After 19 years TheBookGuide has called it a day and ceased publication on March 31st

Readers comments - Steve Archer

Just to add my voice to the chorus of good wishes and thanks for all the wonderful information and news you have provided to book-hunters and bibliophiles over many years.

Your website has been an absolutely essential resource and the way you have managed to keep on top of an ever-changing and often eccentric trade is really remarkable and shows amazing dedication as well as a grasp of modern technology that is beyond most of us!

Of the website's many great features I think I would pick out the Bookshop feedback service as particularly useful - and also I imagine from your point of view the most difficult to police! So many times I've been spurred to go out of my way to pop into a shop I haven't visited before because of an encouraging comment from a Book Guide contributor.

And also the Shelf Life feature. So many fascinating news stories relating to Books and Bookselling. Perhaps as a parting gift you could reveal how you get to hear about these? Quite a few seem to come via the Guardian but there are many others from sources all round the world, so I assume you have some sort of news feed? It would be interesting and useful to know,

Finally, good wishes to you in your retirement. I find it hard to believe you really are going to pull the plug later today and bid the book trade goodbye. I have a feeling you will still be involved in some capacity or other. With very best regards, Steve Archer 31.03.20.

The answer to Steve's Shelf Life question is that I have a large number of saved Goggle news keyword searches. - Mike