If you know of Persephone and their wonderful work rediscovering and printing neglected 20th Century classics, you will know what to expect from their bookshop: beautifully designed, delicate, feminine and done with impeccable taste. Persephone’s shop and office on Lambs Conduit Street matches their books right down to the grey frontage. The house style, of a plain, dove grey cover and discreet title on cream label, makes Persephone’s books gloriously distinctive and their choice of titles really makes them stand out as a publisher. Since 1999, Persephone have published 96 titles, ranging from fiction, poetry and memoir to cookery and even children’s books.

The shop is small and intimate. The soft lighting, pale furnishings and fresh flowers create a homely and welcoming atmosphere. Each title is shelved in a pile along with a bookmark to match its end papers, the pattern of which is inspired by vintage fabrics and chosen to reflect the style or period of the book, and a brief blurb to explain the plot. Hand-wrapped titles in pink tissue paper and ribbon are available for impeccably efficient gift buying. The shop stocks all available Persephone titles, as well as cards and a very small selection of books from other publishers; books which the staff at Persephone have enjoyed and think compliment their titles.Since Persephone’s office and bookshop share the same space, you are able to get recommends from the people who have worked so hard to get the books back into print. Miki, part of the publishing team, told me about her favourite Persephone title, The Home-Maker:

‘Written by American author, Dorothy Canfield Fisher in 1924. The novel, set in New England, describes Evangeline, a housewife and stay at home mother of 3 children. She has OCD, as you would now identify it but then she was seen as a perfectionist and quite tyranical in the home, although well meaning. Circumstances change within her marriage, so that she goes out to work and her husband stays at home and looks after the children. He is a Montessori dad who gives them the space they need to grow up, it sounds quite mundane but it’s beautifully written. It’s very feminist, but not in a self conscious way.’

Most (but by no means all) of Persephone’s titles were written by women in the early to mid-20th century. Each title was popular in its day but had fallen out of favour, and print, until they were rediscovered and reprinted in a high quality edition. The reasons for their declining fortunes vary; there were paper shortages during and after the war; many printers were bombed and the original books lost in fires; others suffered due to changing trends and fashions.

All the titles sound so enticing that the only problem with Persephone’s books is deciding which to read. I am sat with the catalogue next to me and it’s making it almost impossible to concentrate on writing. Each time I dip in for “research”, I find something else that I have to read: a novel about a dog by Virginia Woolf, or a social comedy by her husband, Leonard. There are feminist novels, written well before Betty Friedan or Germaine Greer were even born; radical meditations on family, identity, and domesticity. Or a poetry collection with the irresistible title It’s Hard to Be Hip Over Thirty and Other Tragedies of Married Life. Honestly, I haven’t been this excited about a catalogue since I used to flick through the Argos catalogue as a child and you can’t get much higher praise than that…

If you are overwhelmed by the choices on offer, there are 10 Persephone Classics available, identified by the paintings on their covers. These titles are priced at £9 and, since each one is a Persephone favourite and bestseller, they are the perfect way to begin your own exploration through the catalogue.So how does a company, so committed to rediscovering the past, plan for their books’ future? Well, in response to reader demand, Persephone have just produced e-book versions of 9 of their titles. Miki told me that while creating a book that is a pleasure to hold, look at and place on a shelf is an important part of their business, the contents of each book is the most important thing. Therefore, if Persephone are able to gain a larger readership by releasing e-books, they must move with the times.

Persephone publish novels written by authors of varying nationalities, but what really appeals to me are the novels based in London. Books like Denis Mackail’s Greenery Street, which recounts 1920′s Chelsea in a wonderfully Wodehousian style, or Bricks and Mortar by Helen Ashton, with its vivid descriptions of London’s architecture before 1940, make you treasure the city’s past and start to actively hunt out areas that look like “old” London.

Bloomsbury is one of the places where you don’t have to try too hard to imagine the old London, so it is fitting that Persephone’s shop is nestled among the brown-brick 19th century terrace buildings on Lambs Conduit Street. I must confess to never having heard of the street before visiting Persephone, but I will be sure to return; it’s the sort of place that makes living in London endlessly appealing. Filled with independent shops, grocers, cafés and restaurants, Lambs Conduit Street is the perfect place to spend a Saturday afternoon. This video from Monocle should give you an idea of what to expect.Persephone have two monthly book groups, meeting on a Wednesday and a Thursday, they also run evening and lunchtime events and a yearly lecture. You can find details of events in their Biannual magazine, which you can receive by joining Persephone’s mailing list, the magazine is free and includes articles, reader reviews and a short story. If you don’t live in London, Persephone books should be available through your local bookseller, or you could purchase them directly from their catalogue or website. I must also suggest following their blog, The Persephone Post, which provides a thought provoking image or idea each weekday; I’ve really enjoyed this weeks series of Meredith Frampton portraits.

