#NewmanMcr countdown: 27 days to go

With 27 days until Rob Newman's event with us and Bad Language, here's a (NSFW) clip of his 2003 tour From Caliban to the Taliban. While watching please join and share our Facebook event.

#NewmanMcr countdown: 28 days to go

What happens when Elizabethan adventurers discover coffee? You'll find out in The Trade Secret, which gets its spotlight on the stage in 28 days. Our countdown continues. Here's an informational film on coffee production. Crikes, this is just like the Open University...

#NewmanMcr countdown: 29 days to go

With 29 days until Robert Newman, Rosie Garland and Anneliese Mackintosh take to the stage at Gorilla, here's a theme from the book: rogue trading. In The Trade Secret, a character loses a stack of silver as a rogue trader... nearly 400 years before this chap did the same!

#NewmanMcr countdown: 30 days to go

It is 30 days until Robert Newman's Manchester show, so here is a taster of his stand-up routine History of Oil. The theme is reflected in his new book The Trade Secret.

Warning: contains adult and controversial themes from the start.

Rob Newman's Manchester book launch, 4 June 2013

Come along and meet author and comedian Robert Newman reading from and discussing his stunning new novel The Trade Secret (Cargo Publishing).

Supporting will be brilliant and entertaining writing talents Rosie Garland and Anneliese Mackintosh.

It all happens at Gorilla on Whitworth Street West on Tuesday June 4 at 7pm. Your £3 ticket will get you £3 off off Rob's new book on the night. Buy your Robert Newman ticket now!

Hosted by leading Manchester literary lovelies Blackwell's and Bad Language.

£29 Nook Simple Touch

While other places sell out of the £29 Nook Simple Touch, we have stock and we're ready to dispatch straight to your lovely doormat.

All you need to do is ring us on (UK) 0161 274 3331 and ask for one to be sent. We'll charge you over the phone, pop one in the post and a brilliant bargain eReader is all yours!

We have all the accessories like covers and charges too.

Limited offer, limited stock. Get one now, bookfluffies!

Digital cake joy: book sales are rising

Book sales are on the up according to new figures from the Publishers Association.

After a rocky 2011, total book sales increased by 4% whether in print or paper format. Here's how the figures break down:

- Total book sales, digital and physical now at £3.3bn;
- Total digital sales have risen 66% to £411m, which includes a 149% increase in fiction digital sales.
- Total physical sales of fiction books are up too, rising 3% to £502m.
- Non-fiction physical sales are down 1%, partly because more academic books are being sold digitally.

The figures come from the Publishers Association Statistics Yearbook 2012 which is, yes, available in any format you want.

As a digital-friendly bookshop which trades in books constructed from both paper and data, we find these figures exciting and challenging.

Exciting because many bookfluffies out there still embrace real books alongside their eReader.

And challenging because we need keep up with our customers' habits, which means our shop has changed and will continue to change.

We've recently expanded our physical book selection and we continue to sell lots of digital product. It seems that readers are having their digital cake* and eating it.

* Cake is only available in physical format. Do not go to a cake shop and ask for a digital cake.