Reading, Wanting, and Broken Economics: A Twenty-First-Century Study of Readers and Bookshops in Southampton around 1900 (SUNY Press, 2021)

Reading, Wanting and Broken Economics: with Dr Simon Frost

An Interview with Dr Simon Frost Dr Simon Frost, Principal Academic in English at Bournemouth University and author of Reading, Wanting, and Broken Economics: A Twenty-First-Century Study of Readers and Bookshops in Southampton around 1900 (SUNY Press, 2021) part of SUNY, speaks with Dr...
Sam Read Booksellers front of store

History of Bookselling

The BRN's first themed event featured presentations from Dr. Will Smith and Professor Simon Eliot. Dr. Smith discussed the multi-generational history of Sam Read Booksellers, emphasizing oral histories and archival research. Professor Eliot highlighted the value of "unwitting testimony" in archives, using examples like public library catalogues and publisher correspondence to reveal hidden insights.

Developing Collaterals: Book Retail Networks in the Creation of Social Prosperity

The second themed Bookselling Research Network event featured a round table discussing bookstores' financial and social dimensions. Three presentations explored the complexity of book retail (Dr. Simon Frost), bookstores as cultural and entrepreneurial nodes (Prof. Corinna Norrick-Rühl), and factors like community and curation explaining the resurgence of independent bookstores (Dr. Ryan Raffaelli).

Feminist & Queer Bookshops – Community and Censure

Join Dr Kathy Liddle and Dr Sarah Pyke as they present their work on feminist and queer bookstores as places of contested cultural interactions. Kathy Liddle My presentation today will focus on two strands of my research on North American feminist bookstores. First, I will...
Highland, K. 2023. The Spaces of Bookselling: Stores, Streets, and Pages

The Spaces of Bookselling with Kristen Highland

The talk delves into sidewalk bookselling in New York City as a space for negotiating cultural, social, and legal belonging. Despite municipal regulations, booksellers create inclusive spaces on these contested sidewalks. Kristen Highland, an Assistant Professor, discusses her research on book history and will be interviewed post-talk, followed by a Q&A session.
Simon Mahony

Booksellers and Bookstores in Mainland China: the Age of Common Prosperity

This talk explores the significance of books in Chinese society and their role in achieving common prosperity. It provides new insights into the relationship between government policies and the growth of physical bookstores in China. Simon Mahony discusses how official publications and government plans highlight the importance of literacy and culture.

Bookselling in India: The ‘Proper’ and the ‘Parallel’

The presenters retain copyright for all images in the presentation except those listed below. Images may be re-used with permission of the copyright holders, either Pritha Mukherjee or Kanupriya Dhingra. Slide 2: Photograph of the book launch of India Book Market...

Conversation with Mark Pearson of Libro.fm

Mark Pearson is the CEO and co-founder of Libro.fm, the digital audiobook platform for more than 2,600 independent bookshops around the world. Before that he was the publisher at Pear Press. You can learn more about Libro.fm at https://libro.fm/story and through our annual social purpose reports.