About Em's Bookshelf
In 2022 I graduated from my undergraduate degree in English. I've always been a bookworm and a proper fan of sitting down with a cup of tea and a decent book. I'm not one of those people with a favourite genre; I will literally read anything that looks good/is recommended to me/is a book. Graduating and not having seminars made me realise how much I love talking about literature and I thought maybe I could find a way to incorporate it into my business so I don't keep boring my girlfriend with my thoughts about writing.
Thus, Em's Bookshelf was born!
Here, I create pretty book bundles complete with matching earrings to spread the joy of receiving a new book or a second-hand one for sustainability reasons. They will mostly be preloved, and therefore the books will be graded based on their quality and the prices will be changed accordingly (I know not everyone can deal with a cracked spine!).
Mystery Reads:
You can probably find lots of 'Blind Date With A Book' sets around, but I like to think mine are a bit different because I give you a few extra things to go off!
Each Mystery Read set comes with a little card offering select bits of info so you can make sure that it's your cup of tea before committing. Plus, they come with a handmade polymer clay bookmark that is based of the themes/narrative/book cover! And, you have the option of adding a pair of earrings too! The bookmarks and earrings are all unique to each Mystery Read, and I'll probably never stock the same book twice, so you can be sure that no one will ever have the same as you.
So, how does the book grading system even work?
A*/New Grade: What it says on the tin. They're brand new!
A Grade: They could probably fool you for being new. There might be a little mark or two on the front. There may be a little wrinkle or two on the spine but nothing major. Definitely no dogears here.
B Grade: They've been read and are a bit loved around the edges. You can tell they've been in someone's bag and maybe the spines are wibbly. The decent kind of quality you'd find in a second-hand bookshop.
C Grade: Proper loved books. The pages are crinkly, spines are cracked, and they've definitely moved house before. They don't have any pen/highlighter inside though so nothing too off-putting... after all, you shouldn't judge a book by its cover! There's a lot of life in them yet.