We are Re-Jigging and eek it’s never ending!

Yep yep – the pictures you see below this post are not now how we look in some part and by the end of the month will not be how we look at all!
yes indeed it’s true we are having a major overhaul and face lift – and yes no more would be comics out there with the ‘well boss you need’ it comments!
So anyway as you can well imagine the place is a bit of a mess as we move all the old stuff out and the new stuff in, rearrange units and change till points and displays, but by the end of the month it will be fantastic!
So far we have relocated all the New Fiction onto nice new units, and a tidy amount of the Secondhand fiction has also been rehomed as well.
We have the sale to end all sales going on at the minute as we have seriously culled both the secondhand fiction and the New Fiction and pulled out anything over 18 months old – these are now for sale at 10 secondhand for £5.00 or 5 New for £5.00.
Whicever way you look at it that’s some fantastic bargains going on there. The authors include Dan Brown, Arthur C Clarke, Audrey Howard and other top authors. Honest this is not dross just overstock we needed to shift to make room for the new units and stock!
So anyway Religious books are moving from their ‘stand alone and cannot be grown’ section in unit 3 over to the main bookstall – this way there is room for expansion – in fact there will be an extra 5 bays worth of space to expand into and some nice gift units and slat wall space as well – This will also put the Christian Books in a much more prominent thoroughfare than they are currently on – and the reason for this??
Because we are not ashamed!
In fact we are not ashamed of anything we do, including our LGBT section which has also been relocated in the move and this is now in a more prominent section as well – situated in the middle gondola of the main Fiction section rather than hidden in the corner!
we are not ashamed and we will not act as if we are – we will not apologise for our beliefs, for our friends or for our outreach!
That said we would like to announce that we are now also stocking Jewish Prayer Books and the Forms of Prayer, and we welcome all our friends from the Lincoln Branch of the Council of Christians and Jews to come by, it was good to meet you and be involved in a very small way with the ‘meditation of Advent and Chanukah’. Thank you.
Ok now also whilst I have your attention, Palm Crosses, Paschal Candles and the rest of the Lent/Easter paraphanalia are on order and in some cases even in stock! so NOW IS THE TIME to let me know exactly how many of what you want putting by!!
Pass the word around please – Lent Books are in and orders are being taken for Palms and Candles.
Thank you!
Ohh we counted how many jigsaw designs we had when we had to move them all for the new units! (These went fantastically well at Christmas and are still going well now, probably as we are one of the few places in Lincoln that does them, and we do them all year round and at very good prices as well!)
Anyway that would be just over the 100 mark! These span the gamault from 1500 piece puzzles down to the 8 piece childrens puzzles, with the most number being in the 500 piece range and then followed by the economy priced 1000 piece puzzles, though my favourites are the ones with the Gold and Silver highlighting – particularly the Indian Maid and Fawn one – just lovely! and then also the Shaped Fish & Dolphin Puzzle. Lots of different brands as well, Gibson Games, Jumbo, King, Paul Lamond Puzzles, Falcon, Heye, Classic Deluxe, Ravensburger and a few more as well!
Then there were the Paint By Numbers, both large, standard and small, and 2 different manufacturers styles in those as well. It certainly makes for colourful on top of the new units.
So anyway when the refit and rejig is done and about ten minutes after I stop doing my own victory jig all over the worklorn minions (who actaully have been working! and I have to admit may have some hidden architectural or interior design skills that have a lot to do with making best use of the tardis like propensity of the strange space in a Unicorn Tree domain! Thanks M1 & M2) then I will get out my camera and take new snappy snappies for you all who cannot come in and see it for yourselves.
See you in the shop soon – I am the one with 2 coffee’s on the go at the minute as one just doesn’t do it in a refit situation.

Happy Birthday or anniversary of something like that!

Today makes it exactly 2 years that I have in fact been the unicorntreebookshopboss!

