Super Thursday boost for book shops as Filan, Keane, Cleese, Ahern all release titles

Book shops are hoping to receive a boost from today - dubbed Super Thursday - as it will see the largest number of titles published in 2014 on a single day.

Today's bumper publication is perfectly timed for the Christmas gift-buying season.

Some 315 of the most hotly-anticipated hardbacks are coming out ahead of Christmas - including new titles from Kevin Pietersen, John Cleese and Heston Blumenthal and Roy Keane's updated autobiography The Second Half.

Shane Filan's autobiography My Side of Life reveals all about his days in boyband Westlife.

"To be picked to come out on this day is a great thing to start… There are a lot of big books out this week, so I'm chuffed my book has been chosen to be out on this day," he said.

Bob Johnston from Dublin’s Gutter Bookshop told writing.ie: "Super Thursday takes place on the first Thursday of October and has become the key date for many of this year’s biggest books to be released.

"Many Irish bookshops will host 'Big Bookshop' parties on Saturday October 11 to celebrate the new offers and show why bookshops are still so important to our main streets."