My Favourite Books: foyles

Thursday, December 08, 2011

Young Adults Book Boom

Last night on Channel 4 there was a segment on how YA book sales are booming, compared to other book "markets" - please, YA is not a GENRE.

It makes for interesting watching - the school kids they talk to utterly hit it on the nose about why you want to read and why people continue reading and it is exactly the same thing I heard time and again when I spoke to kids in the past at the school I've visited giving talks about reading and writing.

And importantly - gods, I hope this was not staged - the boys they showed spoke enthusiastically about reading for pleasure. My heart soared. Can we have more of these kids, please?
Apart from the fact that a part of the segment was shot in Foyles, of course, it has a great interview with Charlie Higson and it made me grin about how truthful he was: his books are about zombie adults eating children. Cheeky beggar.

The segment ends, with a boy holding the most loved and tattered copy of Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl. I know how that kid feels. I have a lot of books who are that loved and that tattered.

It's an interesting segment and one that really can quite easily be expanded on into a full programme or even series. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part as a geek girl who loves reading?

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Foyles: Video Book Awards & Foyles: Demons & Angels 31st October

Friday evening I was lucky enough to attend the Video Book Awards hosted at Foyles in conjunction with Random House, The Bookseller and The National Film and TV School. There were four winning videos for the following books:

Blood's A Rover by James Ellroy
Hypothermia by Arnaldur Indridason
Blood Harvest by SJ Bolton
The Snowman by Jo Nesbo

The evening was a celebration for the four film makers and their crew who had come this far and it was also to hear who was the overall winner out of the four.

We viewed all four book trailers (watch them here) and then the winner was announced:

The Snowman by Jo Nesbo. A massive congrats to the two talented film makers and their hard working crew: Chris Moon and Yasmine al Naib.

Yasmine al Naib accepting the prize, whilst her colleague Chris Moon looks on.

I am very pleased to have been invited to this event, so thank you, Lynsey from Transworld for putting my name forward. I had a lovely time and it was really interesting to attend this event, to see more of the marketing side of the publishing industry. If you've not had the chance to do so, do check out the four winning book trailers. Personally, I was all for Hypothermia or Blood Harvest to win. And honestly, I still think one of those two should have won. However, be that as it may, a massive congrats to two worthy winners and I look forward to seeing more of their work in the near future.

I also got the chance to chat to Neil and Jenny, two of the hardest working booksellers I know, before the event, downstairs in the kids and teens department. Neil and Jenny, along with Sam, run the kids' department at Foyles. Later this month, on the 31st October, they are hosting a Demons & Angels event starting at 2pm.

Authors in attendance will be:

Sarwat Chadda
Sam Enthoven
William Hussey
Cliff McNish
LA Weatherley

I got a sneak peak of the goodie bags that the audience stand the chance to win. Sadly, my photo does not do the pretty shinies any justice but take my word for it: they are exceedingly pretty.

What I love about going into kids department at Foyles is how well they know their department and are always so keen to recommend books. And not just the obvious choices, but really the slightly more obscure books that you may walk past without looking at them twice.

I will be attending the event on the 31st along with some other bloggy reviewers and geeky readers. And of course, I will report back with pictures of any loot I may acquire along the way. Stay tuned! In the meantime, enjoy the piccies below.