Happy Bloomsday!

This Wednesday, June 16th, marks Bloomsday, an international celebration of the work of James Joyce, and in particular, his masterpiece Ulysses. 

Named for Ulysses’ protagonist, Leopold Bloom, Bloomsday is so much more than simply an excuse to drink and wander the streets of Dublin. Internationally, it is a celebration of the utopian vision of Joyce’s everyday epic, of the Modernist movement, which sought to reconstruct the world anew, of literature, culture, food, sex, mysticism, and life. The radical empathy of Bloom, his rejection of racism and rampant Nationalism are just as powerful today as they were 100 years ago, when Ulysses first appeared.

If you have never read Ulysses, there’s never been a better time to pick it up, to learn from Joyce’s extreme openness, his exuberance, playfulness, humour, and utopian vision. Happy Bloomsday 2022 from October BooksWe are open:

Monday - Saturday

10am - 5.30 pm

We are back open six days a week, with the whole store open for browsing. We will still of course be taking customer orders and you will still be able to buy food and cleaning products online through our online store. 

We are able to be open 6 days a week again because of your consideration and care whilst in the shop. Though things are opening up, covid cases are still high and a lot of our staff have only received one jab. So we are asking customers to continue to leave that extra space, sanitise their hands and pull on their mask. We really appreciate it.