The culmination of this year’s Books Are My Bag celebration takes place today across the United Kingdom. For three glorious days (the campaign began on Thursday the 9th of October), we can officially celebrate our bookshops, and the wonders which we bookworms never fail to find inside them.
The official website cites the reasons for the Books Are My Bag campaign as follows: ‘BOOKS ARE MY BAG is a nationwide campaign to celebrate bookshops. This collaboration between publishers, bookshops and authors and is the biggest ever promotion of bookshops. For many people bookshops conjure fond images of book readings, in-store cafes and delight at the discovery of a new author. In fact, 56% of all book buying decisions are made by consumers in a bookshop and high street bookshops (both chains and independents) still account for almost 40% of books bought by consumers. Yet, many high street bookshops are under threat.’
This year’s campaign sees the publication of a special book, The Bookshop Book by Jen Campbell, author of 
Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops and More Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops (my review can be found here). In her book, Campbell discusses quirky bookshops which can be found around the world – those in converted barns and churches, and even in underground carparks. It sounds absolutely marvellous, and I for one can’t wait to get my hands on a copy. You can order yours here.
theliterarysisters 
I have The Bookshop Book on my Chrimbo list!
It may sound silly, but what does the slogan actually mean? I feel like I’m missing something about Books ARE my bag… not IN my bag? Or do they mean that all you ever have in your bag is books?
I do wish they did this here, so most of our indie bookstores and indeed major bookstores are already gone 😦
It looks wonderful, doesn’t it? I almost picked it up and then changed my mind and got something else instead. Honestly, I have no idea! I’ve not heard ‘are my bag’ used anywhere else other than with regard to the campaign; it’s a little odd, isn’t it? It doesn’t explain on the website how it came to be called that either. Perhaps you could campaign for something similar to happen where you are? You could contact a few publishers and bookstores to see if there’s something you could all do.
I’m glad I’m not missing something obvious in the name! It’s definitely odd.
I honestly don’t think we have enough indie bookstores left here to have anything similar… until the publishers drop their prices, bookstores here will struggle. Sad but true.
It is, I agree! I shall do a little research and see if I can find a better answer. That is such a shame! 😦 Do the publishers see/know about the problem?
Oh yes, they know. Major bookstore chains have collapsed because of it- too many people buying from overseas because it can be up to half the price for books (and everything else for that matter!)
Ugh, that’s such a shame! 😦
A great excuse to go book buying and actually visit a bookshop rather than a website.
Somewhere someone in the bookish world believes people say cool things are ‘my bag’, but I’ve only heard this phrase on TV. Bristish bookshops are certainly suffering the amazon and ereader effect. I do love my local bookshop and the big Waterstones in the next town but they are a lot more expensive and have a lot less choice.
Oh, definitely! Did you do anything to celebrate? I’ve never heard the phrase used in real life either, aside from with regard to the campaign!
It sounds like such a wonderful campaign~! I’m really sad we don’t have anything similar here…
Jen Campbell’s books are on my to-buy list for Christmas, so I hope I’ll manage to get my hands on those soon 🙂 It sounds like a fascinating bookish topic! No matter how convenient online book shopping often is, I still adore visiting physical bookstores, browsing the bookselves and taking in this amazing book scent 🙂
Could you try and get something going in Greece, do you think? It is great, but sadly it wasn’t very well publicised this year.
I hope you get the Jen Campbell books! I’ve really enjoyed them so far. Me too! I only really use Internet bookshops for difficult to find books; nothing beats browsing and carrying teetering stacks to the till!
(Also, a reply to your email is in the pipeline, but I’ve really hurt my wrist and am struggling to type much at the moment!)
I think it would be really difficult to organise something like that in Greece, since the people here who read are very well-hidden 😛
Thank you, Kirsty! Exactly, it’s a feeling that can’t be easily surpassed 😉
(Oh, I understand, don’t worry at all! You should give your wrist the appropriate rest first 🙂 )
Aww! That’s such a shame. 😦 Hehe, definitely! Thank you so much; it’s feeling a lot better now, so I will endeavour to reply today!