New to the Darwin Room

At the end of last year, we carried out a big move of our rare books room in order to expand the books available to browse and to create a more open and welcoming space, giving the books the respect and care they deserve.

Then, we were overrun by shop renovation efforts, shop closures and more crazy happenings that meant our Darwin room was left on the back burner as our team were kept very busy elsewhere.

So, over the last couple of weeks, we have been making time to sort through some of the waiting stock that has been piling up, and we’ve found over 300 beautiful antiquarian books to add to our shelves.

We thought we’d highlight a few of these here, not only to encourage you to visit, but also to allow those of you who are unable to pay us a visit a chance to enjoy the Darwin room experience.

So find a comfy spot – we recommend an armchair by a window, or a perch in the garden – and grab yourselves a nice cup of tea, while we guide you through our Darwin shelves.

Reuse | Read | Recycle

At its core, Bookbarn is all about recycling and using resources sustainably. Our cafe advocates eating green and works with local vendors to create their brilliant menu of food, our books live multiple lives; whether they came to us new or secondhand, they often find their way back and make the journey through our warehouse over and over, thanks to our donations and recycling service. We think the cycle doesn’t ever have to end – there’s always a new place for a book after each individual has finished with it, and if it really is on its very last legs, we’ll send it off with our specialist recycling service, to become something altogether new and exciting.

A Little Update

Dear lovely customers and followers,

We hope you’re well and staying safe. If you’re at home – we hope you’ve not gone too stir crazy, and if you’re at work – much the same.

We’re missing the buzz of our lovely cafe and the inquisitive book lovers who pile through our doors one after another, but we know that we’ll get back to all that as soon as we can.

Donate Your Old Books to Raise Money for Charity!

We’re very, very excited to finally announce our partnership with SWALLOW Charity!

With our new fundraising initiative, customers will be able to donate their books to us with the intention of raising funds for the brilliant work that SWALLOW do.

SWALLOW is a user-led charity who’s support for teenagers and adults with learning difficulties and disabilities is vital to the community. Find out more about what they do here:

This is the perfect opportunity not only to declutter but also to help SWALLOW at a time when fundraising is most difficult, as a portion of every sale from the donated books will go to SWALLOW.

This is a partnership that has begun during lockdown but we hope will go far into the future.

Simply box up your unwanted books and mark the box with ‘SWALLOW’ on the outside. When the lockdown allows, drop your boxes to us and we’ll take it from there. It’s as simple as that!

This partnership is, we hope, the first of many. We’re on the lookout for local charities that would benefit from this initiative – so please do bring forward any and all suggestions for who we can work with.

Get in touch with us at bookbarn@bookbarninternational.com.

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Why You Should Read Children’s Books No Matter Your Age

-by Emma Bilsborough

We’ve been running a brilliant 3 for 2 offer on all Children’s books on our website, which ends today (so if you haven’t taken advantage already, make sure you do!), and it’s got us thinking about the importance of Children’s literature.

Finding a love of reading at a young age can truly change the direction of your life. To quote everyone’s favourite bookseller, Kathleen Kelly, “When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your life does“.

Delicious Fresh Food Takeaway at The Full Stop Cafe

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”

From Monday 16th of March we will be offering a special takeaway menu made up of many of our customers’ favourites and filled with nutritional, immune system-boosting ingredients.

We want to make sure that we do what we can to help keep our customers healthy and happy. 

Keep an eye on our social media, where we will be sharing the menu and information on our ingredients every day.

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

If you’d like to place an order, simply send us a message or give us a call on 01761 451333 and our team will get it prepared, ready for collection. 

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A Remarkable Renovation and Other Updates

It’s been a while since we shared something with you here, and we’ve got plenty to tell you about, so buckle up!

What We’re Reading This Month

Each new year begins for many of us book lovers with the same promise – I will read more books this year. Then real life, dull, irritating, real life gets in the way, and we put the books aside for housework and homework, and end up not quite keeping the promise.

Nonetheless, we try our very best, and hope each year that this will be the one in which we achieve the goal. We write up reading lists, we venture into new genres, we google book clubs and bookshops and bookmark those ‘100 books to read before you die’ lists.

The Bookbarn Last Minute Gift Guide!

-by Emma Bilsborough

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We’ve all done it, reached the weekend before Christmas and realised that despite our very best efforts, we’ve forgotten someone. A gift for a distant uncle or a secret Santa present, a top-up gift for your mum or something small for your grandchildren; last minute gift shopping is as much a part of Christmas as The Pogues’ Fairytale of New York.

We thought we’d help you out and put together a little guide of last minute gifts that you can pop in to store and grab from us this weekend. We’ve even got cards and wrapping paper, if you’re on your way to see family and need it all wrapped up and ready.

And just for your information, our opening hours up until Christmas are as follows:

Saturday 21st: 9am – 5pm

Sunday 22nd: 11am – 5pm

Monday 23rd: 9am – 5pm

Tuesday 24th (Christmas Eve): CLOSED

Wednesday 25th (Christmas Day): CLOSED

The Voyage of the Darwin Room

See what we did there? This voyage may not have lasted five years like the Beagle, but it certainly felt like it.

If you paid us a visit last week, you may have found us all in a bit of a dither. We were making a very big and exciting change to our shop, which ended up being quite the job. We decided a while ago that we wanted to expand our Darwin room and make it a more important feature of our shop, and plans were set in motion to take the leap.