Since starting this blog, I have begun to approach bookshops in an entirely different way. I used to pop in to bookshops on my way elsewhere; now the bookshop is my destination. I arrange my visits a week in advance, usually by email, to ensure that I visit at a quiet time and do not interrupt more than is necessary. Each visit really begins when I exit the tube stop and attempt to retrace the route I have hastily scribbled in my notebook moments before leaving the house (Note to self: Buy an A-Z or a phone that can access the internet). For some reason, I always feel a bit nervous: here I am, I think, armed with my notebook, camera and makeshift mp3 player-come-voice recorder but what if there is nothing worthy of recording?

So as I leave West Hampstead tube station and head up hill on a brisk but sunny November morning, my eyes flit from shop front to shop front until I spy a green awning. I breathe a sigh of relief, as I have on all my visits so far; West End Lane Bookshop is lovely. The cream walls are lined with deep mahogany shelves and although not particularly large, bare wooden floors and carefully placed tables create an elegant and spacious feel. The shop is one of three family-owned bookshops in North London and has been open for 17 years.
There has been a flood of big-name literary hardbacks released recently and they are well-represented in the shop’s new book bays. I spot Murakami’s 1Q84 and Eugenidies’ The Marriage Plot and am reminded, somewhat guiltily, of my ever lengthening to-read list. It’s a list that is lengthened considerably when I start to peruse the hand-picked fiction section. It’s my favourite type: unashamedly literary, with the great and the good all present and correct alongside an occasional unfamiliar name to catch your interest.

The shop also has smaller sections dedicated to crime, sci-fi, poetry, graphic novels and various non-fiction; history, biography, cookery etc. Towards the back of the shop is a bay of attractively jacketed special editions by the likes of Penguin and Faber. They look particularly appealing when all grouped together and would, I’m sure, look even better in on my bookcase (I’m fairly certain Santa reads this blog). The shop’s other strength is its Children’s section which is a mix of old favourites and exciting contemporary titles. Danny, the Children’s buyer for West End Lane, tells me about the many ways the shop encourages children to read. Not only do they have a children’s loyalty card scheme and dedicated newsletter (there’s a newsletter for grown-up books too), but there is also a pay-back scheme with affiliated schools, who receive 10% back when pupils and their parents purchase books at the shop. Most interesting is their ‘Review Crew’, a group aged between 8 and 15 who receive copies of new books to review for the shop and its website and who will get to tour the publishing house Walker Books during the Christmas holidays (Jealous? Me too).Danny and I had a great chat about the joys of bookselling and our love of Children’s books. Danny used to work in marketing for a music label so I’m interested to hear her insights in to the future of books:

What do you enjoy about being a bookseller?

I’ve been bookselling for two years and it’s just a lovely place to work. I feel like I’ve gone back in time to a place where people have a bit more time to talk and discuss; to really talk about books. It’s brilliant when somebody walks in to the shop and I know what they’ve bought before, so I’ll say ‘Oh my gosh, have to read so and so’ or they’ll suggest a book to me. It’s a proper dialogue and it’s great. Also since working here, I’ve realised what a horribly cold experience it is to shop in big, corporate, anonymous shops. You don’t even establish eye contact, let alone have someone remember your name or remember that your grandson is starting a new school.

You used to work in the music industry, do you see any parallels between the changes in the music and book industries?

Yes, it’s chilling actually. I worked for a major record label and over the years there was not enough support in the music industry for independent music shops. Labels were seduced by the buying power of the supermarkets and when the Indies died out, the industry thought: ‘Hang on, we can’t really launch any new artists through Tesco’. I would hate for that to happen in the book world; independents are a really important facet of the food chain.

And what about e-books?

