You probably already know that an orange Penguin cover indicates general fiction, green for crime fiction, cerise for travel and adventure, dark blue for biographies, yellow for miscellaneous, and red for drama. But what led to this uniquely simple cover design?

A Journal based-edition of Mrs Blackwell’s quarterly-ish update from the bookshop. This month we find out what’s happening in Greytown over winter, a musing from Mrs Blackwell about reporters notebooks and one from Mr Blackwell about why Kiwi blokes should pick up more books.

On June 11th Featherston Booktown will host an event marking 100 years since the publication of ‘Ulysses’, James Joyce’s widely banned novel. Censored in England and the United States, as well as here at home. Napier based Customs officer Henry Foster protesting its sale, and even went as far as saying the book was “written by a mental defective.”

Globally, women are more likely to be avid readers, more likely to read daily, and more likely to have read more books in the past year than men — despite the fact that women are more likely to be illiterate than men. But why are men less likely to be readers?

Recently, we received our first delivery of Blackwing’s new Reporters Notebooks, and as I was testing them out I started thinking about them as a physical tool. What a pop-culture icon they are. Why I have the instinct to put on a fedora and furiously scribble some findings in pencil. I realised, I had some questions.

A Journal based-edition of Mrs Blackwell’s monthly email update for readers. This month we find out what’s happening at the bookshop in Greytown, a very special event coming up in South Wairarapa, and there’s a couple of musings from Mrs Blackwell herself about letter writing and erasers.

For many, the beauty of a pencil is the ability to erase one’s marks — so a pencil without an eraser is a bit like a day without sunshine; gets the job done but it’s so much less pleasurable. In today’s entry we take a closer look at the eraser - the humble invention at the thinker’s side as they polish their ideas in graphite.

Letters are special because they require effort. If the idea of sending more notes and letters appeals, but you aren’t sure where or how to start, Mrs Blackwell has curated a few suggestions.

The bookshop turned 1 year old on December 12th and Mrs Blackwell sat down to reflect on all we've managed to achieve in these first 12 months. Let’s look at year 1 of Mrs Blackwell’s by the numbers.

While we're known best these days for our shopping and dining locations, Greytown still has a lot of public green space that can be enjoyed for no cost at all. And, conveniently, there are public benches and seats available all over, beckoning a weary traveler or passerby to pause a moment and enjoy the view.

From the air we breathe to the water we drink and the wood we use, trees are essential to our survival. Trees have been good to us, so we’re happy to return the favour! Here’s the how and why we support local charity Trees That Count.

An instagram follower recently asked for our thoughts on the best way to display books at home. In this entry Mrs Blackwell shares her ideas.

Do we really carry the knowledge we gleaned from that first read forward forever? And are there new insights to be had from a second (or third, or fourth) pass of the same book?

Whether you’re a true believer or merely curious about the zodiac, here’s our (just for fun) guide for matching your friends or loved one’s sign and personality traits to their tastes as a reader.

Learn more about Mr Matthews - Greytown’s most cheerful bookseller. The first thing he bought with his own money, his daytime drink of choice and of course his favourite reads!

We recently spoke to Alison Jones, whose book This Pākehā Life - An Unsettled Memoir, was shortlisted for the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards and has been one of our bookshop’s best-selling non-fiction titles in 2021. 

Boasting 11 independent bookshops and the country’s only Booktown, the Wairarapa may just be New Zealand’s #1 region for readers. Here’s a sampling of the curious and clever minds behind our bookstores.

When was the last time you listened to someone, or someone really listened to you? At work we’re taught to lead the conversation. On social media, we shape our personal narratives. At parties, we talk over one another. We’re not listening. And no one is listening to us.

Do major literary awards actually equal more sales of the books and make them more popular? The answer, as with so many things in life, is “it depends.”

George Gibbs, Ockham New Zealand Awards finalist for Booksellers Aotearoa prize for Illustrated Non Fiction talks to Millie Blackwell from The Village Bookshop in Greytown.