About Us

The Book Nook is an independent, family run bookshop in Ware, Hertfordshire, that sells a range of new and used books, toys, literary gifts, book subscriptions, book tokens and more.

The Book Nook opened in 2019 and is owned and managed by Julia Chesterman along with her son Sam and a small team of volunteers.

The bookshop runs activities for children, book groups and author events, as well as working with local schools and community groups to encourage reading for pleasure, promote literacy and inspire a lifelong love of books, learning and imagination.

We curate a diverse collection of books ensuring the highest quality and variety for our customers and support local authors by helping them connect with readers and help build a strong literary community that inspires interesting, imaginative, and thoughtful stories.

 

 

A poem by customer Sarah Wragg

 

The old bookshop

Sitting in the armchair next to where the chimney used to be,

the storyteller begins her tale. 

Looking up every time she turns the page

she sees the semicircle of cross-legged children

staring up at her, enthralled. 

But the bookshop owner isn’t telling the story to them.

The tiny, centuries old building

had its own ideas -  

spitting out a translucent boy, 

malnourished, scared, covered in soot,

who’d stood shyly by her

whenever she sat down to read.

So finally she read a story out loud

and when the boy drew closer and smiled

she read another and another. 

Now there are stories for children every day

and every day the boy inches closer to their crescent.

She hopes one day he will be brave enough to sit cross-legged with them

and have a chance to understand what childhood is. 

  • About Us

    The Book Nook is a cosy bookshop on Ware High Street We opened our shop in 2019 and we have quickly become the destination for books and more in East Hertfordshire We have thousands of books on our shelves for you to browse: Fiction, Non- Fiction, Children's books as well as a range of gifts and toys and If you can’t find what you’re looking for on our shelves, we can order it in for you and you’ll usually have it in your hands within 24 hours. We hope to see you soon! Don’t just take our word for it though, check out what people are really saying about us on our testimonials page. We hope to see you soon!

  • Expert Help

    We want you to love what you read, so all our staff are experts at what they do. We’ll help you with book recommendations and we’ll listen to what you’ve enjoyed in the past. With our extensive book knowledge, we’re sure to find your next favourite book. Stepping into The Book Nook, the chances are someone will ask if you'd like a recommendation. After years of hand-selling books and making personalised picks for our Reading Subscribers, we're confident that we can find a book to suit your tastes. We boost our book knowledge by spending our time talking to customers, getting tips and feedback, The Book Nook is a place where bookish chat is always on offer. Of course, if you prefer a quiet look around, that's fine too - we understand the thrill of the tranquil browse. If you can't make it to the shop then, you can browse and buy from our online shop.

  • Thousands Of Books!

    We have thousands of books on our shelves for you to browse including Fiction, Non-Fiction, Children's books as well as a range of Bookish Gifts and Toys. If you can’t find what you’re looking for on our shelves, we can order any book in for you, and you’ll usually have it in your hands within 24 hours. For rare and out of print titles we will try our best to track down that hard-to-find book you are looking for. We love getting book suggestions from our customers and getting your reviews on books you have loved, so feel free to tell us what you would like to see on our bookshelves!



Meet Our Bookshop Cat



Meet Bilbo Baggins! He’s our very own Bookshop Cat.

He likes to nap on our cosy bookshop chair and receive cuddles from regular bookshop adventurers.

Pop-in for a chance to see him or check out our Instagram page to see what antics Bilbo’s been up to.



Need More Than A Book?


  • Author Events

    We've had a great year of author events at The Book Nook in 2025, and we are busy planning our events for 2026.

    In October, we had a wonderful evening with Natalie Cassidy, for the book launch of her autobiography, Happy Days (we still have a few signed copies available here) 

    In September we were joined by best selling historical crime author,  Laura Shepherd Robinson, for the launch of her latest book, The Art of a Lie.

    This year, we have welcomed many other wonderful authors for Q & A talks and book signings including Freya North, Natasha Solomons and AJ West.

    We are currently looking for volunteers to help with organising our events. If you have some spare time and would like to get involved, please contact Julia at julia@booknookshop.co.uk or read more about our volunteering opportunities here 

  • Children's Activites

    We run lots of free children's events at The Book Nook including story times, book groups and work with local schools to bring authors for fun and interactive sessions, to inspire a lovely of reading.

    This year we have visited schools with lots of great children's authors including Author of The Investigators Book series, John Patrick Green, Tom Palmer best selling author of over 60 books and our local lovely New York Times bestselling author of The Leaf Thief picture book series.

    We're currently looking for volunteers to help with organising our childrens and school events. If you have some spare time and would like to get involved, please contact Julia at julia@booknookshop.co.uk or read more about our volunteering opportunities here

  • Book Group

    We have a monthly onlline Book Group where we virtually meet once a month to discuss our chosen monthly read.

    We have prompts based upon themes, based upon our yearly book challenge. Everyone gets a chance to put forward their favourite book suggestions, share your love of reading with other like-minded people and delve into some exciting books you may never have read otherwise! You also get 10% off the chosen book.

    Why not join us online on the last Monday of the month on our Facebook Group here.