Author Topic: Wonderful Bookshops to Visit  (Read 5817 times)

Lady Grey

  • Patrikios
    Voting Member
  • Posts: 1134
  • Karma: 8
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Wonderful Bookshops to Visit
« on: February 02, 2016, 01:39:20 PM »
I love book stores, and thought I'd start a thread for particularly great ones people have visited and would recommend (because ALL bookshops are great :P).


I personally really love Waterstones Deansgate in Manchester (UK). If I'm in town and start feeling particularly anxious, I go there to browse and calm down. It's over 3 floors and has a cafe as well. (I notice quite a few Waterstones are adding Costa Coffee's/cafes actually).
The Waterstones in Chester City Centre (UK) is lovely as well. It's set into the rows and it's lovely inside.




Jubal

  • Megadux
    Executive Officer
  • Posts: 35495
  • Karma: 140
  • Awards Awarded for oustanding services to Exilian!
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: Wonderful Bookshops to Visit
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2016, 03:19:50 PM »
If you haven't been to Cecil Court in London, that has to be high on the list - a whole street of unusual/antiquarian bookshops :)
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

Othko97

  • SotK Beta
  • Patrikios
    Voting Member
  • Posts: 3520
  • Karma: 9
    • View Profile
    • Personal Site
    • Awards
Re: Wonderful Bookshops to Visit
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2016, 05:11:09 PM »
I am Othko, He who fell from the highest of places, Lord of That Bit Between High Places and Low Places Through Which One Falls In Transit Between them!


Jubal

  • Megadux
    Executive Officer
  • Posts: 35495
  • Karma: 140
  • Awards Awarded for oustanding services to Exilian!
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: Wonderful Bookshops to Visit
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2016, 05:40:11 PM »
Also, Foyle's in London is nice and huge and suchlike. :)
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

Lizard

  • Patrikios
    Voting Member
  • Posts: 267
  • Karma: 3
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: Wonderful Bookshops to Visit
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2016, 07:11:12 PM »
There used to be a wonderful second-hand bookshop in Birmingham. Exactly like you'd imagine a Diagon Alley shop to be - all uneven floors and piles of books to the ceiling which had no business remaining upright without magic. You could get everything from text books to popular fiction to 10-cent American spy thrillers from the 60s. Obviously I bought a LOT of those in my four years in the city.


I revisited Birmingham recently, and it was closed. The hand-scrawled note in the window read "We have closed. Not moved, just gone."


I was cry.
A coder, a hoodie, a coffee pot, a robot.

"A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."

Glaurung

  • Sakellarios
    Financial Officer
  • Posts: 7077
  • Karma: 20
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: Wonderful Bookshops to Visit
« Reply #5 on: February 02, 2016, 10:37:34 PM »
Hmmm... let me see...

Cambridge
- Heffer's: for many years Cambridge's only large bookshop, and still catering for mainly for the academic and reference market. A fairly ordinary shop front, leading back into a much larger space with four levels - a sort of bibliophile's cave :)
- Waterstone's: larger than Heffer's, on four floors. The SF and fantasy is in a quiet area at the back of the ground floor, and they even provide comfy chairs :)

London
- Stanford's: this one is the UK's best-known specialist map seller, and I could browse there for hours.

Oxford
- Blackwell's: the Oxford equivalent of Heffer's, with the same sort of layout - small on the outside, huge on the inside. I've not explored all the side passages and basement levels, but it could easily be the local portal to Pratchett's L-space.

Lady Grey

  • Patrikios
    Voting Member
  • Posts: 1134
  • Karma: 8
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: Wonderful Bookshops to Visit
« Reply #6 on: February 26, 2016, 10:19:43 PM »
I want to go to all these places! D:


Lizard - that's so sad! :(



Also, not a bookshop really, but we visited the John Ryland's Library in Manchester on Valentine's Day. It was beautiful!

Pentagathus

  • King of the Wibulnibs
  • Posts: 2704
  • Karma: 20
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: Wonderful Bookshops to Visit
« Reply #7 on: February 26, 2016, 10:52:02 PM »
There's a second hand bookshop in Edinburgh but I can't remember the name of it or the name of the street and I imagine theres more than one second hand bookshop in Edinburgh so this isn't very useful. It was in the old town center though, think it was fairly close to Blackfriars.

Jubal

  • Megadux
    Executive Officer
  • Posts: 35495
  • Karma: 140
  • Awards Awarded for oustanding services to Exilian!
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: Wonderful Bookshops to Visit
« Reply #8 on: February 26, 2016, 11:24:24 PM »
I wonder if anyone's ever written a guide to the UK's best second hand bookshops...
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

Lizard

  • Patrikios
    Voting Member
  • Posts: 267
  • Karma: 3
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: Wonderful Bookshops to Visit
« Reply #9 on: February 29, 2016, 02:26:33 PM »
I wonder if anyone's ever written a guide to the UK's best second hand bookshops...


Seems like a job for Google. And if they haven't, I see an opportunity...
A coder, a hoodie, a coffee pot, a robot.

"A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."

Pentagathus

  • King of the Wibulnibs
  • Posts: 2704
  • Karma: 20
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: Wonderful Bookshops to Visit
« Reply #10 on: February 29, 2016, 04:35:06 PM »
I wonder if anyone's ever made a guide to Britain's second best second hand bookshops.

Lizard

  • Patrikios
    Voting Member
  • Posts: 267
  • Karma: 3
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: Wonderful Bookshops to Visit
« Reply #11 on: February 29, 2016, 10:24:56 PM »
I wonder if anyone's ever made a guide to Britain's second best second hand bookshops.


We should probably set a termination clause for this kind of recursive silliness, before we start on the databases.
A coder, a hoodie, a coffee pot, a robot.

"A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."