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Which in my case would be My Back Pages on Station Road in Balham, South London. It’s a glorious jumble of second-hand stock packed two or three deep and piled up to the ceiling in some sections. Newer intake is stacked in precarious columns against any flat vertical surface not already covered in shelves and more books with a random selection of vaguely art-deco-ish antiques and bric-a-brac decorating the display windows. It’s an odd shape – a sort of long isosceles with too many sides. One end carries well-chosen new books which are all discounted by about 10% to 15% which is as much or more as Amazon does for anything that’s dropped off the best-seller lists.
If they haven’t got it, they’ll order it, which costs nothing and only takes a few days (have you noticed how long it takes Amazon to deliver these days if you don’t pay through the nose?). The bookseller doesn’t expect you to pay upfront either. And you can browse and browse and browse without someone leaning over you meaningfully (ok, so the bigger shops have got wise to that as well – but it’s not the same as spending half an hour at the far end of the shop, utterly, blissfully alone with the books aside from an occasional fellow addict).
I’ve made myself a promise that if I buy any more course books, I’m going to order locally. (I started on Sunday with Foucault’s History of Sexuality Volume 1). Beautiful, supposedly appreciated local shops – use ‘em or lose ‘em, folks. Anyone got any other favourites?
Filed under: books, reading | Tagged: local bookshop, local shops, support local shops
Sounds like you are a lucky fellow…I’m in suburbia which means I can drive 30 mins. into the city to find a good used book store, or I can settle for a tiny shop in a strip mall that mostly carries dogeared romance paperbacks. Or I can give up and go to the big box chain bookstore just down the road. Sigh.
When we lived in Sacramento we had a good used bookstore nearby; their specialty was aviation books but they had a good overall selection, lots of comfy chairs, and the requisite friendly bookstore cat.
Then there’s Powells City of Books in Portland, Oregon. It’s used book paradise. I think it takes up an entire city block. That’s heaven.
indeed, you’re lucky to have such a wonderful local bookshop. i live in the city so the only good bookstores are the commercialised ones. the service is pretty good, but truly it lacks the warmth and cosiness of a local bookstore whose owner would probably recognise you if you’re a regular.
I sometimes wonder whether it’s only the really big, sprawling cities which can manage to support the truly individual. Just back from a trip and the kind…monoculture that exists outside of London is always a shock, no matter how beautiful the surroundings.