Regarding the electronic side of things, you can’t be a King Canute about it all. Books are different kettle of fish to CDs, which were always nasty little objects really. I’ll feel very sad if we end up taking our love affair with the screen even further, because books are beautiful objects. I’ve found that some of our customers have been using e-books for reading titles that they consider “disposable”, the books they won’t re-read, so E-readers do have their place.Danny has a wonderful enthusiasm for Children’s books, when I ask for a few recommends she returns with a big pile and tells me about them with such passion I want to read them all immediately:

Vermonia – YoYo: A series in which four friends battle to save a far off planet. ‘Vermonia is a new series of graphic novels that have worked really well for us; I always recommend them to parents who are having trouble getting their child to read.’

Sleeping Army – Francesca Simon: An original take on Norse mythology, set in a modern Britain where people still worship Viking Gods. ‘I read the Sleeping Army last week because we had Francesca Simon come in for an event and I was just taken back to my 8 year old self. There are a lot of clunky ‘issues’ books around for children at the moment and although the heroine of this book has got some things on her plate, it’s just a facet of her life, the main story is about her adventures and her imagination; it’s just fantastic.’

Steampunk – Belly Link & Gavin J. Grant (Ed): The first major YA Steampunk anthology. ‘It has gone down really well with our Review Crew; we have a 14 year old boy reading it at the moment and he is really impressed by it.’Wonder Struck – Brian Selznick: A novel told through a dual narrative, the story of Ben is told in prose while Rose’s story entirely illustrated. ‘It’s a really complex story, beautifully told, so much work has gone in to it.’

The Odyssey – Gareth Hinds: An ambitious retelling of the classic Greek epic through watercolour illustrations. ‘I’m completely in love with this book, the author is a 2000AD comic-book artist and it’s the perfect book to get children interested in mythology.’

The Pirates Next Door – Jonny Duddle: From the author of The Pirate Cruncher, a family of Pirates move to a quiet sea-side town and soon have everybody talking. ‘A big story-time favourite with great illustrations and a really funny story. I was reading it to a group of four and five year olds the other day and there is so much for them to notice on each page. What I’m looking for in books for this age group are books that the parents will enjoy reading too and they won’t get bored of this one.’

I doubt any of you really need an excuse to spend a day in Hampstead, but if you do, West End Lane Books is a very good one. Their fiction section alone will make the trip worth while. They have plenty of author events and talks going on, as well as two book groups, including West End Crooks which is dedicated to discussing great crime fiction; all the details you’ll need are on their website. I’ll be visiting West End Lane’s sister shops in Queens Park and England’s Lane soon, now I can’t wait to see what they are are like.

I rarely venture further than Rough Trade when I head to East London, I’m not very keen on the whole urban decay chic thing that goes on around there and any mention of a place having a ‘scene’ leaves me rolling my eyes and running for the door. So when I visited Victoria Park Books, I was surprised to find myself, just a ten minutes from Mile End, in an area that could only be described as ‘leafy’. There I was, walking through a park, kicking piles of leaves in to the air and getting very excited about conker season; feeling very autumnal and a million miles away from ‘The Only Way is Dalston’.Hidden away in a quiet corner of Hackney, Victoria Park Books is one of a cluster of independent shops and restaurants which make up the ‘village’ of Victoria Park. It specialises in children’s books and is a fabulous shade of periwinkle blue. It’s also bright, airy and comes complete with a dog lying in the corner. Although only a small shop, the stock is well chosen with plenty of interesting new titles to catch your eye amongst the better known authors and series.I had trouble writing about Victoria Park Books without sounding twee, because Jo and Kris’ story of having a baby, leaving their jobs, buying and renovating a building to create a home and a bookshop sounds like something out of a lifestyle feature. Did I mention that Jo grew up in her family’s bookshop? If you are anything like me, you’ll need a second to stop day dreaming about that bookshop you are sure to own before she tells you her life isn’t as romantic as it sounds, apparently: ‘The idea is very romantic but the actuality means that you can never escape. It’s quite difficult to unpick the two things; at least we don’t have very far to commute.’

I used to work as a children’s bookseller and Jo shares a lot of my favourite authors and books. There are some great framed illustrations hanging in the shop, including the adorable Emily Brown by Neal Layton and a huge picture by the fantastic Chris Riddell, which he drew at the shop.Jo was refreshingly candid in her opinions when we chatted over a cup of tea, sat on tiny child-sized seats, gossiping about all aspects of the industry. Here are a few of the highlights:

I: You used to work for Waterstone’s, what do you think about their relationship with independents?

