clickandbuy,allowingyouachancetodipinto
differentstylesofwritingtoseeiftheyappeal
- indeed time to give due judgment to a book by
its cover. But there’s more. Through their cafes,
bookclubsorauthorevents,theyreflectthe
passionsoftheirowners,staffandcommunity - look at the ‘beloved bookstores’ illustrated by
Jane Mount on these pages, a long way from the
unwelcoming den epitomised in the TV series
Black Books. Let’s be heartened by the fact that
last year the number of independent bookshops
intheUKincreasedforthefirsttimeina
decade (although only by one) – find a local
through the indie bookshop week listings at
indiebookshopweek.org.uk/bookshopsearch.
SECONDHAND SECRETS
Altogetheradifferent–but no less delightful
- beast is the secondhand bookshop. I’ll confess
that what really gets my pulse racing is a tiny
shop overf lowing with teetering stacks of used
books, three layers deep. I picture a specific
shop when I think about this, one right outside
my railway station when I first moved to
London, which I always fell into on my way
home to cram in an hour of bookish fun before
it closed. With each book costing a pound at
most, my reading habits were never so diverse.
Secondhand bookstores mean you can
sample “oh I’ve never got round to trying”
authors without guilt, or rediscover delightful
butout-of-printstories.Ihaveabatteredlistof
authorsIspecificallylookoutfor–recently
enhanced by Christopher Fowler’s The Book of
Forgotten Authors (Riverrun), which contains
biographies of 99 authors who have fallen from
popularity, but are well worth seeking out. Plus,
when secondhand book shopping, there’s
always an extra frisson of excitement of what
elseyoumightdiscover:notesinthemargin,an
intriguing inscription, perhaps a hidden love
letter – it’s a snooper’s paradise.
SPECIALIST SPINES
Bookshops aren’t just about escaping. They’re
also a haven for knowledge, like walking into
a living, breathing encyclopaedia. Specialist
bookshops do the research for you, waiting for
you to come in and scoop up the spoils. What
could be nicer than planning your holiday with
a bit of primary research in a shop such as
Stanfords in London’s Covent Garden? Crime
(^3) BOOKS FOR COOKS. London, UK
An institution for hungry fans. The upstairs test kitchen
prepares recipes from a chosen title and serves lunch
daily to 40 or so enthusiastic foodies.
(^4) CITY LIGHTS. San Francisco, California, USA
Founded by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti in 1953, it’s both
a bookseller and a publisher. Ferlinghetti was arrested
onobscenitychargesrelatedtohispublicationofAllen
Ginsberg’sHowl(foundnotguilty)andthestore
remains closely associated with the Beat poets.
(^2) POWELL’S. Portland, Oregon, USA
Almost synonymous with Portland with over five Powell’s
stores around the area (although the first Powell’s was in
Chicago). The flagship store, Cit y of B ook s , is the largest
independent used and new bookstore in the world – and
occupies an entire city block.
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