George R R Martin opens Sante Fe bookshop

George R R Martin has opened an independent bookshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

The Game of Thrones author bought the Jean Cocteau Cinema in 2013 and has opened Beastly Books next door, at 418 Montezuma. Martin decided to open the bookshop after hosting signings with authors at the cinema.

He said: "Dozens of terrific, award-winning, bestselling writers have appeared at the JCC to speak, read, and sign their books… SF writers, mystery writers, historical novelists, romance writers, thriller writers, mainstream literary writers, YA authors, non-fiction writer and journalists… the list goes on and on. And all of them have signed stock for us. The only problem was the Jean Cocteau lobby was far too small for us to display all of these wonderful autographed books. With that in mind, on 30th November, we opened our own bookshop right next to the theatre." 

The shop is named "in honour of Cocteau’s most famous film… and a certain TV show I worked on in the 80s", said Martin. 

Beastly Books will also stock signed copies of Martin's own books. In a post announcing the bookshop, Martin said: "Needless to say, we have a huge stock of my own books—A Song of Fire and Ice, Wild Cards, and all the rest.  All signed. But we have a lot of other fantastic books by other authors too, and all of them are autographed as well."

Beastly Books is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. from Tuesday to Sunday. The shop is closed on Mondays. Martin says the shop will offer tea, coffee and pastries and will stock titles by authors including James S A Corey, Walter Jon Williams, Lee Child and Anne Perry.