Yes indeed on this day 2 years ago I did in fact sign over all the worldly goods I did not possess and indeed the hope of having them! in exchange for the messy little bookstall that was at the time browse awhile books! and now two years on it’s not so messy, not so little and indeed not so bad!

I am still impoverished and tortured by minions, but at least its my poverty and my minions and in exchange I have the ability to read whatever book I want ’cause I have thousands of them!

I have a range of speciality genres and markets that match my likes!

The newest of these of course being the Christian Books (completely with its own unit! see not so little!) and I am so glad to have these on board, to be able to spend some of each day discussing a subject I absolutely love is phenomenal and a real dream continuing on.
Today’s discussion was on the Shack and the imagery presented as to God and if it is indeed heretical and if so why?
This addition hasn’t come without pain and heartbreak, but what it has come with is a continuing commitment and fervour to serve and reach out, after all pretty much all my book career had been in this section of the book trade and leaving it was painful (though also thrilling and enjoyable on another level as I was moving into the sphere of all books and not just one section!) but I remained resolute and with God’s grace and a smidgen of faith in face of adversity it came to be that I got it back this year, lets hope that together we can all continue to grow it – oh and did I say that Advent Candles and Advent & Nativity Books and Christmas Play material came in this week?? No? well it did – so if you are a church then get in touch as we are now taking Advent & Christmas orders!

Then of course we have the Craft section – formerly an independent business in its own right this came into our safekeeping a year ago and now lends itself wonderfully to our creative talent discussions and displays – believe it or not I am in fact a whizz at tea-bag folding, usually after they have been dried out from the copious cups of tea needed to cope with minion antics! This is still called Al’s Arts & Crafty Bits, but of course its now housed in Unicorn Tree Books!

Next is the LGBT section which is continuing to build a following and reputation and expanding as time goes on. The yaoi manga has been going phenomenally well.

All in all I am pretty proud of the changes that the shop has undergone and hope that in the years to come these will continue to grow and develop as we go forward together in faith, hope and community commitment!

So as its a new year we have old news to report on and new resolutions to put forward!
So old news – our sponsored charity, Great Ormond Street Hospital Childrens Charity was given £373.00 in the end, given our target was originally for £200 I think we did pretty well together!

Thank you all who gave their change, those 1p’s soon add up, as of course does the tithe we make from our sales – actually truth to be told that’s apportioned from the bookshopsboss wage as we still aren’t quite there enough to say its from the profits – its a commitment I made and so its one I keep!. We really do believe it is right to give to others when we can, as in giving we receive, even when we don’t know it or see it. After all sharing is caring!

So anyway this year we are continuing with the Children’s Hospital theme but this time its Alder Hay hospital that will be the recipient of our donations and tithes:

(though of course come October there will of course be our Christmas Charity to give to as well – last years Christmas Charity was Habitat for Humanity and we gave £50.00, lets hope we can give more this year when we decide on the Charity!).

So anyway I want to say thank you all for using us, supporting us and following along with us – if you want to come in and celebrate with us, then please do and remember my favourite celebration tipple is a Caramelatte from Nero’s or a Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks!

Thanks guys for the last two years, and I look forward to serving and working with all of you in the next few ahead!

www.lincolncentralmarket.co.uk
Unicorn Tree Books, Central Market, Lincoln. LN5 7ET
www.browseawhilebooks.co.uk
www.alsarts.co.uk
htp://unicorntreebooks.blogspot.com

It’sssss Christmassss! Boo Hiss, bah humbug, its not even the end of summer!

OK, now I know this is just too extreme, but never the mind it is nonetheless a true fact, Christmas has indeed arrived and not just in the make your own cards craft department! (which yes, Al’s Arts has indeed had in a bumper load of Christmas decoupage and sold over half of it already so you better get your skates on and jingle bell down if you are making your own cards!)

Yes indeed to go with the 2009 Diaries and Calenders, Parsons Pocket Books and Church Lectionaries, we did indeed have into stock today the Church Advent Candles (both Purple and Red Sets!) – actually this timed very well with the arrival of the new and very smart Advent and Christmas Order Forms from the printers (though these were down to be sent out next month – not this one!!).

