NZ Bookshop Day to be held on Saturday, 29 October

NZ Bookshop Day to be held on Saturday, 29 October
Quirky events, author readings, competition and fun times for bookshop lovers

This year’s NZ Bookshop Day – Your Place, Your Bookshop to be held on Saturday, 29 Octoberpromises to be a cracker of a day for all Kiwis who enjoy their local bookshops.
Celebrating the vibrancy and uniqueness, and the vital role they play in our communities, 170 bookshops from Whangarei to Invercargill will hold special – and quirky – events, author readings, competitions and draws, as well as delightfully fun times for readers and booklovers of all ages and stages.

Booksellers NZ’s chief executive Lincoln Gould says,” Our inaugural NZ Bookshop Day last year was an enormous success for one particular reason. It really did explode the myth that the bricks and mortar bookstores in communities up and down New Zealand would soon be as extinct as the moa.

“Those naysayers were absolutely wrong. Throughout the country, book lovers flocked to their local stores to engage in readings, games and to enjoy the sheer celebration of reading for pleasure. The efforts by bookshops and publishers to showcase books of all genres, helped often by authors and celebrities and, in one case, a horse attracted many more readers than even we had anticipated.

“We’re thrilled that so many bookshops are working hard to engage with their communities to make it a blockbuster NZ Bookshop Day 2016.”

A number of NZ Bookshop Day events are already confirmed, with many more in the pipeline.

The Women’s Bookshop in Auckland’s Ponsonby is to hold a unique event to tie in with Marilyn Jessen’s new book Her Space that steps into the creative spaces used by more than 50 of New Zealand’s artistic women. “This year for NZ Bookshop Day we’re featuring women making stuff,” says owner Carole Beu, “During the day, our shop window will feature women taking their turn doing their creative thing. There’ll be a woman making perfume, writing, embroidering and much more. We hope having real people in our window will inspire passers-by to take up a crafty interest and to revel in the creativeness of making things.”

There’s a doggy theme at Wanaka’s PaperPlus this year. Chris Lumsden, the shop’s manager says that it all started as one of his staff is involved in a Reading to Dogs programme. ”It’s part of a remedial reading scheme that by encouraging kids to read aloud, it helps improve their reading fluency. Dogs don’t judge of course, so it really helps young readers not only become better readers but also more confident. So we’ll have a dog in our shop for any child to read to on NZ Bookshop Day. Kids can bring in their favourite book to read to the dog, or we’ll supply what we think the dog may like. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Christchurch’s Scorpio Books has a number of events in the pipeline for its Riccarton shop, and also its new shop in Hereford Street. They’ll be live streaming interviews in the Riccarton shop with local authors talking of their very favourite books, and in the evening Joe Bennett is to host a literary quiz. Scorpio’s town shop will run a book illustration workshop with a local children’s book illustrator.

Wellington’s Millwood Gallery is looking forward to NZ Bookshop Day. Owner Murray Pillar says, “Millwood Gallery’s 35th birthday neatly coincides with NZ Bookshop Day, so we are celebrating doubly. We’ve put together a programme of 35 days of celebration marking our 35 year starting on NZ Bookshop Day on Saturday, 29 October. Other birthday events include Sunday, 6 November when we open our special birthday exhibition with one work each from 35 of our artists. On the 35th day, on Friday, 2 December, we will open an exhibition of paintings by Philip Beadle.”

A campaign by Booksellers NZ, Book Tokens NZ and Nielsen Book will encourage Kiwis to write on why they love their bookshops - A Love Letter to Your Bookshop. During October book afficionados will find postcards in their local bookshop where they can write a love letter to their favourite bookshop. The best bookshop love letter in the country will win $500 worth of book tokens.

Publishers are strong supporters of NZ Bookshop Day 2016. To encourage people to buy two Kiwi classics, Penguin Random House is to publish limited editions of Michael King’s The Penguin History of New Zealand and Maurice Gee’s Under the Mountain for the very special price of $15 and $10 respectively. These special edition books are available on NZ Bookshop Day.

Lincoln Gould concludes, “This year’s NZ Bookshop Day will be an even greater success than 2015. Our member bookshops are building on last year’s achievements with more quirky, fun and interesting events for an even greater celebration of the book.”

NZ Bookshop Day – Your Place, Your Bookshop is to be held on Saturday, 29 October in bookshops all over New Zealand. For more information, click here.

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