Avid, Riverbend team up for Christmas review night

29 November 2012 Books+Publishing

Riverbend Books and the Avid Reader, both based in Brisbane, held their annual Christmas party together on Monday night, using it to share staff knowledge on the books in their Christmas catalogue.

‘Fiona [Stager, owner of Avid Reader] and I provide wine and pizza and Hachette and Penguin were very generous with book gifts for all staff,’ Riverbend owner Suzy Wilson told Bookseller+Publisher.

Wilson said every staff member gives a two- to three-minute spoken review of a book from the Christmas catalogue that is used by both stores, and is the same catalogue used by Readings in Melbourne and Gleebooks in Sydney.

‘It is fun but more importantly we learn so much from each other,’ said Wilson of the review evening. ‘It is a bit different from other reviews because there is quite a focus once the review is given on whom that particular book will suit.’

Wilson said that Trent Jamieson’s highlighting of great sci-fi titles was of note on Monday night, along with ‘a bit of a nudge’ about the catalogue’s bias being towards the literary with ‘barely a nod to sci-fi and fantasy’.

Category: Local news