Tag Archives: hive

Happy birthday to us! Hurrah and all that!

03/10/2012 – 16:32

And it is indeed, our first birthday! A whole year since we went live and took the initiative to bring the worlds of online book shopping and bricks and mortar shopping together. Hang on… I just need to have a bit of cake to celebrate this… won’t be long.

<<Time elapsed: 42.5 minutes >>

There, that’s better. When discussing cake one can’t be expected to rush. And we have an amazing amount of reasons to eat cake here at Hive HQ. Exactly a year ago we decided enough was enough and that we wanted to do something for our beloved independent bookshops on our high streets. Keep shopping online, stay in front of your computer with the cat and browse and buy all you wanted, but do it whilst supporting your local independent bookshop as well. What could be more amazing? What? What’s that you say? More champagne and cake? But of course!

Seriously though, no matter how much the internet has to offer you, nothing compares to walking into an independent bookshop and surrounding yourself with the atmosphere of books and literature, knowing that it was all crafted and put there by people who know books. People don’t run independent bookshops for their health, they do it for the love of the written word and the illustrated graphic and this is why their continued place on the high street is of paramount importance and relevance. For the past year Hive has sought to champion this; bringing you your products and your local bookshop together. There’s so much in those walls that you need to know about and could be missing out on if you don’t go and see what they’re up to. Shopping on Hive supports this because we don’t want to lose them any more than you do – so buy from us and keep your local indie.

We’re looking forward immensely to the next year coming up and what we have in store for our customers and supporters. We couldn’t have done all this without those that have chosen to support their high street and their local independent bookshop – you.

Anyway enough of this now. Go and drink some more champagne and eat cake. Captain’s orders.

By hivenetwork | Posted in Hive's Blogs | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments (1)

The Wrath of Me.

27/01/2012 – 17:19

And so it was with some interest that I settled down last night to watch the new episode of Room 101, which I had recorded from the week before. I didn’t know Frank Skinner was hosting it now, but I like him so this got my seal of approval already. I noticed the format had changed too, and we now have three celebrities choosing their pet peeve or what makes their head burst in frustration, of which Skinner selects one out of the three choices and condemns to the eternal fires of Hades contained within Room 101.

When I was a teenager and first watching Room 101 back in the 90s with Paul Merton presenting, not only did I love the programme dearly, but I used to spend hours as I was walking down the street or watching television fantasising as to what I would throw into Room 101 if I had the chance. Some suggestions I think could be quite controversial so if you ever meet me in a bar, by me a cider and I’ll tell you them. However I don’t lack the courage of my convictions when I say that I would quite happily plunge into Room 101 Yorkshire terriers, Victoria Beckham and rhubarb. And those are the ones I consider non-controversial.

But I’m not going to sit here and type out my arguments for and against the ones that Peep Show‘s Robert Webb, broadcaster Danny Baker and TV presenter Fern Britton selected, I’d be here all day. I must get in though that I thought Webb’s choice of the
Jeremy Kyle Show was indisputably utterly correct and I for one will dance a merry dance when it no longer taints* our screens. The one argument I wanted to make was Fern Britton’s choice of science fiction, her even going so far as to ridiculously claim, “No science fiction is set in the modern-day, it’s all set in the past.” REALLY, FERN?! Really? All science fiction is set in the past? No present-day science fiction at all, or even set in the future?! I can sense Gene Roddenberry rolling his spiritual eyes. And to add insult to even further injury, Britton even had the audacity to yell out, “Science fiction isn’t even real; it’s not true and all fake!” Thank the lord and all His seraphim that Frank Skinner was there to boldly boom out, “That’s why it’s called ‘fiction’!” Cue great audience applause and a sheepish laugh from Britton.

To counter what she said, and to prove that I am normally right, I have put together a small selection of science fiction films and TV shows, all set in the present day, or at least at the time they were actually filmed themselves, and you will find them live on Hive from Monday on the homepage. Call me rather passionate and taking this to extremes, but when you know someone is wrong the temptation to prove them of this is just a normal human trait I feel and one that does not require justifying. If you’re interested in seeing my choices, then please log on, on Monday to the homepage and see how I am right and Fern Britton is wrong. Mwahaha.

=/\=

*putting it mildly

By hivenetwork | Posted in Hive's Blogs | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

It’s Christmas time. And there’s no need to be afraid.