Jo: Well, they’ve said they are going to run Waterstone’s like Daunt’s, which sounds a bit like they are going to turn it back to 1987 and start running them like independents. Actually if there was a Waterstone’s near here I’d be concerned about that now. I think in the 80′s it was a really good shop with good staff and a good selection of books. We all knew what we had and we bought for our customers. So I think for independents in places where there are Waterstone’s it’s going to be quite hard now. We’ll see.I: You are working in the children’s book industry so you’re partly responsible for ensuring we have the next generation of readers. How do you see the focus changing? Are there still as many people coming in to buy books for their children as before?

J: That’s difficult to judge as there wasn’t a children’s bookshop here before, but we are developing a book buying habit amongst the people here. It’s particularly important in somewhere like Hackney, because it is one of the most deprived boroughs in the country. I have this hope that there will be a kind of literary flowering in about 10 to 15 years, and significant part of that will be in East London and might have had something to do with the four bookshops in South Hackney that have all sprung up in the last 7 years. A lot of children don’t have an access to books, and the libraries are closing, so I think that we are really important. If it all ends up being through publishers, Waterstone’s and Amazon, which really could happen, the children in areas like Hackney will be the children who lose out. They won’t go online to buy books from Amazon or a publisher and they won’t go to Waterstone’s because it’s middle-class, it’s not HMV, and anyway we wouldn’t get a Waterstone’s around here. That’s what bothers me.I: There is a real focus on Ebooks at the moment, how do you think bookshops fit in to that discussion?

J: The thing is, we’ve tried to embrace Ebooks, I’m not a technophobe, I’m happy to embrace it. And the advantage is there is still a netbook agreement on Ebooks and you don’t have to pay until you’ve actually sold something. I phoned the BA and they sent me an 82 page document which I duly read and all it told me was that I can pay Gardners so much money that it makes it unprofitable or I can work with an individual publisher, but you have to keep all the licenses forever to show that people have actually brought this thing from you and where they downloaded it to. And that’s the problem, the size of the server you need is just unmanageable. There was one publisher who were prepared to work with us and we looked into it and we just realised we couldn’t do it.

I: So it’s only viable for large companies?

J: Well, its multinationals talking to multinationals, that’s what it is and we’re too small, so they’re having a conversation over our heads and we can hear everything but we can’t do anything. And nobody is interested. I mean I’m not at all worried about Ebooks, I can see exactly how they’ll fit in. I think they’ll work very well alongside real books. Vinyl is making a comeback, because the quality of the sound is better so people want to own it. It’s the same with books, the quality of what you are looking at in a real book is actually much better the virtual version of it. So people will want it eventually.I: We both agree what a joy it is to see innovative kids’ books, which would you really recommend?

Jo: One of our bestsellers is a picture book called Naughty Bus which is a really unusual. It got refused by every mainstream publisher, every publisher in fact, so they published it themselves. I think it’s much more widely available now but it wasn’t initially and we sell loads of it. It’s fantastic, it’s so clever and there’s a sort of knowing quality to it; it’s just good fun and there’s nothing else like it.

Victoria Park Books is definitely worth visiting; it’s homely, welcoming and Jo’s enthusiasm for children’s books is infectious. It’s lovely to visit a bookshop that has the warmth of a family run business but is also so beautifully presented. Did I mention they have a dog?

When I moved to the capital, the London Review Bookshop was at the top of my list of places to visit. I can not claim to read the LRB from cover to cover each fortnight (my subscription belongs to Private Eye), however I do occasionally take the time to read an essay or two during a quiet afternoon and was intrigued and excited by how the magazine’s unashamedly high-minded approach would translate to a bookshop. I had an inkling that there would be lots of incredibly interesting books, but was slightly concerned that the place may feel very elitist; perhaps my occasional penchant for an episode of the X-factor would set off alarms at the door and I would be held to account for crimes against culture. Luckily my over active imagination couldn’t be farther from the truth: the London Review Bookshop feels inviting and eclectic, rather than stuffy and academic.The shop has been trading in Bloomsbury for over eight years and its smart bottle green exterior and huge windows are like a siren’s call to a book lover; I find it impossible to pass by with out popping in for a browse. The sleek, modern design incorporates lots of pale wood and light greys and wouldn’t look out of place in an Ikea catalogue. There’s a calm atmosphere, akin to a long satisfied sigh, which is punctuated only by the unobtrusive hum of activity from the adjoining cake shop.

