The Bedside Crow

A few of those groovy new books I was telling you about.

2012-01-26T18:15:06+00:00

I once had dinner with Angela Carter after a signing session for Wise Children. When I first started collecting her books in the early 80s most of them were out of print.

The Buddha in the Attic. Groovy, see.

Our friend Evie Wyld recommended Jon McGregor's new book. She was dressed as a vicar at the time so she must have been speaking the truth. She was.

I read the last part of Care of Wooden Floors through my fingers. You will too. It's very funny and It's going to be a smash.

I am absolutely positive that there is a good reason I ordered the Orphan Master's Son. Perhaps it will come to me later.

If there is an A in the month then there must be a new (to us at least) Bolano.

Ben Lerner. Jonathan Franzen likes him. And John Ashbery. And Paul Auster.

The Flame Alphabet. Ben Marcus. Michael Chabon, Tom McCarthy and Jonathan Safran Foer like him. His stories, The Age of Wire and String are brilliant.

Quirky too.

2012-01-25T18:57:59+00:00

A customer bought this in earlier. It's taken from the New Year edition of Nat West Sense magazine (no me neither, but I'm not complaining). We are listed as one of five of the best things in south London and Surrey.

It's the LOVE issue apparently.

You bet it is.

Girl says

2012-01-22T16:51:02+00:00

I realise that this is probably a really stupid question, but I'm looking for a cover for my kindle, you don't stock them do you?

I tell her not, but admit that I have considered stocking the Moleskine version, only hesitating because they are so expensive.

She shrugs. Anyway, she says, when I'm in here I just want to buy all the books anyway.

I hope you don't mind me asking this rather odd question.

2012-01-19T13:07:52+00:00

My customer leans towards me and looks me in the eye, But your name isn't Gareth is it?

Um, no, I say.

Are you sure? He asks. Not Gareth Crow?

Not even a Crow, I say. Crow is my partner's name, I add.

Not a common name, Crow, he says. Are you sure you don't know a Gareth Crow?

I'm sure, I say.

Not your brother then? he says.

No, I say.

I'll tell you for why I'm asking then, he says, standing tall and zipping up his coat. I was with my girlfriend the other day, and she had five missed calls on her phone, and they were all from Gareth Crow.

Really, I say somewhat needlessly.

Gareth. Crow, he says narrowing his eyes. Five missed calls.

The Believer magazine issue eighty-six.

2012-01-15T12:40:17+00:00

Brilliant cover for the latest edition of The Believer containing an article on A History of Literature Created by Erasure, Collage, Omission, and White Out rightly beginning in 1966 with Tom Philips' Humument in which the artist makes art from a Victorian novel bought on Peckham Rye.

We have a copy of the limited edition 1998 hardback for sale, still sealed and never opened, including a hand-coloured signed print. A snip at £125.00

So anyway, here's a picture of an Iguanodon drying his nails.

2012-01-14T10:11:44+00:00

One of a small set of postcards of the Crystal Palace dinosaurs dating from a time before they were restored.

Tired of London, Tired of Life - Tom Jones

2012-01-13T12:16:52+00:00

Customer says: The perfect book to give to all of my friends who are talking about (adopts whiny voice) leaving London. Go on then, fuck off to Somerset, or wherever, I'm going to spend a nice day in my beautiful town.

Damn straight, say we.

April 15th: Meet the Crystal Palace Sphinxes.

April 29th: Walk in Sydenham Hill Wood.

[Next to it, The Ladybird Book of London 50th anniversary reissue.]

Rubbish bookmark.

2012-01-09T10:43:55+00:00

Swing label from a piece of Fat Face clothing. Just think, somebody shared a Christmas dinner table with the twat responsible for this. I hope they ate too much pudding and ended up sitting on the toilet for most of the night. It's the least we could wish for.

Bonus points to anyone who can identify the book that I am reading.

What planet are you on Mr Sammler?

2012-01-06T11:59:56+00:00

Ah, the one where Penguin UK think it's perfectly acceptable to charge £15.99 for a 260 page paperback.

*Allen Lane spins*

[The US Penguin edition is $16.99]

It made me wonder how the guy interviewed for the job.

2012-01-05T11:31:47+00:00

I was travelling back down the hill from an early swim behind a shiny black van that had the words FT and Financial Times written on the side of it. At the bottom of the hill we stopped to turn right at a set of traffic lights and the driver of the van wound down his window, leaned out, and spat on the road.

- You do realise Mr Soandso, that this job will involve a lot of driving around the nether reaches of South London, flying the flag, as it were, for the FT. How would you feel about that?

- I'd feel fine, he replies and begins to excercise his tongue.