23/12/2011 – 15:50

Well of course not, I mean, it’s not like Halloween, is it? Christmas isn’t full of skeletons and witches and pumpkins and ghouls. Strange lyric to start the opening of one of the biggest-selling charity singles of all time. Still, its questionable lyrics to one side, Do They Know it’s Christmas did its job and is still very much firmly cemented in the must-slashed-forced-to-hear Christmas songs legacy. The only other bizarre lyric I tend to pick at is the line, “and there won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas time.” Well, of course not. Think about the geography and the climate… there you go.

However as Christmas songs go, there are a great deal much worse than this. Wizzard, Slade, Paul McCartney, John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Shakin’ Stevens, East 17 and Johnny Mathis all make me want to cringe uncontrollably upon hearing their Christmas musical efforts year after year after year in department stores and shopping centres. Give me Jona Lewie, Chris de Burgh, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, The Pogues & Kirsty McColl, Queen and Boney M any Christmas time.

But don’t get me wrong re: Band/ Live Aid. I have the four-disc boxset of Live Aid proudly in my DVD collection, and it was only last weekend in a state of merry Christmas intoxication (at least that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it), that lo, it did come to pass that I watched some of it again. It’s still the greatest concert of all time and Band Aid’s influence on charity singles, and by extension Christmas singles, is still very much evident today. Long may it reign supreme. Even if it has got Marilyn on it.

And on that note, now that you all know what songs I love to hear at Christmas and which ones make me want to move to Ecuador whenever I hear them, we here at Hive HQ wish all of our customers and independent bookshops a wonderful Christmas, and a healthy new year. We thank you for your support since our launch earlier this year, and urge you to stick with us through next year as we continue to keep our aim true; that any purchase you make here on Hive will help keep our independent bookshops where we want them – on our high streets.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

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Have the last word… and you did!

30/11/2011 – 17:48

As you may know by now, the winners of our first major competition have been announced! Our chosen author of the competition, award-winning crime writer Mark Billlingham, selected from a “wealth of untapped writing talent”, three authors which he deemed had completed worthy finishes to the specially-written story he had created for Hive. Hundreds of entries were sent into us and the standard was very, very high indeed. Three more winning entries for the stories with the largest public votes were also awarded prizes too.

If you want to read the triumphant entries, you can do so here: http://www.havethelastword.co.uk/ and click on the individual tabs to read their winning words. As ever if you keep following us on Facebook and Twitter, you’ll be the first to know about our next amazing competitions! Also a quick thank you to Mark too for being our selected author for the competition.

And also I will take this opportunity to highlight as well three great independent bookshops that are currently showing their support for Hive and independent bookselling via the Guardian; London’s Dulwich Books and Tales on Moon Lane, and Castle Hill Bookshop in North Yorkshire. Each of these three shops all have their own recommended-for-Christmas pages on Hive, and by clicking on their names above you will be able to go straight to them and see what they have personally chosen. We will be having one more bookshop joining the fray very soon, University Bookseller in Plymouth. Each bookshop has taken part in an online question and answer session about books & independent bookselling for us via the Guardian over the past two weeks, with Dulwich Books to take the next spotlight this very Friday at 1pm. If you want to join the session, you are more than welcome to here and ask Dulwich Books what they are recommending for Christmas, or indeed anytime you wish to buy… for anyone. This is great exposure for our beloved independent bookshops and we here at Hive are very excited that these shops and the Guardian have agreed to take part; now let’s do our bit by keeping them where we want them – on our high streets.

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Have the last word… indeed!

12/10/2011 – 12:15

Have the last word - and win £1000 to spend on booty on Hive

*Grabs small trumpet and makes long tooting sound*

Ladies and gentlemen of book and independent bookshop-lover land! By now you should all know about the fantastic competition Hive is running; finish a grisly story started by award-winning crime author extraordinaire
Mark Billingham, and you could win £1000 British pounds sterling to spend on DVDs, Blu-ray and/ or books on Hive. I think this is a very juicy thing for anyone who’s ever fancied penning a murder / crime novel and now’s your chance to go for it, and have Mark Billingham say that you were the best, made him shiver and want to carry on reading… have your last word on Mark’s specially written for novel, and be in with a chance to win £1000 to spend on Hive.

And there’s even more! Do not despair if you are not chosen by Mark with the winning entry, the writer who submits the entry which gains the most public votes will get £250 to spend on books, DVDs and Blu-ray at Hive as well. That will buy you a lot of booty.

Any chance I get to write I snap up with great fervour, so come on writers, do the same too and show the world how awesome you are how you write… how are you going to finish off Mark’s novel? Go to the competition site, have a look at the details, read Mark’s opening paragraph and ‘scribe for your life!

And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to keep up-to-date of all the entries and to cast your vote.