History and politics dominate the front of the ground floor, while fiction snakes quietly around a pillar towards the back. Downstairs are poetry, children’s books and various other non-fiction sections, including philosophy, psychology, religion and cultural studies. As someone who visits bookshops frequently, I often see the same titles on display in each shop, the London Review Bookshop stands out because they give prominence to books that I have never seen before; it makes each visit a genuinely exciting prospect.The manager, John, says that he thinks that by carefully hand-selecting the stock, the shop is able to gain an advantage over the larger, high street bookshops that ‘stock everything’. The London Review Bookshop’s easily browsable size and literary reputation encourages customers to take a risk on a book they may not have even thought about searching for on Amazon. Although John does not feel that his shop is in direct competition with the supermarkets and Amazon, he highlights the trend for price reductions since the end of the Net Book Agreement as having had a huge impact on the bookselling industry as a whole:

“We are the only industry that for years has been promoting its premium product, which is getting all the publicity and all the attention, at a reduced price. For some reason the new Harry Potter, that the whole world was waiting for, was being sold at half price.”

I think he’s right, the heavy discounting of books creates a precedent, an expectation in the customer’s mind that a book should always be discounted. The British book industry is, whether intentionally or not, telling the world that its books are not worth the cover price. Perhaps as a reaction to this devaluation, the shop has noticed some publishers focusing more on high quality design and production, a tactic which has been welcomed by customers who want beautiful, physical books.I thought it would be foolish to leave the home of the London Review of Books without a few suggestions about what to read.  Unfortunately I am completely inept and accidentally deleted the recordings I had made of the original reviews, so the sections in italics have been borrowed from the shop’s website and the brackets are my own uninformed opinions.Railtracks: John Berger and Anne Michaels, with photographs by Tereza Stehlíková

Railtracks is a collaboration between two writers of remarkable achievement. A meditation on railways, love and loss, at once intimate and committed, it moves from the industrial to the metaphysical, from the tectonic shifts of globalisation to the internal pulses of memory, and from the present to a past that still exists in vivid, essential traces. (Also, Berger is a god and the book’s paper smells amazing.)

New Selected Stories: Alice Munro

Spanning her last five collections and bringing together her finest work from the past fifteen years, this new selection of Alice Munro’s stories infuses everyday lives with a wealth of nuance and insight. Written with emotion and empathy, beautifully observed and remarkably crafted, these stories are nothing short of perfection. (David, who can be found behind the desk at the London Review Bookshop declared Alice Munro to be the greatest living short story and I’m inclined to agree.)

Ill Fares the Land: A Treatise on Our Present Discontents: Tony Judt

‘Something is profoundly wrong with the way we live today. For thirty years we have made a virtue out of the pursuit of material self-interest: indeed, this very pursuit now constitutes whatever remains of our sense of shared purpose.’ In this exceptional short book, Tony Judt reveals how we have arrived at our present dangerously confused moment and masterfully crystallizes our great unease, showing how we might yet think ourselves out of it. (This is now on my ‘read next’ list)

If you want more astute book recommendations from the London Review Bookshop, I would suggest looking at the numerous reading guides on their website which feature books for any imaginable occasion, or pay them a visit in person where I am certain they will be more than happy to help.

I have the feeling that I will refer to Dylan Moran’s creation Bernard Black many, many times over the coming months. In the first instance it is to tell you all that I have created an award for the ‘Least like Black Books bookshop’ and have awarded it to The Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green. I fully accept that the first week of a blog may not be the *best* time for handing out awards, but what are the chances that any of my other visits will be punctuated by a sweet old lady bestowing a lovingly hand knitted woolly hat on the owner?

Simon and his new hat.

The Big Green Bookshop belongs to Simon and Tim. The pair decided to take it upon themselves to ensure the people of Wood Green still had a dedicated bookshop when, on one fateful day in 2007, they were told the Waterstone’s store they managed was due to close. Eight months and a little bit of making it up as they went along later, they opened their brightly coloured shop to the world. Despite the name, you won’t find a huge range of books about climate change here, but if you want an eclectic mix of literary and genre fiction, as well as graphic novels or children’s books, they are the place to go.

