What is your favourite bookshop ?

[teamsaint]

And why ?
How much does what it has in stock, ( and where it is merchandised) influence your buying behaviour?

Or do you just browse, have a coffee, and buy later on line ?

Supplementary question, where do you prefer to buy online ? and again why ?


Just out of curiosity, y'understand......

Some I like:

Chains : Waterstones : Malls Bristol, Bath, Truro, Cambridge.

Indies:

Foyles Charing Cross Road. ( sort of a chain these days I suppose)

Toppings, Bath.

Newham Bookshop, for a rather different experience.

Plus some I will remember later.

[Old Grumpy]

Chain: Waterstones - good stock, nice atmosphere
Indie: Cogito Books, Hexham; Forum Books, Corbridge - local, good stock, very helpful staff
Second Hand: Barter Books, Alnwick - can't be bettered!

OG

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Oxfam - and other charity/second-hand bookshops.

The larger stores only stock whatever's in print, and whatever small, independent bookshops there are left around here cannot have everything in stock, and they rarely have what I want. I used to have to order from them, but the delays were always frustrating. For such stock, it is quicker - and often cheaper - to go online.

But the serendipitous pleasures of being in a second-hand bookshop - discovering a whole range of unusual titles, and books from years ago that I'd forgotten about. I can spend hours of happy oblivion in such places!

[Bryn]

I have to admit I have not visited them in their current location, but I used to spent hours browsing in Skoob Books in its former location in Sicilian Avenue, and found some real gems there.

[teamsaint]

Oxfam - and other charity/second-hand bookshops.

The larger stores only stock whatever's in print, and whatever small, independent bookshops there are left around here cannot have everything in stock, and they rarely have what I want. I used to have to order from them, but the delays were always frustrating. For such stock, it is quicker - and often cheaper - to go online.

But the serendipitous pleasures of being in a second-hand bookshop - discovering a whole range of unusual titles, and books from years ago that I'd forgotten about. I can spend hours of happy oblivion in such places!

Interesting. In most ways, it is an incredibly efficient business. You ought generally to be able to get most books that are in print, and available at a major wholesaler ( and that is a vast number of titles) next day. And within a few days for more obscure titles.

In general, music sections are an absolute snore though. The standard classical reference works, biogs of the Stones/Dylan/Springsteen, Viv Albertine's book, ( why ?) and you're about done.

You are right about online . There are plenty of places where you can buy at a discount. I'd recommend Books etc and Wordery ( via their own website, not on market place) who do great prices and service.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I don't even need to think about this one: Grasmere Bookshop. Small, but stocked with many interesting books. It's also very close to the best jigsaw shop.

I also like the Waterstone's bookshops in Newton Abbott and Plymouth, where they've retained the apostrophes.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Interesting. In most ways, it is an incredibly efficient business. You ought generally to be able to get most books that are in print, and available at a major wholesaler ( and that is a vast number of titles) next day. And within a few days for more obscure titles.

I ought, indeed, but it took literally weeks to get titles I wanted. Examples: I ordered an Enitharmon poetry book some years ago from one shop, and ended up - six weeks later! - cancelling and ordering directly from the publisher; another shop told me that the Faber complete Norman Nicholson was "out of print" - it wasn't, as another bookshop was able to prove; another took eight weeks to get me a score of the Debussy Sonata for Flute, Viola, & Harp ... etc etc. I wanted to support these small shops - and I did wonder if publishers had a similar attitude to small bookshops as record distributors had for small record shops (Music Sales would only send orders for at least twenty CDs, so if a customer wanted a particular item not in stock, we had to wait until we had a large enough order before we could include the customer's request). But online is so much easier and reliable.

In general, music sections are an absolute snore though. The standard classical reference works, biogs of the Stones/Dylan/Springsteen, Viv Albertine's book, ( why ?) and you're about done.

You are right about online . There are plenty of places where you can buy at a discount. I'd recommend Books etc and Wordery ( via their own website, not on market place) who do great prices and service.

