LRBS Week 1: 16-20 June 2025
In a surprising number of ways selling books today is as challenging and unpredictable as it was for Caxton in the fifteenth century. Over five hundred years booksellers had to develop strategies to respond to changes not only in literary taste and demand but also restrictions resulting from government taxation, regulation, and censorship, and the opportunities that accompanied new methods of distribution and huge increases in the volume of new books produced each year.
Taking an historical approach, the course will focus on the eighteenth century onwards when books became cheaper and more accessible. Bookshops have long played important social roles beyond mere commerce begging the question ‘what are bookshops for’? They have hosted seditious gatherings, launched literary movements and romantic trysts, encouraged innovation, and even fermented revolution. Today, the age of mass literacy, ebooks, and Amazon, they are valued as community hubs, social centres, and places to meet like-minded friends for a coffee.
Drawing on the expertise and experience of specialist tutors and industry professionals the course combines cultural, social, geographical and economic analysis to explore the distinctive characteristics of bookselling and understand what makes the business of selling books a perhaps uniquely adaptable and resilient commercial activity.