The children's section

What makes the Big Green Bookshop stand out is the sense of inclusion, every person who walks through the door is treated like an old friend and you’d have to be quite the grump to not be cheered up by Simon’s enthusiasm for books and the business of selling them. One thing that is really obvious is how much effort the Big Green Bookshop has put in to becoming part of the community, and by doing so has really been embraced by people of Wood Green. By describing his customers as extraordinary and staggeringly loyal, Simon is not engaging in meaningless hyperbole; I witnessed more good will in the hour I spent at the shop than I did in four years working at my branch of Waterstone’s. One wonders if, rather than looking to James Daunt to save them, Waterstone’s would have been better off visiting the Big Green Bookshop and seeing what true local engagement means.

The monthly local market

The Big Green Bookshop doesn’t just hold author talks and signings (although they do have plenty of those too), but engages the community through an exhaustive list of activities that includes a graphic novel and a children’s reading group, book quiz, a knitting circle, children’s storytelling, a local market, board games and a comedy night (the next one is on Friday and sounds amazing). Simon also told me about plans for transatlantic author events conducted through the medium of Skype; they are a bookshop that understands how important it is to be inventive and think big to get attention.The Big Green Bookshop have their own blog ‘Open a Bookshop, what could possibly go wrong?’ which will keep you up to date with all the events and other goings on at the shop. You can also stay in touch on Twitter and Facebook. But if I were you I’d pay them a visit in person, and if you are heading to their Comedy Night, I’ll see you there!

]]> http://onebookontheshelf.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/the-big-green-bookshop/feed/ 2 Big Green Bookshop shelf onebookontheshelf big-green-1-5 Children's Section Local Market Art of Conformity http://onebookontheshelf.wordpress.com/2011/09/19/ripping-yarns-highgate-childrens-bookshop/ http://onebookontheshelf.wordpress.com/2011/09/19/ripping-yarns-highgate-childrens-bookshop/#comments Mon, 19 Sep 2011 19:39:58 +0000 onebookontheshelf http://onebookontheshelf.wordpress.com/?p=84 ]]> Ripping Yarns: 355 Archway Road, Highgate, N6 4EJ

Tel: 020 8341 6111 Email: yarns@rippingyarns.co.uk

On Archway road, just opposite Highgate tube station, there is a bookshop called Ripping Yarns. It belongs to the dying breed of charmingly disheveled shops that are so quickly being replaced by sleek high-street chains and their visual merchandising policies. Ripping Yarns trades in second-hand and antiquarian books, there is focus on children’s literature, but they also have an extensive collection of poetry, political books and much else besides.There is a distinctly bohemian feel to the place, which has been a bookshop, in one form or another, since the thirties. This slightly romantic notion is confirmed when owner and actress Celia Mitchell tells me that, over the past 25 years, she has employed numerous actors, writers, artists and musicians to work at Ripping Yarns. Jen Campbell (@aeroplanegirl), writer and shop manager, has her first book, ‘Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops’, coming out in the spring and is very excited that she now has her very own ISBN. And who can blame her?

Shop manager, Jen Campbell.

The shop is crammed with a huge variety of stock, everywhere you look something interesting catches the eye. You could easily spend a week amongst the shelves and still never quite know what you will find next. It’s that feeling of possibility which is the essential quality of a bookshop and something that can never be replicated online, however fine-tuned the “recommendation algorithms” are.

I fell in love with Ripping Yarns’ shelves of hardback antiquarian children’s books, which are hidden at the back of the shop and feel like a real treat to stumble across, each beautiful cover is a work of art and I can’t think of anything that would make a more perfect present. These are children’s books for the very nostalgic adult.I chatted to Celia and Jen about what challenges they face as a seller of second-hand books. For Ripping Yarns, the main competition was not the internet but Oxfam; an organisation whose shops have the advantage of volunteer staff and reduced rent rates. It’s a complaint I’ve heard before and, whilst I can’t quite bring myself to deride a charity, there does seem to be a feeling amongst many in the industry that Oxfam are creating the “Tesco” of second-hand bookshops. It’s a difficult conundrum when both sides are worthwhile causes. I’d be interested to understand Oxfam’s point of view as I have a feeling that it is an area of contention that will come up time and again during these visits.Ripping Yarns are in the process of putting all their incredible stock online, over 5000 books have already been listed, so if you can’t make it to Highgate you don’t have to miss out on that old childhood favourite. If you do live in London, they are well worth the short trip on the Northern Line and where ever you are, you can keep in touch with them on Twitter, Facebook or through their blog.

