When I was younger we lived in Spalding in Lincolnshire. I already loved books and my parents had been selling them for a few years at nationwide trade shows alongside the soft toys they manufactured. When I was six my parents opened ‘Bookmark’, a small bookshop at 22 The Crescent.  Spending time in the new bookshop with unlimited access to even more books just made me more of a bookworm. The opportunity to lose myself in a book was always right at my fingertips with shelf upon shelf of magic, mystery and adventure just waiting to be discovered. I hated having to put a book down and was worried that something might happen whilst I was gone. What magic would happen up The Faraway Tree? What mystery would the Five Find-Outers solve and what would happen at Malory Towers without me? Of course nothing ever did, they all just waited patiently until I brought them to life again but this is why I love books, because of how they make you feel, the stories you become part of and the places they transport you to.

I made the most of the shop which I saw as my own personal treasure trove and library. I was allowed to read some of the books and I’d treat them so carefully, gently holding them and barely opening the pages so I could put them back on the shelves when I’d finished, then I’d choose another one and be whisked away on a different adventure.

I’m sure sometimes I was bored in the shop but if I wasn’t reading there were still other things to do. There were always plenty of large cardboard boxes to play in and with, and also a calculator that printed off what you typed into it creating a receipt. You could turn the printing off but it made a great noise and I loved tapping away on it producing endless streams of paper filled with meaningless numbers.

Elevenses always broke up the day and was something to look forward to, a cake and a drink whilst sat in the office at the back of the shop – by the Calor gas fire if it was cold. Sometimes I’d help with a bit of cleaning and hoover, dust a few shelves or tidy piles of books and if I was feeling really brave, I might even help to serve a customer. We had paper bags in the shop, the ones held together in the corner by string and I liked to help put the books into them.

The obvious added benefit of a family run bookshop was that I naturally got given books as gifts and started to build up my own little library. I’ve managed to keep a lot of these, some are on display and some are in boxes waiting for shelf space to be built or created. A lot of them have dated  inscriptions on the front page and I love opening them and seeing my grandma’s writing as she wishes me ‘Happy Birthday’ from her and my grandad so many years ago.

Bookmark’s success allowed it to grow and expand into the unit next door which meant even more books for me to discover as I got older. As I was growing up I never imagined that the bookshop wouldn’t ever be ours but due to ill health my Dad had to sell Bookmark. Fortunately this wasn’t the end of it though as Christine Hanson (who I remember from when I was little) bought the shop.  Under Christine’s ownership Bookmark continued to grow and in June 1998 moved a few doors down to 18-20 The Crescent where it remains today – an award winning independent bookshop and coffee house. Christine ran Bookmark for 25 years until earlier this year (2016) when it was sold to Jason Sutton.

My love of books stayed with me and even though now there are E-books, nothing can replace a printed book; the weight of it, the feel of it, and then there’s the smell. If you’re not a bibliophile like me then this will probably sound very strange but books both old and new have an amazing smell. There’s nothing quite like a bookshop either, beautiful covers and dust jackets, special editions, signed copies and crisp, fresh unread pages full of words about everything you could imagine, all waiting to be discovered, read and treasured.  I’m lucky that I have an amazing Waterstones near me (Deansgate, Manchester) and I plan to go there this week to treat myself to a book, or two, and maybe one of their literature themed bags…..

So that’s where it began, my lifelong love affair with books. Now I’ve finished this post I think I might go into the loft and get a few more of my books down!

Happy reading!

Sam

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