An independent bookshop and café on Glebe Street, two minutes from the station: two floors picked by four people who read, a café you can sit in with a book you have not bought yet, authors on Thursdays, three free book clubs, and any book in print by the next working day.
Closed for today; opens tomorrow at 9am
The shop
01
Fiction, crime, poetry, history, nature, cookery, children's, young adult, a wall of Welsh books in both languages, and the staff picks shelf with the reasons on cards. Anything we do not have, we order: in print means next working day, usually, and we text you when it is in. Nothing to pay until you collect.
Books at the price printed on them.
02
Eight tables at the back of the shop and two in the window: a flat white at £3.20, cakes from a Penarth baker, soup and a toastie at lunch, loose-leaf tea, and a rule that you can sit with a book you have not bought yet and nobody will hurry you. Open nine to five, Sunday ten to half past three.
Flat white £3.
03
An author in the shop most Thursday evenings: a reading, a conversation, questions, a glass of wine and a signing, in thirty-five mismatched chairs between the shelves. Tickets £6, taken off the price of the book on the night; launches for Welsh authors usually free. The events page has the next two months and the seats left.
£6 a ticket, redeemed against the author's book on the night; launches usually free.
04
The Thursday fiction club, the Sunday non-fiction club and the teen club on the first Saturday of the month: free to join, ten per cent off the month's book, one of us chairing, the café open for the evening ones, and the book chosen by the members from a shortlist. The clubs page has each one, its next book and whether there is a seat.
Free.
05
Upstairs is for children: picture books, first readers, middle-grade, a window seat with cushions that is the best spot in the building, and a wall of young adult. Storytime for under-fives is every Thursday at half past ten, free, with a book and a song; we host school visits, run a summer reading challenge, and know which book will get a reluctant nine-year-old reading.
Storytime free, no booking, Thursday 10:30.
06
The present that is a person choosing: a subscription of one book a month picked by us for the reader you describe, posted or collected, three months £48, six £90, twelve £170. Or come in with a description of the person and leave with the right book, wrapped in brown paper and string for nothing. Book tokens, gift cards and a wedding or baby list too.
Subscriptions: three months £48, six £90, twelve £170, including postage in Britain.
Staff picks
A Vale novel about a lighthouse keeper's daughter in 1952 that made me miss my stop. Plain prose, enormous feeling.
Chosen by Ceridwen£9.99
The best nature book about this coast since Gwenallt: the Severn, the levels, the birds, and a man walking off a grief. Read it slowly.
Chosen by Rhodri£10.99
A crime novel set in a Cardiff registry office. The detail is so right it must be true, and the ending is a trapdoor.
Chosen by Ffion£8.99
A memoir of a childhood above a Penarth ironmonger's in the sixties. Half the shop has bought it for a parent.
Chosen by Ceridwen£12.99
Events
Reading and conversation with Ceridwen
A walk through the book with photographs
A reading and drawing morning for under-eights
Thirty-five seats; doors at 6:30, the author at 7. £6 comes off the book on the night; launches are usually free.
Subscriptions
£48 postage included
Posted anywhere in Britain or collected, with a card saying why. Postage included.
£90 postage included
The most popular length. Hardback or paperback, their choice.
£170 postage included
Renewed by most people; we keep the notes and the books get better.
You fill in a form about the reader: their last three loved books, the last hated one, hardback or paperback. A named bookseller chooses, writes a card saying why, and swaps any book that misses.
The café
Beans from a Cardiff roaster, cakes from a baker on Plymouth Road who delivers at eight, soup and toasties from noon, and a rule that you may sit with a book you have not bought for as long as you like. No wifi, by request of the people who use it. Dogs on the ground floor; a bowl by the door.
Book clubs
First Thursday of the month, 7pm · chaired by Ceridwen
2 seats freeAsk for a seat
Second Sunday of the month, 11am · chaired by Rhodri
Full; waiting list openJoin the waiting list
First Saturday of the month, 4pm · chaired by Rhodri
5 seats freeAsk for a seat
How we work
A bookseller's job is to be honest. If the book you ask about is one we did not enjoy we say so, and suggest another. If you loved something and want more like it, bring it in and we will find three.
We sell at the price printed on the book, which is what the law allows and what keeps a shop open. Ten stamps on the card and a book up to £10 is free; book club members get ten per cent off the club book; schools and teachers get ten per cent on everything.
A whole wall for books from Wales, in English and in Welsh, from the big names to the pamphlet a neighbour printed. We launch about a dozen Welsh books a year in the shop and the authors sign stock for the shelf.
Nine to six, Monday to Saturday, ten to four on Sunday, and open again at half past six on Thursday evenings for events. The café closes an hour before the shop so the last customer can finish their coffee.
Customers
I describe a person and Ceridwen hands me the book. It has worked eleven times. The wrapping in brown paper and string is the nicest thing on Glebe Street and it is free.
Ordered an obscure history book at ten past three on a Tuesday; text at nine the next morning saying it was in. Same price as online, and I got a conversation about it at the counter.
Three years in the fiction club and I have read things I would never have picked up and argued with people I now count as friends. Free, with wine from the café and Ceridwen refereeing.
Yes: any book in print, usually by the next working day, at the price printed on it, with nothing to pay until you collect. Ring, email, ask at the counter or use the order page. We text when it is in and hold it for a fortnight, or post it for £2.95 (free over £25).
We sell at the publisher's price, which on most books is the same as online. The ten-stamp loyalty card gives you a book up to £10 free, book club members get ten per cent off the club book, and schools and teachers get ten per cent on everything.
The events page lists the next two months with the seats left. Book there or at the counter; tickets are £6 and come off the author's book on the night, and launches are usually free. Doors at half past six on a Thursday, the author at seven.
Three clubs, free to join: Thursday fiction, Sunday non-fiction and the teen club. Twelve members each, a bookseller in the chair, the book at ten per cent off, the next three books listed on the clubs page. When a club is full we run a waiting list and start a second group at eight names.
Yes, for as long as you like. That is the point of the café. No wifi, by request of the people who use it.
The ground floor and the café are step-free. The children's floor is up a steep listed staircase we cannot change; we bring books down, carry prams, and move storytime downstairs for anyone who needs it.
Title, author or ISBN on the order page, at the counter, by phone or by email: we order it this afternoon, text you when it is in and hold it a fortnight. Nothing to pay until you collect; posted anywhere in Britain for £2.95, free over £25.