Ahh but was it only Church Advent Candles that would be one thing – but no it was the Dated ones as well – lots of them! and then to add insult to injury a box arrived and in it were… yep you guessed it – Advent Calenders!!!

So there we go, not even the middle of August and already Christmas Silly season begins! ohh but get this, in the same box as the Calenders was…
NATIVITY SETS & CHRISTMAS CARDS!±

So there we go, lets get out the mistletoe and wine and have an Australian Christmas – well come on Christmas in Summer we must be in the southern hemisphere and never noticed.

So ok, on a non-christmas theme, the Gluten Free Wafers finally came in today, as did some wonderful new incense named after st Luke. Very nice and tastily pungent when the temperature heats up a bit – however no need to fear on this front now as the Air Conditioning Unit really is working a treat – so much so all the other should be working somewhere on the market staff keep coming in on the pretext of looking for books and then hogging the cool delightful stream of swift blowing air! the cheek of it.

Also the Long awaited ‘Acheron‘ (9780749908669) by Sherrilyn Kenyon is now in and is going like hot cakes! probably because we were the only ones to have had stocks in up until at least 2pm today! now whether Waterstones and WHSmiths have no had theirs in I cannot say, but I can say if you want one you better hurry as we only have a couple left on the shelves now! and by gum is it a mighty brick of a book or what, but three of those that purchased them on Wednesday have been back in today to extol the virtues of the book and story and get new books because they had finished the 700+ pages it is that good a read!
We also have in the New Stephanie Meyer Book ‘Breaking Dawn’ (9781905654284) – another mighty book and worth the read!
Here’s an odd conundrum for you all, Josephine Cox – top British author – has had her new book ‘Songbird’ (9780060896980) come out in paperback in the states before it has here! and not just a few days before but almost 2 months before!
So it’s just as well we are a specialist in US Imports, otherwise you would all have to wait until the 1st October before you could read it in paperback!
The first one on the shelf this afternoon sold within 7 minutes! So look likely ladies as once this batch are gone it will be another 7 days before the next batch gets in from the States!

So there we go, bah humbug but some cool (but not yule! though actually there are some advent books and nativity play books in now!) reading knocking around the shop.
Come by and visit and remember to bring the bookshopboss a coffee (caramelatte or caramel machiatto preferably) if you are feeling kind as due to minions wanting time and other such supposedly pressing urgent things this BookshopBoss has yet again not had a day off and deliveries by the shock loads!
By the way does anyone else spot the problem with shortening the BookshopBoss’s title?? The minions say its too long and they believe it should be abbreviated to the BSBoss!!! I am pretty sure they are being less than polite again – so census time people, let me know what you think – should I be thoroughly offended or are the minions just that oblivious? what action would you take on that one!

OK enough now, books to be ordering! see you in the shop tomorrow.

www.lincolncentralmarket.co.uk
Unicorn Tree Books, Central Market, Lincoln. LN5 7ET
www.browseawhilebooks.co.uk
www.alsarts.co.uk
htp://unicorntreebooks.blogspot.com

Uggh Ingrams!

You know at the minute this bookshopboss is not amused!
It would seem that the americans are conspiring against me this week – first the issue relating to the post before and now INGRAMS (this is said in the same tone and intonation as a very bad swear word at the minute!).
I have now been waiting for nearly a week for a delivery to leave the US warehouse and make it to these shores so I can share the lovely books inside with you my lovely and desperate customers – well don’t hold your breaths as US systems transpire again to thwart the UK bound.
They can’t send it as the card details they have to transact the payment expires this month – and because in the US that would mean the card had actually expired, their cards expire on the first day of the listed month it would seem, and would be unusable their system automatically keeps declining my card – even though in the UK our expiry date means the last day of the month its dated! So they won’t be able to send the books until the 1st of August when the new card becomes active!! all because of an automated system that does the payment transaction and the fact that it would seem they cannot overide the system and do a manual transaction!
UGGGGGGH!!!

So ok moving on – it has been unbearably hot in the shop for the last few days – well thats what happens when you work in a glass roofed building – its like being an orchid in a hot house – and yes as you all know I really am that dainty, delicate and blooming wonderful!
Still we have the fan going, the doors open and the books in to help you all keep your cool and enjoy the time basking in the garden, on the beach or wherever with your books!

This week we have had deliveries of more books – a great set of christian books, including some great kids ones and a snuggly sunday bunny! great fun and at good proces (*edit: that was my ‘allo allo’ british fake french accent in honour of my friend Aude, the continental market that was in town and the fact that I can’t actually type!!)too. We also have an offer going on some NT to give away this summer – they are only £1.50 instead of £3.99, and we are offering £1.00 off Richard S. Taylors ‘What every Christian ought to know’ (9781853453168) as well! For a review of this book go here its a site I am very involved with and even review for on occasion and I heartily endorse it for impartial christian reviews!(but whatever you do remember to come back to me to buy it!!!) : http://www.thegoodbookstall.org.uk/review/1853453161/richard-s-taylor/what-every-christian-ought-to-know/

Oh we had gifts in too! Very Very cool wooden toys – a Noahs Ark! A Nativity Set in a String Bag and some square blocks – 26 of them with words and pictures of them – the people in the pictures look a bit like BOD! I love it. There are also some BOD like magnet sets as well – a nativity set and a Life of Jesus set as well. Honestly they are great – I am thinking of going over to the kids corner and playing with them as stress relief from the week.

In the craft section we have had in some new stuff too, Christmas Card making materials and a whole load of pens, glitters, glues and other fun stuff to make a mess with over the summer while you pretend to be getting ready for Christmas!

Ohh talking of Christmas Cards – I did the Christmas Card order this week, lots and lots of Christmas cards will be in at the end of August – charity ones and normal ones! and the Christmas nativity and gift order is going in this week too! they too will no doubt arrive much to soon – there are some lovely Christmas ornaments going to be coming in.
and talking of charity -

So anyway come by and see – bookshopboss vent and share over now! going to have a coffee now. See you soon.

www.lincolncentralmarket.co.uk
Unicorn Tree Books, Central Market, Lincoln. LN5 7ET
www.browseawhilebooks.co.uk
www.alsarts.co.uk
htp://unicorntreebooks.blogspot.com

We got Candles, Wafers so don’t Wine!

The Jigsaw, Paint-by-Number and Sticker people have been great and have been helping to keep us in the last few weeks – probably because they know a good deal when they see it and realise we are much better value than most of the competition in town! 

We have a full and exceedingly large spinner chocablock full of paint-by-numbers and scraper foils! and we have deals on them, you buy 2 and the price is less! 

We have a brand new and full sticker stand and a lot of the stickers on it are 3 for £1 – these include disney, pooh, dora the explorer, transformers and lots more! 

and we have had a whole range of new season designs in the Jigsaws. From Paul Lamond – some stunning Gothic and Fantasy Images on them! From JR a load of steam trains and rural/wwII scenes in! and lots more from about 3 or 4 different brands, and we have a whole slew of kiddy jigsaws as well as Jig Rolls at a really great price. Well worth looking at.

OK theres lots of new stuff coming in almost daily – and some of the Greetings Cards we now have in are really good as well and at a cracking price for the style and quality of them too! Come take a look some time soon! Just don’t get the minions too excited as they get uncontrollable then and I end up having to calm them down with coffee and chocolate! oh or wait a minute is that me I end up having to calm down with Coffee and Chocolate (remember you are always welcome to come for coffee and a chat but just remember to bring me a Caramelatte from Nero’s or a Caramel Machiatto from Starbucks when you come!)

Hey, so anyway we now have the most common sizes of Candles in stock! yes that includes fluted base, Votives – Stick & Cased, Sanctuary Lights, Baptism (3 sorts) and Wedding candles! and we have had to re-order twice as well! 

So yes we have candles – don’t forget to pick up one of our spanky full colour Candle and Church Supply brochures when you are in – it even has a section on the back for you to fill in what size candles you normally have – if you don’t do the candle buying then please pass it on to someone that does.

We also have Communion Wafers in ( and yes they have had to be re-ordered and topped up as well!), so thats Priests Crucifix, Peoples Crucifix, Priests Plain and Peoples Plain and yes Gluten Free ones as well!
Yes we have Baptism Certificates, Confirmation Certificates and SGA Packs in stock.
Yes we have Daily Reading Notes and Sunday School Material and yes please do place them on standing order with us, it makes re-ordering so much easier for me to do!
Yes we have Bibles, Books and everything else you can think of – Don’t forget to take a postcard for the church/community noticeboard!!
No we are not fully stocked up yet, but we are getting there! but as it’s all coming out my own pocket it will take a little time – and:

NO DON’T say when you come in – and I offer to order it for you – ‘No thanks I will get it off the Internet’!!
I mean you can get it off the internet if you want (heck I shop the internet too!) but don’t actually say it to me, or the minions, when out of my own pocket and at the sacrifice of my own wage I am struggling to kit out a Christian Bookshop so that you have the books and candles on hand! It is rather like Marie Antoinette saying about the poor, ‘let them eat cake’! its just not really very well thought out, a bit like salt in a wound or a stab in the back! 

Just say – ‘No thanks that’s ok’. That we can live with much easier as we can fool ourselves you won’t buy it off the internet and will come back in after you have looked around other shops and not found it!
But let me just point out – when I offer to order it for you it will usually be in stock within 3-7 days – you don’t often get it from amazon etc any quicker, heck ask some of my customers and you will realise that in a lot of cases it comes in within 2 days depending on day of the week and suppliers! and when I order it for you from new you don’t then have to pay a carriage charge for the item! so yes even if amazon or whoever are offering a bit of a discount add in the carriage charge and you may well find its actually no cheaper! and just think when you order it from me thats the money I need to buy the stock to make sure that the next time you come in needing that Nicky Gumbel book or Margaret Silf book its there on the shelf!
Ok whining done – rant over on that one. (and no we don’t sell alcoholic communion wine – we can arrange to have it despatched to you but we don’t actually stock or sell it as we are not allowed  to because of Licensing Laws).

New rant!
To all the gen book Unicorn Tree’rs I have who have done or are contemplating doing this! – Don’t ask me, or the minions, to look stuff up on the computer because Waterstones, WHSmith etc, won’t, can’t… if you are not actually going to buy anything from us and are then going to come back in the shop and tell me you got the book whose title you had me look up for you on Fantastic Fiction.com last week from the competition! especially when its a book I have in stock and on the shelf when you come in clutching your gains!!
Please understand neither I nor the minions mind looking stuff up (unless you can see we are really busy- but then leave us what you want looking up and ordering on a note with a contact number and we will do it and get back to you after we have finished being busy!) we like playing on the computer! but please understand it is a service we offer to our customers and to be a customer you actually have to purchase something!! otherwise you are not a customer but at best a browser, and though we don’t mind browsers in the shop we really want them to become and be customers that browse the shelves. 

Let me make clear I don’t mind if we look something up and you then don’t get it due to price, timing of delivery etc etc or any of the other really legit reasons there may be – I just object when you are using us as an information service with no intention of supporting us! lets face it, it’s like getting on a bus for a ride out to view the scenery and then not paying the fare!
Also – sort of tangential to the last one, please do not moan at me and my minions when you bring me the books that you purchased from the competition for credit and I only give you a 25p or 50p credit on them! after all how much credit do the competition actually give you on your secondhand books?? and Yes by all means do give it/them/the books to a Charity Shop instead of to us – we support and believe in charitable giving and charity – and this statement is just annoying really, especially when prefaced with ‘I might just as well take them to a Charity Shop then! I would be just as well off!’ as I am pretty sure they dont give you a credit at all in the Charity shop either. 

(Oh and by the way this shop financial year – since September 07 – I (Unicorn Tree) with our customers help have given over £265 to our sponsored charities – yes you can check this out on our justgiving.com charity pages to make sure what I am saying is legit! I only give through justgiving so that it can be tracked and you all can be assured our charitable giving is a legitimate fact and not just something we say! – £215 to GOSHH and £50 Christmas appeal to Habitat for Humanity – so actually you know what, when you give your books to us and I give you a credit you are supporting charity as well – as I have made a commitment that I keep at my own expense to tithe a percentage of my shops profits to charity – when you donate stuff that percentage gets higher! how much of the actual money from some charity shops actually goes to charity?? I know for a fact the answer in at least one case is, well that would be about 0.01p a year! but thats another story.)

So please don’t moan at me when you do not get much back on the competitions books, buy our books and leave our stickers on so I, and the minions, know they are ours and you might get a little more. 

Oh yes and the reason you get more back on the secondhand books than on new books is because the secondhand books cost me less to buy so I can afford to give you more, (but then think about this before you start saying how much money I make on them – you bring me a book and I give you a 50p credit on it, so it cost me 50p to buy, I then put it out at £2.00 – lots of profit you say?? only if i sell it in the first place! but saying I do, the purchaser pays £2.00 and then brings that book back and I then give them a £1.00 credit on it as its one of our secondhanders and you get a 50% Credit – so actually all I made on that book is 50p! Not much profit there at all really! especially if you then only buy a book that costs the value of that credit!).
If we gave you 50% on the new books we would be giving you more than we make on the book in the first place, in fact i would then be paying you to buy the book from me in the first instance! and if I was going to do that I might as well just leave the till open and say help yourself!
So OK I really do understand you all want the best return or best deal on things you can get (so do I, it’s natural!) – but you know what I bust my back trying to give that best return and deal to you in the first place, I am not looking to get rich merely to make a decent living doing what I love- selling books.
My books are generally cheaper – often a lot cheaper that the competition – yes even most of the newest books!
Margaret Dickinson’s new book – ‘Sing As We Go’ is full price in all the competition shops – £5.99 and it is only £5.75 with me – that 75p instead of 99p is pretty much true on all the brand new fiction – thats my pocket that comes out of – and I do not begrudge doing this as I want you to have good fiction at good prices, but please then think about it when you come in and don’t then expect the unreasonable along with the reasonable.

Ask me and the minions nicely and we will happily try to explain all this, but please do not be rude and objectionable. Please think a little on what you say and how that effects me and the minions. After all when you ask us to do the work like looking up books but then you buy them elsewhere – well in time thats a minion less working, and then there won’t be anyone with the time to look up the books for you!

On the secondhand side of it – well at least you are getting something back on the books you buy, and please don’t just buy up to the value of the credit note you are given – especially when you keep coming in with other peoples books to make up that credit note – after all if you do that often enough I won’t be here anymore as I don’t get a government subsidy like the lending library does and essentially thats all I am if you keep buying off others and getting credits off me and just topping up the books to the value of the credit note! At least a few times a month can you actually buy something off me please, it doesn’t have to be a full price brand new book, a cheap secondhand will do rather than just swapping books or using our knowledge and systems?

I want to be here to serve you all for a long time – and I want the minions to be here to serve me for a long time! – so please buy some stuff off us occasionally and not just use us!
Okay nother rant over.

Anyway thats me done for the night, see you in the shop in the morning – its a minion free day so feel free to bring the coffee!

www.lincolncentralmarket.co.uk
Unicorn Tree Books, Central Market, Lincoln. LN5 7ET
www.browseawhilebooks.co.uk
www.alsarts.co.uk
htp://unicorntreebooks.blogspot.com

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