Saturday was the day of the Books Are My Bag bookshop parties. I got myself down to Dulwich books with my book token and promise I would only buy one book. Needless to say I left two hours later with more than that.

Dulwich Books is a lovely little bookshop in West Dulwich. The shop is bright, well set out and inviting. There are lots of featured books scattered about the tops of the bookcases with recommendations poking out of them. I love a bookshop with loads of recommendations, it’s so easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of books in a shop if you have no idea what you really want other than a good book. Some of the best books I’ve read have been ones I’ve picked up randomly in bookshops.

It’s for this reason that I particularly enjoy the bookcase near the door that has a shelf for each of the booksellers to display their favourites. One of my own purchases for the day came from this very bookcase. It’s the personal touch that makes Dulwich Books so great.

My friend Chloe works there. She has hair like a rainbow and could sell a book to anyone. As you can see from the photo below we had great fun being the inverse of each other. You should definitely pay her a visit and all the other booksellers that work there. Every time I’ve popped in they’ve all been super friendly and welcoming.

I’d asked Chloe to keep me Sali Hughes book Pretty Honest  behind the counter. As I arrived I bought it and vowed that was it but knowing two more of my friends were going to turn up at some point and that cake and prosecco was going to be served at 2 and ended up staying  2 hours which was plenty of time for Chloe to work her bookselling magic on me and when that didn’t work, ply me with wine. I ended up buying The Selected Works of T.S.Spivetand Land Girls by Joan Mant. Part of Dulwich Books party was that anyone who made a purchase was given a Tracey Emin BAMB bag containing a random selection of books. I think I did pretty well. My random selection includedSuccession, Em and The Big Hoom, Letters From The Front and 2015 Movie Guide. I’m most excited about Letters From The Front which is a collection of letters from the first world war up until the present day.

I also picked up my copy of Sarah Waters new book The Paying Guest. She recently visited Dulwich Books to do a signing but I was unable to attend. Thankfully they ran a competition on their twitter and some how I won! (Chloe had nothing to do with it I swear!) It’s been signed and I’m very excited to read it.

I’ll be going back to Dulwich Books at the end of the month to see Chris O’Dowd & Nick V Murphy in an event they’re having for the new Moone Boy book so in the mean time I also picked up a free sample chapter. Dulwich Books always seem to be having events with authors so it’s definitely worth checking out their website.

(Cross-posted from Wordpress 13th October 2014)