Comments on: The end of Christian bookshops?

By: The Future Shape of Christian Bookselling « UKCBD: The Christian Bookshops Blog

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 07:02:01 +0000

[...] The end of Christian bookshops? Clayboy, 17/11/2009 [...]

By: STL UK Crisis: Reports roundup and further reflections « UKCBD: The Christian Bookshops Blog

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 07:04:34 +0000

[...] The end of Christian Bookshops? Clayboy, 17/11/2009 [...]

By: Ian

Ian — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:33:46 +0000

You pose a great question, although I’m not sure I can be quite as optimistic. As much as I would to see the quality writers and a decent range of Bibles and bible resources in Waterstones, in the past the books that have done well there have been of a more ‘popular’ bent: Prayer of Jabez, Purpose Drive Life, The Shack etc.

Just as Waterstones fails to serve the deep backlist of many subjects, it will be the same with religion. If I want decent computing, business, philosophy, poetry, lit crit etc then Waterstones is generally not the place to go.

However – the missional potential of books in big high street stores cannot be ignored.

By: clayboy

clayboy — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:12:10 +0000

Matt, I’m trying to work out why WP always places your comments in the moderation queue. By all the rules it ought not to, so sorry while I work on that. (there are one or two others it does this to as well, so don’t feel unfairly persecuted!)

By: Matt Wardman

Matt Wardman — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:48:53 +0000

The Waterstones figure is less than OXFAM made from its bookshops in 2007-8.

By: New Ways of Being Bookshop « UKCBD: The Christian Bookshops Blog

New Ways of Being Bookshop « UKCBD: The Christian Bookshops Blog — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:02:29 +0000

[...] The end of Christian bookshops? Clayboy [...]

By: JR

JR — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:40:55 +0000

Wesley Owen is NOT closed yet (paragraph 5 of the first post)

By: From Dream to Nightmare to – where do we go from here? « Phil's Boring Blog

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:28:34 +0000

[...] interesting ideas over at Clayboy’s place: head across and throw in your own thoughts there too, please; and watch this space… Possibly [...]

By: clayboy

clayboy — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:06:18 +0000

@Erika That would, I think, be for a bookseller to answer. However there is a substantially wide range of Christian literature from the don’t-touch-with-a-bargepole Osteen, through a wide range of mid-level books to the more specialist reaches of theological-significance-but-completely-overpriced-waste-of-money like most things published by Brill.

By: Erika Baker

Erika Baker — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:48:44 +0000

If Waterstones did expand their Christian context, would they not end up stocking the content of your average bland Cathedral bookshop?
It seems to me that a specialist bookshop is closer to a specialist library than a commercial and more general shop.
You wouldn’t go to Waterstones if you wanted to read degree level biology and I don’t see theology as being any different.