Reading Spa in Bath

Now this is a find for my bibliotherapy research - a bookshop in Bath that offers the Reading Spa experience: Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights.  It's nailed it.  Unlike other so-called bibliotherapy services, this one delivers without pompous or patronising claims.  Mr B's has been open since 2006, and won best Independent Bookseller of the Year twice.  You can read about its rise to success on the website, which also tells you about the individual team members and the Reading Spa experiences.  Would you buy one of these for a friend?  Yes!  Listen: "As the recipient of a Mr B’s Reading Spa voucher you are invited to visit our gorgeous shop in Bath for a one-on-one book chat in our sumptuous Bibliotherapy Room with one of the Mr B’s team over a mug of tea or coffee and a delicious slice of cake. Your bibliotherapist will then gather and introduce you to a tower of books specially selected to suit your reading tastes. Each Reading Spa voucher includes an amount to spend on books, so that you can pick your favourite recommendations and take them away with you."

 You can spend £55 or £100 on a voucher, which includes £40 or £75 respectively to spend on books.  I'd call that a bargain, with tea and cake thrown in AND a goodie bag AND one-to-one advice on what to read next. 

It's hard not to get over-excited about this find (WHY did I not know about this place before?!) because as someone who has worked in bookshops, who is convinced there is a future for bookshops (the real sort, with people, and shelves and actual books) the website for Mr B's makes me want to cheer.  And make a pilgrimage right now to Bath.  So, if even the website can make me feel so happy, imagine what bibliotherapeutic power must lie in the shop itself.....

Pre-Christmas Anticipation

This last week before Christmas is one of the best in the whole year: so full of anticipation, of purpose, and of gathering surprises and treats for friends and family.  This is the time of year to dig out the classics, and relish the extremes of bleakness and surfeit winter-themed literature can offer.

I've just re-read Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton, and am still instantly transported to that stark Massachusetts landscape by the description of a place where "day after day, after the December snows were over, a blazing blue sky poured down torrents of light and air on the white landscape, whcih gave them back in an intenser glitter."  Mattie's cherry coloured scarf, and the red pickle dish, stand out like warning beacons of colour in this colour-starved context.  It's a dramatic story, with a terrible twist at the end, and it is so well-written that the sadness you are left with haunts for days afterwards.  Thoroughly recommended for winter reading - especially if you get the beautiful, tactile Penguin English Library edition. 

The cover design on this series are stunning, and the production values make them a pleasure to hold and to read.  Coralie Bickford-Smith is the designer, and she has managed to keep the covers identifiably in the Penguin tradition, but strikingly different, too.  The Independent quotes Penguin's publishing director Simon Winder as saying that he "decided to revive the series as he walked around Tate Britain one day last year, and saw people in their late teens sketching the works. 'It made me think how wonderful it would be not to have read books such as Wuthering Heights yet, and how I thought I had a duty to make this prospect as attractive as possible.'" The font is Dante MT Std, a clean, serif font with a roundness to the letters that makes it easy on the eye.



Reviewers were quick to scrutinize the choice of 100 titles for the initial relaunch of the series this year, The Guardian noting that "the 2012 English Library so far is less keen on fact, more keen on fantasy. Is this a fair reflection of our contemporary state of letters?"  Have a look at the list, and see if you agree.  Will this list stand the test of time (and provoke sales?)

Design matters.  Bibliotherapy is more powerful wrapped in great design, and Penguin have struck a mightily effective blow in the argument for the superiority of the physical book over the digital with this lovely series.  As I was writing this entry, my package from another great design company, Emma Bridgewater, arrived.  Now I have my books AND my Christmas mug to fill with mulled goodness to accompany them!  All set for winter and Christmas now!

December Thoughts, Part 2....

From design-ability.com

December Thoughts...

It's cold.  And windy.  And wet.  It's also that point in the term when everyone seems tired, fractious, and run down.  Still a little while to go until Christmas, but the cheer is not quite in sight - so much to do before it comes, and no time to do it!  This is the perfect point for some bibliotherapy, so here are some thoughts:

1.  Buy some books!  Today Penguin are offering 50% off all books on their website.  This is all the incentive you need to indulge in some reading for Christmas.  Penguin English Library have just released Ivanhoe, which was a no-brainer buy for me! (And have also succumbed to ordering a copy of Pullman's Grimm Tales, which will be used for research purposes as well as pleasure -win-win!)

   

2. Watch some book-ish things!  Apart from the impending Hobbit-ness, you can watch clips such as this one, on banned books, by Bookmans:

or this, more upbeat one, I'm reading a Book:

or, finally, this more reflective piece on reading, from William Lyon Phelps (click link).  I'm grateful to Bookmachine for highlighting these on their Facebook page:  another bibliotherapy goldmine!

3. Treats:  in my case, am seriously coveting one of these wonderful ipad or iphone covers, sold via SexyCodicology and Red Bubble: