Books / Heron Books
A Day in the Life of Heron Books
At two minutes past four, I wake up panicking that, like the protagonist of a favourite novel (On the Calculation of Volume by Solvej Balle) I am stuck in 18th November. I check the date on my phone and console myself that time is still moving linearly for me.
For five minutes I pretend to myself that more sleep is possible. Then I give up and read Barbara Pym until I consider it an appropriate time to reply to customer emails – I presume that most people don’t want a reply before 6am, but equally a number of them think I would like to hear their feelings about the Booker winner at 1am.
I listen to Radio 4 on my way into the shop, a programme discussing four books published that week which I ought to have read already. When I arrive I look at the dusting, tidying and accounting and instead make coffee and eat a second breakfast.
Shop exterior, Heron Books
People form an orderly queue at the door whilst I pretend I can’t see them. Helen Garner’s diaries aren’t going to read themselves after all. I give in and unlock the door when the rain grows really heavy. Many of our favourite customers come early, pretend to browse while I finish my breakfast chocolate and then settle by the desk to get into the good stuff: book chat and gossip.
Around 10.30 I stop pretending that I am going to wait until what is considered lunchtime to eat lunch and fetch my bowl of tomatoes to enjoy between chats with customers, fellow shopkeepers and people who come in following a breakup, the loss of a loved one and a gruelling gym session. (Not always three separate people.)
Heron-inflected shop window
A gentleman enters spoiling for a fight over my latest recommendation. We enjoy a good-natured verbal punch-up and both retire to reconsider. I receive a catalogue from a publisher with a few hundred titles, order three of them and text pictures of blurbs with spelling mistakes to friends who work in the industry.
Over the course of the afternoon, authors pop in with advance copies of their novels, a man asks if I’ll host a tarot reading, a child tries to steal my afternoon snack, a dog does steal my afternoon snack, several customers suggest that we set up a book club (we run five) and my mother calls to ask if it’s a good time to call. While listening to her I place that day’s order, including reordering a book that has sold once in three years but which I feel sets us apart by occupying the shelf.
Lizzie Moss and her Heron Books colleague Harry outside the shop
In the evening, my colleague Harry and I run a book club and realise that we have accidentally started a cult devoted to Jon Fosse. It is easier to start a cult than one might think.
On my way home, I deliver a book to someone whose address appears to be on an island, the bridges to which are all closed for repairs. I guess I’ll swim across, holding the book in the air. In bed I read Barbara Pym and wonder if tonight will be the night I get stuck in time like the protagonist of a favourite novel.
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Visit Heron Books at 7a Regent Street, Clifton, go to www.heronbooks.co.uk, or follow @heronbooksbristol for more information.
All photos: Heron Books
Read next:
- A day in the life of The Small City Bookshop
- My Bristol Favourites: Lizzie Moss
- Shop of the Week: Heron Books, Clifton
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