Interesting Facts

According to the Guardian newspaper, there are only 987 independent bookshops in the UK. (The number of independent bookshops in the UK fell below 1,000 in 2013, with 67 closing, leaving just 987 across the UK. It's really sad, and Amazon needs to take some of the blame.) Source

US crime writer James Patterson is offering £250,000 to independent bookshops in the UK and Ireland. (Worried about the death of the independent bookshops, he has already run a similar scheme in the US, with grants of between £250 and £5,000 available to spend on schemes aimed at encouraging reading among children.  This is what you could call, putting your money where your mouth is.)