We’ve fallen back in love with browsing for books, says enthusiastic shop manager Andrew Turner.

Just a few years ago there were fears that book shops were facing their final chapters in the face of online trading and the advent of small hand-held electronic devices for reading .

But now the tide has apparently turned and shops selling ’traditional’ paperbacks and hardbacks are doing well.

That’s the message from Mr Turner, 35, who has now been manager of Waterstones in Strand Street, Douglas, for several months, having started at the shop as an assistant 10 years ago.

Married with three children aged 11, nine and eight, Mr Turner is particularly keen to get more young people through the door.

As part of the drive two new book clubs are starting this month.

lThe young adult event will feature the book ’Who runs the World?’ by Virginia Bergin and this will take place on Wednesday, June 28 at 6.30pm.

l The Sci/Fi book is ’Red Rising’ by Pierce Brown and that book club will take place on Monday, June 26, again at 6.30pm.

Business News met up with Mr Turner over a coffee in the comfortable Waterstones Cafe upstairs on the first floor.

Our meeting followed an upbeat and very positive message put out by Waterstones chief executive James Daunt in an interview with the Mail on Sunday.

Much has gone on behind the scenes at the giant book chain and Mr Daunt has handed individual bookshops a lot more responsibility for sales, ordering and even pricing.

This is confirmed by Mr Turner, a confirmed book enthusiast, who says he often reads several books a week.

He said: ’We get a lot of help from head office but there is a lot of things we have to look out for ourselves. We have to take advantage of every opportunity we can. There is competition from other book shops in the island and from the internet.’

Mr Turner said the TT Festival had been ’huge’ for the shop. He said: ’We’ve come out of it in a very good place.’

He said: ’John McGuinness, Ian Hutchinson and Michael Dunlop all had new books out and everyone wanted them.

Michael Dunlop’s book sold out about four times.’

Mr Turner said island folk of all ages still love browsing for books.

He admitted: ’There was a worry around about the time devices such as Kindles came out. But many people I know who bought them have since come back to us for their reading. They have given it (kindles and electric devices) a try but then they have come back to books and I hope that remains the case. I really do.

’Customers say you can’t beat the experience of reading from a paperback or a hardback. And I believe that is very much the case.’

Mr Turner said a lot of jobs these days are geared around looking at a screen during the day.

’So do people want to go home only to look at another screen to read in their spare leisure time? I would say no. A book to me is an escape and a retreat from all that.’

Mr Turner says he and his team are always working hard to keep ahead with new ideas.

’We have customers from every demographic you can think of. And we are treating to encourage more younger readers.

He was delighted when classes from his former school, Willaston Primary, came to the shop earlier this year. ’They did a fantastic thing. They were given a budget for their library and instead of the teacher just handpicking the books they brought every single year group down every day and they were told to each pick up a book. The number of children that had never been in the shop before was pretty staggering.

’But later on the following Saturday I saw a lot of the children again, dragging their parents around. It was great, it was such a heartening thing to see.’ Mr Turner’s love of books goes back to his weekly visits to the library at Onchan as a child. He is still an avid book reader averaging around two or three a week.

Manager Andrew Turner is an avid book enthusiast and is trying to encourage more youngsters to read