The Editor's Page

The sparrows are still twittering in the background to some of the audios. They are a noisy bunch, and hardly ever stop! The rose around my study window is a Banksia Lutea and though the blooms are all gone and the sparrows are fledged, they still roost there much of the day it seems. 29/12/11

It has been so mild over Christmas they must think it is spring!

I and my colleagues wish you a Happy and peaceful New Year as we enter 2012

So much has been happening in the Christian Bookselling trade. Shops have been closing, publishers amalgamating, and yet more books than ever are being published. If our statistics are anything to go by, more and more book reviews are being read.

Please do support the Christian Bookshops as much as you can. Most of them have websites and emails that you can order from as well as telephone numbers of course. They can offer you a knowledgable service that other online suppliers cannot match.

The shops are not just selling goods, they are ministering to people who would not go into a church but find the shops ‘safe' places to air their concerns. They are truly ‘church on the High Street' and are sorely missed when forced out of business by high costs and low sales.

As you can see by my white hair, I am getting old! If the site is going to be able to continue into the future,  help is needed. If anyone approaching retirement is interested in being part of our team, do contact me and I will gladly explain the various jobs that need doing. No one has to do everything.

Or perhaps you would like to review for us? The only reward our reviewers have is to keep the books they review and the editor's decision on whether a review is included is final.

Apologies to those expecting to find me on Facebook. I'm afraid it takes me all my time to keep the site updated, so I leave Facebook and twitter to my colleagues Carole and Melanie

Contact me if there is anything I can help you with, I would welcome hearing from you.

Please encourage your church to put a link to our site on their website.

www.thegoodbookstall.org.uk

The more people we can reach, the more worthwhile our endeavours.

If you wish to use our reviews in any way, help is available to enable you do so, just ask. 

The site went live in March 2001, with 300 titles, some with TGBS reviews, some with Publishers notes. At the time, Publisher sites were poor and bookshop sites almost non-existent. The Internet's impact on the Christian trade was very small.

There are now, at the end of 2011, 6,500 reviews to be found on site with another twenty being added most weeks. Almost all have independent reviews written after our reviewers have read the books. We don't pretend to read everything available, and of those we do read, we only publish reviews of those we can recommend.

In more recent years the whole of the Internet has developed in ways that we could not have imagined back in 2001, and to keep up with this explosion of interest, we have had to continuously develop our site to maintain our position as the site with More books from more publishers all in one place as our heading declares.