Who loves Edward Gorey?

We love Edward Gorey! Now in stock, $45.00!

Young Master Richard is currently in Melbourne, swanning about with many famous authors at the Melbourne Writers Festival. These authors include China Mieville and Margo Lanagan! The rest of us remain in Hobart, being very jealous.

In other news, we are talking pre-orders for a number of titles, some of which you will be very excited about, and some of which will make you feel a little bit ill.

Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol - Pre-Order for $29.95 (RRP $49.95)
Matthew Reilly's Five Ancient Warriors - Pre-Order for $29.95 (RRP $49.95)
Dave Eggers' The Wild Things - Pre-Order a regular edition for $35.00 or..

see us in-store for exciting alternatives!

and last of all (some of you may do a little uncontrollable squeal)

Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson's The Gathering Storm (Part 1 of 3) Pre-Order for 24.95 (RRP $35.00)

We have finally gone Penguin mad!

Notebooks!

Pencils!

Mugs!

Deckchairs are also available, but are mostly impractical for two reasons:

1. It's still winter.
2. There isn't any space to store said deckchairs. Sigh.

2009 Hugo Awards Winner accounced..

The full list can be found here: http://twitter.com/thehugoawards as a direct link from Twitter updates.

Also, we recommend fellow twitter users to follow http://twitter.com/neilhimself and see him swear in excitement.

David Eddings dead at 77

No. Freakin'. Way. 

Famous for amazing works of genius such as the Belgariad series, Mr. Eddings has passed away at 77, after writing almost twenty books both by himself and with his wife Leigh. 

Sniffles all 'round. 

Fiction Matters

Short Stories galore!

This is also worth a look: Best Short Stories

Man Booker International Prize

Alice Munro has been annouced as the winner of the 2009 Man Booker International Prize. Unlike the Man Booker prize for fiction, the International award recognises the talent and achievement of one particular writer overall rather than the excellence of a specific novel.




Man Booker

Alien Invasion Survival Handbook

We have just recieved copies of the Alien Invasion Survival Handbook by W.H. Mumfrey (pseudonym for local Tasmanian author and customer).

What's more, they're signed!

You can find more internet based information on his MySpace page and on Amazon.

It's that time again..

I have little to blog about, and so therefore I figured the only answer was to talk about ourselves for a bit. Many of you would have attended the Ellison Hawker Bookshop quiz night held at the beginning of this month, and while we had a few quirks in the system, it all seemed to go relatively well.

Naturally we're extending our much appreciated thank-you's to those who helped us out- Murdoch Books, Capricorn Link, Pan Macmillan, Penguin Books and Pembroke Wine. It was many kinds of AWESOME.

Other excitements are the new shipment of exciting Last Gasp stock, including but not limited to the 'Hello Maggot' range of stuffed toys and Mark Ryden's Tree Show postcards.


On a side note..



YAY.

Earliest known book jacket discovered..

"A librarian at Oxford's Bodleian Library has unearthed the earliest-known book dust jacket. Dating from 1830, the jacket wrapped a silk-covered gift book, Friendship's Offering."

The Guardian

Two pieces of bookish information for you..

The winner of the 2009 Pulitzer prize has been announced; Elizabeth Strout's novel Olive Kitteridge has beaten a number of other nominees which include big names such as Philip Roth, John Updike, Toni Morrison, Annie Proulx and Jhumpa Lahiri.

Abe Books



Also, acclaimed author J.G. Ballard has died at age 78, after a struggle with cancer. He was best known for his novel, Empire of the Sun.

The Age

Quiz Night

Date:	11 May 2009
Time:	20:00 - 22:00
Location:	The New Sydney Hotel
Street:	87 Bathurst Street

Everyone loves a quiz so as part of our 60th birthday celebrations we are holding one. In keeping with the fact that we are a bookshop it's a quiz all about books - old books, new books, awful books, amazing books and everything that lies in between.

You can have up to 6 people in your team. Contact us to book a table - reply on Facebook, email or call.

Entry is $2 per person. For your $2 you will get a couple of hours of entertainment and the chance to win books, wine (from Pembroke - good stuff!) and gift vouchers.

If you are in need of feeding before the quiz The New Sydney does great food (the chips are particularly excellent!).

If you have any queries get in contact.

Cheers!

Facebook Event

Indies Choice Book Awards

The American Booksellers Association today announces the winners of the inaugural Indies Choice Book Awards. Formerly the Book Sense Book of the Year Awards.

The winners are:

Best Indie Buzz Book (Fiction): The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Best Conversation Starter (Nonfiction): The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
Best Author Discovery: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
Best Indie Young Adult Buzz Book (Fiction): The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Best New Picture Book: Bats at the Library by Brian Lies
Most Engaging Author: Sherman Alexie

BookBrowse

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies!

"Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you'd actually want to read."

In your favourite bookshop. NOW. $24.95.

Current Staff Reads

What are we reading at the moment, you ask? Well, here's your chance.

Sooz: Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
Library of the Dead - Glenn Cooper
"An Indiana Jones movie in a book. 'Cos you can't spend all your life reading Dostoyevsky."

Richard: Drood - Dan Simmons
Mystery of Edwin Drood - Charles Dickens
" 'Cos I'm in the mood for Drood!"

Emily: Sookie Stackhouse - Charlaine Harris
Metamorphosis - Ovid
Handling the Undead by John Ajivde Lindqvist
"Weird."

Megan: Q & A by Vikas Swarup
"Slumdog Millionaire but with more words and with pictures that you can make up in your head."

Wish I lived in the UK..

"Thousands in scramble for free books after Amazon supplier abandons warehouse"

- Link to article

Horror Madness!

Is it Halloween, you ask? Friday 13th?

Nay, it is an insight into a traditional day in the bookshop-a combination of the cute and fluffy-ness of wombats and the gruesome mess of death and zombies. Ellison Hawker Bookshop presents our new feature film: Killer Wombats VS The Fictional Horror Creatures of Doom.




Also, we stock a whole heap of horror. It's awfully cool.

Wise Man's Fear update

Much to everyone's dismay, the release of Wise Man's Fear has been pushed back- the expected release date is now said to be May. Awww.

Watchmen

To celebrate the release of the Watchmen movie we now have in stock Series 1 Watchmen figurines upstairs in Area 52. Hurrah!

The Tree Show

Eeee! Eeeeeeeeee! In stock now! Pick up a copy for $89.95- and be quicksmart about it. They're going like hotcakes.

John Updike

'A literary giant.' - Ian McEwan

American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic and literary critic John Updike died this morning at the ride old age of 76, from cancer.

John Updike won two Pulitzer prizes for his 'Rabbit' novels, and his most recent work was the second story in the Eastwick Novels, 'The Widows of Eastwick'



Aww, you.

Wise Man's Fear

The exciting sequel to Patrick Rothfuss' 'Name of the Wind' has an expected release date of the 9th April- and we are now taking pre-orders :)

The Power of Books..