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We’re back to book-swapping on Saturday, October 10th, from noon until 4pm. Bring your best used books to trade for some new-to-you titles!
We are celebrating 18 years of the bookshop in all its eccentric glory on Saturday, 3rd October from 10am – 4pm. As well as scones, a treasure hunt and general book-related tomfoolery, we have invited a couple of special guests as well. Julien is a self-taught bookbinder, and the craftsman behind Relics-of-Reveries. He makes journals and grimoires by hand, through unique techniques which combine wood, leather and etched metals. He also works with mass-printed second-hand books, and turns them into beautiful shrines for those few stories you keep closest to your heart. We love his work and are happy to support a local book artisan. We have also listened to you/given into your pleading and will be selling coffee. Paolo is a local coffee expert and roaster. Based in Ecublens, he launched a line of premium Ethiopian and Colombian coffee under the brand Café Mont Noir. He’ll be at the bookshop selling his hand-roasted coffee at BBB subsidized pricing, as well as his coffee beans. For Paolo, it’s about passion, respect and love for the craft, from his ethically sourced beans right up to the cup. We look forward to seeing you here!
UPDATE: All of the free tickets have now been claimed! Further tickets can be purchased directly from the Fondation Michalski. The Jan Michalski Foundation has kindly provided free tickets for their upcoming event: Nature Writing: conversation with Stanisław Łubieński and Iida Turpeinen: Revisiting Natural History. The event takes place at the Foundation on Wednesday 30th September, starting at 19.00 The conversation, which is in English, asks what roles do stories play in shaping our perception of living beings? Iida Turpeinen turns an encounter with the skeleton of an eighteenth-century sea cow at a museum in Helsinki into the touching heroine of her novel Beasts of the Sea. This odyssey of Steller’s sea cow traces, across three centuries, the path of explorers, naturalists, zoologists, artists, and other collectors. Their adventures captivate even as they raise questions about the effects of scientific bias and the human impact on ecosystems. In a variation on the emotional and intellectual power of stories from the natural world, Stanisław Łubieński invites us to look up at the sky, to observe what dwells there and to remember what once did. As a humanist ornithologist, he traces the striking bonds between birds and humans, from cinema to first-hand expeditions, from the…
The Tines are a New England based band formed as a recording project in late 2019, and creating a cleverly crafted indie rock that focuses on the balance of tension and beauty. They will be at the bookshop on Wednesday, June 3rd at 3pm, performing an acoustic set as a guitar/vocals duo. The Tines released their first EP, The Enemy Is Listening (Free As Birds Records) in 2020, and began to perform live in 2021. A self-titled debut album came out on Funnybone Records in 2022. They have performed around the Northeast US and EU, appeared at the Arts and Ideas Festival, Garé a la Rochette, The Thing In Spring, and Limb Snapping, playing with artists like Daniel Romano, The Huntress and Holder of Hands, Lee Ronaldo, Improvement Movement, and The Futurebirds. As a solo artist, S.G. Carlson has appeared alongside Andy Shauf, Michael Nau, Erin Durant, and Shaun Rowe. Their second album, Barrows, released on March 20, 2026 via Funnybone Records to great acclaim, receiving 9 out of 10 stars on Americana UK, and praise from Shindig Magazine, Spill Magazine, Daily Nut Meg and more. Their music is available on your favourite streaming sites and in independent record shops….
Noted Palestinian writer Yousri Alghoul is coming to the bookshop on 24th June to discuss his experiences in Gaza, as well as his latest publication, Book of Wills. Published in March by Akoya, eighteen Gazan writers share their last will and testament. The book is a profound exploration of the written word as both an act of resistance and a refusal to be erased. The collection includes pieces by several writers who have since been killed. Yousri published his first collection of short stories, Singing at Her Death, in 2007 and has since published the novels Before Death / After Madness, The Dead Resurrected from Gaza, Fifty Days, and Layla (all in Arabic), as well as Gaza 87, which focuses on Gaza since the outbreak of the first Intifada in 1987. Most recently, his reports from Gaza have been translated into English and can be found here, here, here, and here. Doors at 18.30, the event will start at 19.00. At the request of the author, we will be selling Book of Wills and related books at cost price. Sign up here.
We are delighted to announce that Matthew will be in conversation with Bruno Giussani at the bookshop to discuss his latest book Our Minds Under Siege: How to Avoid Being Manipulated in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Author, curator and podcaster, Bruno was the European Director and Global Curator of the TED conferences for two decades and has been published, amongst others, in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal Europe and, Wired (find out more about him here). He has also been a long-time supporter of the bookshop. The book decrypts the nature of the relationship that is developing between us and algorithmic technologies and the economic and power structures in which they exist. The event will take place on Thursday, 4th June, doors opening at 18.30, the conversation at 19.00. Please sign up here. Places will be limited.
Last year we organised a walk in the Lavaux following the publication of Pocket Guide to Architecture: Lavaux’s Built History. Through photos and text the book explains the history of the vineyards through its buildings. I went on the first walk and it opened my eyes to the history that has been staring me in the face for 25 years. We are now inviting you to take part on the second on Saturday, 9th May. The plan is to meet behind Cully station at 13.30. We will start by exploring the streets of Riex, We aim to arrive in Rivaz at 16.00 having taken in the view over Cully, the old mill on the stream, the capites, the large vineyard estates above the villages, and the monastic estates around Dézaley. We will be guided by Denyse Raymond, an expert on the region and one of the book’s authors. Please sign up here if you want to come.
Although time passes quick when you’re having fun, it doesn’t seem quite possible that a year has passed since we moved to Rue du Valentin. There seems to be a lot to celebrate. Not only has Matthew’s hair got a bit greyer, Rachel’s Science Fiction and Fantasy shelves have continued their march eastwards, To celebrate books, books and even more books, we are inviting you to our bookshop party on Saturday, 25th April from 10am to 4pm. There will be a treasure hunt so you can browse the shop and win prizes, more scones than anyone can possibly eat in a lifetime, and we’ll have a photo booth to have so you can have yourself snapped surrounded by books. If this sounds like fun, then just mark the date in the diary and come along when it suits you. No need to sign up.
We are launching a monthly Science-Fiction and Fantasy Book Club, hosted by your bookseller Rachel and bookshop regular Audrey. The first date is set for May 13th at 18h30; the first book is Simon Jimenez’s The Spear Cuts Through Water (members benefit from a 10% discount on book club titles). Email us at books@booksbooksbooks.ch if interested.
We are proud to announce the launch of our very own Eco Book Club! Amy (PhD in Nature Writing) and Sylvia (Apocaloptimist) will be facilitating this new book club and warmly invite you to its launch on Tuesday, 21st April at 7pm until 8.15pm. Simply bring your favourite eco-relevant book (fiction or non-fiction), idea or suggestion and sign up here.