Book Displays: A Hands-On Experience

A few of us recently took a field trip to another bookstore (that shall not be named) to check out how they display books, among other things. It never hurts to see how others approach things and learn from them. This particular store chose to display books by piling them high on a table and adding a simple sign denoting the category. That's all well and good, but at Next Chapter we have a very imaginative staff and we really do love making eye-catching, creative displays, so we were a little taken aback to see such a bare bones approach. 

Then we read an entry on our friend John Mesjak's blog that talked about the updated and revised edition of Why We Buy by Paco Underhill. The section Mesjak highlighted talked about displays and explained that customers are hesitant to shop elaborate displays for fear they might wreck them, or might not even know whether or not they are "allowed" to shop it. 

We think that we have been able to find a good balance between austere and elaborate in our displays. But, just in case you have stopped by and were hesitant to grab a book off of one of our tables, let us reassure you that you are not only allowed but encouraged to do just that. We like making interesting tables to feed our own creativity, but more than that we like making them to bring your attention to books that might otherwise be tucked away in places you may not ordinarily visit. (A fiction fan might not stop by the cooking literature section, and vice versa, but a themed display of a variety of cooking-related fiction and nonfiction works exposes both readers to a new genre). 

With that in mind, here are a few examples of tables Scott has put together lately. We hope you'll stop by to look at them, pick up the books, carry them around, buy a few, pick up the last copy, and even put some back in the wrong spot--it's all fine with us.

Summer Reading

Check out some of our picks for great beach reading, novels with summer themes, books that have been released this summer, and books that don't really have anything to do with summer specifically but we just really happen to like right now and think you will too. 

Music

There are a lot of neat books about music out there that can get overlooked if you're not out to find them. Here you'll find the latest by Oliver Sacks, some stunning photography books, a few different titles commemorating Woodstock, biographies of artists and bands, and music literature books covering everything from Bach to Bauhaus.

Battle of the Books: Zombie vs. Vampire

This table was inspired by the recent crop of books about...well, zombies and vampires, naturally. We would love to make the table into some kind of sales contest to see which monster is the bigger draw but we're not quite sure how to work out the logistics of that so for now we'll just have to settle for having a fun display full of great books. 

Europa Editions

The publisher that brought us the wildly popular book The Elegance of the Hedgehog is home to a host of excellent books in translation and you'll find many of them on this table. If you're looking to discover something new, here is the place to look. Bonus: the cover art is just gorgeous. 

Read the Movie: Public Enemies

We usually have a general "read the movie" table full of books that have been turned into films, but Anne put together this table inspired by the recent Public Enemies movie that, as most of you know, was partially filmed in Wisconsin. You'll find the book the movie was based on as well as related histories and biographies of Dillinger, Bonnie & Clyde, and others right here. 

We hope you enjoy seeing and shopping our displays as much as we enjoy putting them together. If you're out and about this weekend stop by the bookshop to check out our handiwork and the books that inspired it in person.

-Rebecca