]]> http://onebookontheshelf.wordpress.com/2011/09/19/ripping-yarns-highgate-childrens-bookshop/feed/ 7 Ripping Yarns Pathfinder onebookontheshelf blog2 OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA http://onebookontheshelf.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/an-update-the-great-american-bookshop/ http://onebookontheshelf.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/an-update-the-great-american-bookshop/#comments Thu, 15 Sep 2011 12:23:59 +0000 onebookontheshelf http://onebookontheshelf.wordpress.com/?p=37 ]]> My visits to the first few London bookshops will be taking place over the coming days. I’ve already had a great response from bookshops and book-lovers alike and I am really excited to make a start on the project.

I’ll be posting with more concrete details about my plan to visit every bookshop in London very soon so keep an eye out for that too! You can get updates about everything I’m doing on twitter @1bookontheshelf.

Until then I thought I’d post a piece I wrote about the bookshops I visited on my recent road trip across the USA. The original post can be found here. Hope you enjoy it and if you have any suggestions for great bookshops, either in London or anywhere in the world, let me know in the comments!

The Great American Bookshop

Now, Britain likes to think of itself as the calm, sensible and intelligent uncle to the over-excitable, dumb-downed ADD child that is America and if you spend your time in the U.S. sat in gaudy motels watching cable TV, you would continue to have this same self-satisfied view of our across the pond neighbour, but unfortunately you could not be more wrong. Take a few steps away from any commercial centre in an American city and it seems as though you are literally falling over exciting, independently run stores, including those shops that are near-mythical on the average UK high street, the independent book shop.

Of course, it isn’t all perfect and I’m not claiming that the US doesn’t have all the problems that the UK book market does (of which there is a great summary here). Amazon is ubiquitous and Kindles are everywhere, one day I watched, completely bemused, as a teen girl in the airport spent an entire 2 hour delay browsing the kindle store, lamenting to her mother that there was nothing good to read.

I thought I’d share with you a few of my favourites bookshops from my recent trip across America:

Powell’s City of Books    1005 W Burnside, Portland, OR 97209

I have never been so excited!

I’ll start with the big one, this place is the granddaddy of  bookshops, it isn’t the prettiest, but by jove it’s the biggest. There are millions of second hand books just waiting to be discovered in its warehouse style setting, amongst the seemingly endless floor to ceiling shelves.  Powell’s is open until 11pm every night (including Sundays!) and picking up a floor plan is the best way to navigate its many subject sections. During my visit I spent most of my time in their jaw-droppingly extensive Gender and Sexuality section, as well as Philosophy, Culture and of course their exhaustive Literary Fiction section, but I’m sure you could find something to match every taste, and if not, you could try their 5 other locations dotted around Portland.

Eureka Books 426 Second Street, Eureka CA95501

We visited Eureka because of the great name, and I’m so glad we did, it’s a medium sized town on the northern coast of California, the old town was as adorable as could be and with three independent bookstores on a single road, Eureka books stood out as one of the most pleasurable book shop experiences I had in the States.  It’s somehow managed to mix old-style ambiance with modern clean lines and, as a result, has created a store interior that is cosy and calming.  If that isn’t enough, they had beautiful secondhand prints, a clothes rail of T-shirts from my favourite company, Out of Print. What really caught my eye was a first edition copy of ‘The Favourite Game’ by Leonard Cohen which I wanted desperately. My boyfriend, however, had other ideas and reminded me that any hardbacks I wanted to buy I must also carry around for 2 months, so I left empty-handed. Defeated by the logic of a non-book lover once again!

City Lights Books 261 Columbus Avenue at Broadway, San Francisco, California 94133

City Lights at dusk (Image by number2son/john on flickr)

A classic. Being the spiritual home of the Beat Generation, it was, as you’d imagine, as hip as can be.  As we entered, a laconic hipster murmured that we must leave our bags at the desk and then continued to communicate only in grunts. But get past the overly fashionable staff and the store is fantastic.  It’s not scared to be pretentious or highbrow and therefore has an impressive non-fiction section and, surprisingly, a small but perfectly chosen hardback picture book section. The upstairs is entirely dedicated to poetry with a Poet’s chair to read it in and an open window which allows you to hear the shouts of San Fran’s less-than-desirable residents from an alley down below- just to ensure a truly authentic Kerouacian atmosphere.

