Phew! That was quite the celebration! We’re delighted to report that our Grand Opening was a bright and buoyant success. Here’s a pictorial recap of our three-day festivities…

On Day One, there was cake.

On Day Two, we opted for MORE CAKE.

And on Day Three, we decided we needed CAKES. And also cookies, because it is important to eat more than one kind of carbohydrate.

And there were prizes! Here’s Mark manning our “Jenga for Fabulous Prizes” stand. Mark’s expression suggests he found it quite hard to part with the fabulous prizes, and who can blame him…

There was milling at Malvern! Just look at all these lovely literary types. It is possible we exceeded our maximum occupancy, but fortunately there were no calamitous fires.

There was music! Here are three of the four Faux Paws getting their folk on:

And best of all, there were readings. Here’s our Curmudgeon in Chief, Dr. Joe, playing MC:

Our esteemed readers included Tyler Gobble and Taylor Jacob Pate:

And Joshua Edwards, who read from Imperial Nostalgias:

Mark Smith read from Knave of Hearts (while also doing a pretty nifty Sam Neill impersonation, amirite?):

And Matt Hart (at right) gave a rather dashing performance:

Thanks so much to everyone who came by Malvern Books over these past few days. It was lovely to meet you all, and to feel so warmly welcomed by Austin’s awesomely smart and vibrant literary community. We trust that a jolly good time was had by all, and we look forward to seeing you at our future shenanigans. We also apologize for any cake withdrawal you might be experiencing.