♜ CHESTERTON RADIO GOODS
The first shelves are stocked.
We have begun with a small collection of things from our own corner of the world.
The Common Room Mug
For coffee, tea, long mornings, good books, and conversations that run a little longer than expected.
The Chesterton Radio Classic T-Shirt
The Open Door, Chesterton Radio, and Stories • Ideas • Wonder on a comfortable, old-fashioned cream shirt.
The Open Door Cap
A simple embroidered version of the emblem of Chesterton Radio — understated enough to wear anywhere, and just mysterious enough to invite a question.
We are building this department slowly.
We would rather make a few things worth having than cover everything with our logo.
[VISIT CHESTERTON RADIO GOODS →]
📚 THE READING ROOM
Books worth keeping.
Chesterton, Belloc, Lewis, Tolkien, Dickens, Shakespeare, the great detectives, forgotten novels, old children’s books, history, poetry, theology — and whatever else we discover that seems worth putting on the shelf.
Not simply books to buy.
Books to read, reread, lend, argue about, and eventually give to somebody else.
The shelves are being stocked.
☕ THE COMMON ROOM
Good coffee. Better conversation.
Mugs, coffee things, tea things, and the small comforts that belong beside a favorite chair and a good book.
The Common Room is not really a room.
It is a table where people linger.
A kitchen after everyone else has gone to bed.
A corner of a library.
A chair beside an old radio.
Anywhere people still have time for stories, ideas, laughter, disagreement, and another cup.
And, in time, perhaps a coffee of our own.
The shelves are being stocked.
🏠 HOME & HEARTH
Things made for living rather than replacing.
Useful things.
Old-fashioned things.
Things that can be repaired.
Things that do one job particularly well.
Kitchen tools, household goods, workshop objects, garden things, lamps, clocks, blankets, and whatever else reminds us that progress does not always mean throwing away what worked yesterday.
We have a particular affection for things that might still be doing their job twenty years from now.
The shelves are being stocked.
📻 THE WIRELESS ROOM
For people who still like radios.
Radios, speakers, headphones, microphones, listening gear, and the occasional piece of technology that remembers technology is supposed to serve the person using it.
Some of it may be new.
Some of it may look as though it belongs beside a fireplace in 1948.
We consider that a virtue.
The shelves are being stocked.
🎁 GIFTS & CURIOSITIES
Things we couldn’t quite put anywhere else.
Odd books.
Games.
Desk objects.
Mechanical things.
Small gifts.
Interesting things discovered in forgotten corners of the internet.
Things that make excellent presents for people who are notoriously difficult to buy presents for.
And occasionally something that serves absolutely no practical purpose whatsoever.
Chesterton would probably have approved.
The shelves are being stocked.
THE MERCANTILE RULE
There is already enough stuff in the world.
So the rule here is simple:
We will try not to recommend something merely because somebody will pay us to recommend it.
Some links in the Mercantile may eventually be affiliate links. Some products may be made for Chesterton Radio. Some may simply be things we like.
When there is a commercial relationship, we will say so.
But the real test is simpler:
Would we tell a friend about it if there were no money involved?
If the answer is no, it probably does not belong here.
A SHOP THAT IS NEVER QUITE FINISHED
The old general store was never a perfectly organized place.
There might be coffee beside work gloves, books beside fishing tackle, candy beside nails, and something inexplicable hanging from the ceiling that nobody remembered ordering.
We rather like that.
So the Chesterton Mercantile will probably always be changing.
New things will appear.
Some will disappear.
And every so often we will find something wonderful that we did not know we were looking for.
That is how a good shop should work.
Come in. Have a look around.
The shelves are still being stocked.
And that’s part of the fun.
— Chesterton Radio
Stories • Ideas • Wonder
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