City Lights Interior (Image by Kanaka Menehune on flickr)

A few other great places for book lovers:

Barnes and Noble, Seattle- I know this isn’t an independent but their Children’s section was incredibly well done and made me wish I was 6 years old, however I couldn’t say this for any other Barnes and Noble I visited.

The Booksmith, 1644 Haight Street, San Francisco- A great shop on an iconic road, with super friendly staff and an impressive events program.

Books of Wonder, 18 West 18th St, New York- An amazing kid’s bookstore that was top of my list to visit in New York, unfortunately I only ever saw it from the outside- it was closed when I got there!

New York Public Library (Main Branch), 5th Ave (between 40th& 42nd St), New York-There didn’t seem to be many books here or, at the very least, they were kept behind slightly intimidating closed doors, but the interior of the building is definitely worthy of a look.

How long do you think they’ll last?

Those are the questions that have been on my mind for the past few weeks. They began when I moved to London two months ago and have been stewing away ever since, mixed with troubling reports from the Guardian that the end of books is nigh and the news that The Travel Bookshop in Notting Hill has closed.

Are bookshops going the same way as the record store? Can bookshops hold their weight against e-books and Amazon? Is it possible that all the lovely bookshops I keep walking past and never quite finding the time to visit will disappear before I get the chance to?

I’ve looked on the internet and found plenty of recommendations for London bookshops and plenty of conjecture about their imminent death but nothing that answered my questions or put my mind at ease. So I have decided to take it upon myself to find out.  The best way to do that?

Visit every* bookshop in London and ask the booksellers myself.

It’s a simple idea and as a new-Londoner and ex-bookseller I’m in a pretty good position to make the most of it. It’s a way for me to see more of London, spend more of my time around books and, perhaps, help the bookshops in some way.

I’m still working on my grand plan and questions seem to arise quicker than I can answer them, a nowhere-near-exhaustive list being:

What counts as a bookshop? (Not sure)   What counts as London? (Zones 1-3)   Will booksellers want to talk to me? (Hopefully!)   Will I have to visit the naughty bookshops of Soho? (Yes…)   Will I embarrass myself in some uber-cool comic bookshop? (Probably)   Does Waterstone’s count? (As an ex-W’stones, I think they may have to!)   Will I have to visit those super intimidating posh ones near St James’ Park? (Yes)

I’ll be posting again in the next few days with a more concrete plan, so if you want to know more about the project you should follow me on twitter for updates (@1BookontheShelf).  If you’d like to get in touch with me about the project you can email me at onebookontheshelf (at) gmail.com.

This post was Freshly Pressed on 6th October; if you are interested in the progress of The London Bookshop project, check here to read about the bookshops I’ve visited so far.

*There will be caveats to this- I don’t want to spend my weeks in Scientology bookshops or visiting every branch of The Works. Not only would this make the blog rather dull but I am also a bit of a book snob (probably best to get that out in the open now!).

What obviously started as innocent bit of PR on Roald Dahl Day, quickly whipped the Today program’s listeners in to a bit of a fuss on Twitter. Most of the comments were along the lines of  ‘Have I got this wrong? The international model and TV star Sophie Dahl is asking US for money to restore a shed?’ (via @DrMatthewSweet), while others rightly questioned why Dahl’s still undeniably successful literary estate could not cover the costs. Personally, I just enjoy the listening to people stammering for excuses on the Today show, it’s something that always brightens my mornings and you too can have the pleasure by listening to it here.

If you are feeling a bit more charitable than those grumpy Radio Four listeners, you can find details about how to donate to help save the writing shed here.

“The idea of the government regulating the price of consumer goods is anathema to most Americans, who have bought into free-market gospel and the Walmart mantra that price is everything, and lower is always better than higher“

Now that Smartphones mean that would-be buyers are able to buy a book from Amazon without even leaving the bookshop they were browsing in, perhaps regulating the price of new books would be a way of leveling the playing field. It may also encourage people back in to bookshops, reacquaint them with the joys of book-buying and, perhaps, the notion that such a pleasure is worth paying a little more for.