- I have used both (but via Marketplace ) and I support Betterworld books as often as I can.

[teamsaint]

Both Books etc and Wordery tell me that you will always get a better price direct from their website, although I suspect that the algorithms don't always make this the case. But they certainly make more money that way, and it is in their interest for this to be the case. Changes in Amazon charges to market place sellers last August have hit them very hard.

Going back to Independents, most of them get the lion's share of their stock , both recent and deep backlist, from the two major wholesalers. In general both publishers and bookshops are reasonably happy with this arrangement, and to be fair, it makes for an efficient supply chain. This may apply less to really niche publishers, but there really is no excuse for not getting books to the end user in around a week, via an independent , if it is in stock.

Of course it isn't unknown for certain shops to say that a book is unavailable, when in fact it is just unavailable to them.......

[johncorrigan]

Topping & Co in St Andrews for me. Indeed it's Mrs C's birthday at the end of the week and I think I'll dodge over to the home of golf for a trail round this wonderful space. It looks tiny out front but you walk in and it opens right out, and it's got lots of lovely nooks and crannies on offer. Staff are great and if you hang around long enough and ask enough questions they offer you coffee, free gratis.

[Beef Oven!]

Q. What's your favourite bookshop?
A. Amazon.co.uk

[Petrushka]

Bookshops have mostly disappeared locally so I'm afraid it's Amazon. The number of books I've found there which I've been searching for many years is astonishing. Long out of print titles available at the click of a button and often as cheap as chips.

Otherwise, my favourites are in London; Foyles in Charing Cross Road, and Waterstone's and Hatchard's both in Piccadilly. The Hatchard's in St Pancras Station is so good I've nearly missed my train.

[LMcD]

Q. What's your favourite bookshop?
A. Amazon.co.uk

That goes for me too! I also buy a lot of books from charity shops, and borrow a lot of books via our excellent local library.
Books from Amazon are cheaper than from a bookshop.
Books from charity shops are even cheaper and my purchases are in a good cause.
The more I use the local library, the greater the likelihood that it will remain open. And, of course, my council tax helps to fund that library and others in the county from which books can be sourced.
All 3 carry a much wider range of books - new AND old AND rare - than most bookshops.
And there's a further consideration. Sadly (for bookshop owners that is) I don't have time (and I suspect this is true of others) to browse in bookshops. The only browsing I carry out these days is on this forum!

[cloughie]

That goes for me too! I also buy a lot of books from charity shops, and borrow a lot of books via our excellent local library.
Books from Amazon are cheaper than from a bookshop.
Books from charity shops are even cheaper and my purchases are in a good cause.
The more I use the local library, the greater the likelihood that it will remain open.
All 3 carry a much wider range of books - new AND old AND rare - than most bookshops.

Agree with this - I'm a NT volunteer, one morning each week, working in a small 2nd hand bookshop - a great range of books, old and more recent, gems that customers have sought for years - also sell a few CDs.

[LMcD]

For years, I'd been looking for a copy of a particular novel (by John Masters, as it happens). I finally discovered that it was available, via more than one source, on Amazon. The book cost me 1p plus £2.80 postage - that's how these people make their money. it arrived on the promised date and its condition was exactly as described by the seller (whom one can contact if there is a problem).
Oh yes ...and in no way did the book prove to be a disappointment after a gap of some 40 years!

[Richard Barrett]

I do buy a lot of my books online but there's nothing like browsing and discovering things and leafing through them. If I find myself in the UK I generally go to the nearest Waterstones for a look round, but they all have the same fairly predictable stuff as you'd expect, and as for books about music, as has been said you can forget it (and this now goes for the bookshop in the RFH, I found recently to my dismay, of course I have a vast library of books and scores in my place of work but if I'd seen anything I was interested in I'd have bought it). On my last visit to London I spent an hour or two in the s/h shops of Charing Cross Road, I wish I could do that more often.