By hivenetwork | Posted in Hive's Blogs | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Potter vs. Twilight… and some serious stuff too.

11/08/2011 – 16:27

I had to laugh to myself this morning as I read this feature on t’interweb: http://paidcontent.org/article/419-twilight-themed-pottermore-parody-gets-300000-hits-in-three-days/ Quite simply in reaction to the success and media surrounding JK Rowling’s Pottermore website, designed to continue the Harry Potter legacy well into the future, some rather clever young Twilight fan has created a Twilight-equivalent to the website, with a site called twimore.com.

Are you more vampire than wizard?

The very first Harry Potter novel, all those years ago.

This is just a parody of what the ethos of Pottermore would be if applied to the Twilight-Stephenie Meyer universe, and since its “launch”, astonishingly it can actually boast it has had over 300,000 hits. The site lets you do similar things to the features of Pottermore, with interactive content, puzzles and quests. The best bit? That some people out actually believe it’s real. Ho ho ho.

Perhaps not so jovial and more serious was the next thing I learned about this week with regards to a small feature in the Guardian’s online money blog. This is a weekly feature where a Guardian reader submits a question in order to try and save money, about any subject, and other readers can comment and post answers to help them. Last week a reader was caught in a moral dilemma versus the purse strings… why should they shop in their local independent bookshop when they could just go online and order direct to their door, not to mention it would be cheaper, with some of the biggest online book retailers?

This is a subject I have kept very quiet on until now. The point is, if we all thought this then Hive wouldn’t be here and you wouldn’t be reading these words. The sheer fact that you are I’m hoping, is because you do care about your local independent and you want to keep them in your high street. Yes, granted, there are the more technical/ impatient consumers amongst us whom are happy to buy online and not give two hoots about their local indie, but we are here to help and aid and support the people who do care about their shops, and those shops too. There are pros and cons about both, and you can take everything into consideration from the financial side of things to the environmental side of things. It’s great to see that by reading the comments on the Guardian’s blog that there are people out there who are willing to support their indie, because they love the service they receive, the knowledge from the staff and the warm, personal service they receive each time they go into the shop that no mouse, keyboard or computer screen is ever going to give them. I found it sad though there were a host of negative comments too, some which question the skills of tact, but I think in all realism we are always going to have those that will prefer ordering online for whatever reason. And that’s their prerogative. However to say that independent bookshops ‘are no longer needed’ is the part which to say the least irked me; it’s a complete fallacy and perhaps the only way we can show those who ‘aren’t bothered’ is to ask the question…. How would you find it if you were to wake up one morning, walk down your high street and find absolutely no shops there anymore because everything that you once used to buy in a bricks-and-mortar shop was now only available next day because you have to order it online? I should think the streets would be very barren, quiet, and ultimately, soulless.

My opinions on the previous issue well and truly spoken there I think you’ll agree, I would now like to turn your attention to another rather odd feature I came across online too this week: http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/PWxyz/?p=6136. Not that I ever want to laugh at death, there are however a few amusing stories here and I think number two is my favourite. Have a read and maybe you’ll learn a bit of trivia you didn’t know before about some of our most historical authors.

Ian Rankin's new novel out mid-October, The Impossible Dead

For Ian Rankin and his Rebus fans there was exciting news announced this week too, as the Edinburgh-author has just put the finishing touches to his latest novel, The Impossible Dead. It is due to be released mid-October and will no doubt be a sure-fire bestseller for the Scottish crime writer. You can pre-order it now on Hive by clicking on the link in the title just mentioned, and opt to collect it from your local independent bookshop.

I would like to mention too that last weekend saw my birthday. To celebrate this I went on a two-day trip to London and managed to keep out of trouble by going to the London Aquarium and seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 at the O2. An absolutely glorious day, but a special mention must go to the small gift I received in tribute to Hive and the end of my twenty-ninth year on the planet.

My birthday bee biscuit, yesterday.

 

And no, I still haven’t eaten it. How could I?

We shall see each other soon!

Laters!

By hivenetwork | Posted in Hive's Blogs | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments (2)

Professor Plum in the library with the candlestick.

28/07/2011 – 10:50

Well he-llo!

Ooof. So much to get through this week, it’s enough to make you cry. Dally not and let’s plunge headfirst into all the amazement there is to discuss!

First thing I want to pimp out quickly is I hope you have seen the wonderful range of Beatrix Potter plush toys on the homepage we have for purchase. I’m not going to embarrass myself by telling you all what my father used to call me – as a term of endearment he defends – as a child, but the character in question I was named after is in the very same section. So if for nothing else I implore you to have a look and try and guess the character. And no, it wasn’t Mrs. Tiggywinkle.

