzles and is accompanied by numerous illustrations and sketches by world famous cartoonists.