I was most amused to learn this morning about a different sort of award which I couldn’t help but smirk at. An award for bad prose, it is presented to the author of the worst opening to a piece of fiction in the past year. It is named in tribute to Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, after he was responsible for an extremely bad opening to a piece of literature he once wrote. This year’s winner of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is Professor Sue Fondrie from the University of Wisconsin and her winning words: “Cheryl’s mind turned like the vanes of a wind-powered turbine, chopping her sparrow-like thoughts into bloody pieces that fell onto a growing pile of forgotten memories.” Cringe-worthy indeed, and I believe I can say with utter confidence that Hilary Mantel hasn’t anything to worry about.

Yesterday saw the release of two seminal award longlists, the prestigious Man Booker Prize and the Crime Thriller Awards. There are four longlists in the latter, the titles of which you can see displayed in our crime, thrillers & mystery section. The gold dagger award itself always makes me think of an enlarged-version of the small metal dagger used in Cluedo sets you’d stab your pawns with as a child. But congratulations to all those nominated in the awards and let the judging begin.

Another thing that made me laugh to myself today was learning about David Prowse’s new autobiography, due to be published this September by Apex. David Prowse MBE you should know was the man in the costume – though not the voice of – Darth Vader in the original Star Wars films. Naturally the Herculean amount of Star Wars die-hards that walk the Earth will be looking forward to reading it, but my amusement stems from the title of the book itself; Straight From the Force’s Mouth. Genius.

Quickly going back to stationery on the site, if you’re in the market for some whimsical new office items or a journal with an elegant twist, please pop over to our stationery page where you will find a fresh and whole-new section of stationery items including mugs, screen cleaners, pencil cases, a beautiful range from Paperblanks and 2012 art calendars from Pomegranate. I’ll be listing some new items on a weekly basis, so please make sure you check every Monday for new items being added.

As always you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook; by following us on the former you ensure that you never miss any of our news, views and competition details… so do yourself a favour and follow us! And if Twitter ain’t your thang, you can ‘like’ us on Facebook too. Simples.

I leave you now for another one hundred and sixty-eight hours until the next time we meet.

Laters!

By hivenetwork | Posted in Hive's Blogs | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (2)

ABC, 123…

01/06/2011 – 14:41

Welcome. Good day to you.

I’d like to start with a quote on our very first blog here at Hive.

As Julie Andrews sang on top of that mountain in Austria some 46 years ago… let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start, when you read you begin with…

Well, hopefully shopping on Hive.

Okay, so I’ve allowed for artistic license there, but the sentiment is right and that’s what we’re aiming for you to think about when you go to order your next book online. Here at Hive we are very excited about Hive’s launch; we’ve put a lot of hard work into creating it and cannot wait to see how it’s going to change the way you order your books and indeed, how you receive your booty too. The best thing undoubtedly about it all is that you can still order your book or DVD from the comfort of your own home with moggy firmly on lap, and then you can go and pick it up from your local indie bookshop. That way you can say hi and see what other goodies they might have in store for you there to see! This works so well with the news and events feature we’ve given to the bookshops for their pages, so why not twin picking your new purchase up with going on the same day as your shop is holding their next amazing event? You never know what they might be holding in their wonderful shops, so don’t miss out; order your book and go and say hi!

I’ll leave the technical and sales stuff in the ‘About Us’ section for you to read. This is Hive’s blog, so expect to read about new titles and releases, events, media, technology, the odd promotion… in fact anything I have an opinion on and feel you should know about. And that’s not including all the wonderful things you can learn about your local independent bookshops and what’s going on with them in their world. Rejoice!

But what have we got for you at the moment on Hive? Well, we have a positive plethora of promotions for you to take advantage of, including books to tie in with National Barbeque Week, Dummies eBook guides and Scottish fiction and non-fiction eBooks. It’s also that time of the year when you might be thinking about where you’d like to go away for the summer and to help you decide we have a fantastic Lonely Planet eBook promotion for you to indulge in. With over 100 destinations to choose from, we’re confident you’ll find the eBook you need for your perfect holiday this year. Bon voyage!

So for the moment enjoy Hive. There’s much to explore, browse and purchase, whether it be a new recipe book you’re after, a Disney Blu-ray for the wee ones or the new Charlaine Harris for the eReader. It’s all here for you to see and be impressed with.

Hive: the only thing we don’t do is walk the dog.

By hivenetwork | Posted in Hive's Blogs | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (0)
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