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London

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London Book Shop Recommendations

40 replies

ritzbiscuits · 12/08/2019 15:49

Can anyone recommend which are the best book shops to visit in London? I'm travelling there for the day to go book shopping with birthday money - bliss!

So far I have:
Daunt Books
Foyles
Persephone Books
London Review Bookshop
Hatchards (?)

Any others to add? Note, I've never been to any of these before, so helping me prioritise my day would be most appreciated!

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LaurieFairyCake · 13/08/2019 15:48

I love getting their yearly list and deciding what to buy. And I do like the bookmarks that match the fly leafs.

Such a lovely street it's on too. Bloomsbury feels nicely back in time to me.

LaurieFairyCake · 13/08/2019 15:49

Forgot to say that the Charles Dickens museum is 5 minutes from Persephone. Yes it's a paid for museum but it's lovely to see the actual study where he wrote his great works.

Great cafe with home made scones inside - nice outdoor courtyard. You don't have to pay for the museum to visit the cafe either - and it's quiet.

Plexie · 13/08/2019 18:35

I bought Persephone books 111, 115 and 132:

London War Notes by Mollie Panter-Downes - a selection of her letters from London during WW2, originally published in the New Yorker, I think.

Maman, What are we called now? by Jacqueline Mesnil-Amar - diary of living in Paris 1944—46

The Second Persephone Book of Short Stories

For anyone who doesn't know, the Persephone books are £13 each, or 3 for £33.

Then I went to Foyles (toilets on the fifth floor, by the way) which I had had absolutely NO intention of visiting today, and bought another book:

At Home in Japan - A Foreign Women's Journey of Discovery by Rebecca Otowa, about her life in Japan after marrying a local and raising a family there.

And now I actually need to read them and not just add them to the ever-growing pile of 'intending to read' books by my bed.

CassianAndor · 13/08/2019 18:45

Hahaha, I have a pile like that too - well, it’s recently read and waiting to be read as we have no more shelf space. Lots of Persephone books in the pile!

tobee · 14/08/2019 01:05

Plexie I have those Persephone books too! So following the idea that you, therefore, must have good taste, I've just put Life in Japan on my wish list! Smile

MercedesDeMonteChristo · 14/08/2019 17:12

Since a lot of your list are around Bloomsbury, as far as Waterstones goes I love the Gower Street branch, less manic than Piccadilly and just lovely with lots of nooks and crannies and the booksellers are fabulous. I may have spent 4 straight hours in there spending birthday vouchers once. (But the Russian section in Piccadilly is sublime).

CassianAndor · 14/08/2019 18:00

Ooh, now I can’t agree with you on Gower Street, Mercedes. I used to go there all the time back in the day when it was Dillons (was a student at UCL). I went there recently to do some research for an interview and it felt so old fashioned in a not-good way (tired and grubby) and was boiling boiling hot. Not a patch on the Piccadilly branch.

MercedesDeMonteChristo · 15/08/2019 10:21

We love it's old-fashioned quality and I really love it for mooching. I love Piccadilly too but for very different reasons (mostly to do with the 5th floor and Russian section).

elkiedee · 15/08/2019 14:46

Plexie, which 3 books did you get from Persephone?

Are you coming in by train. from Euston? The London Review Bookshop is near Persephone and is huge.

If you and your birthday money get as far as Charing Cross Road, Any Amount of Books near Leicester Square tube station is a sort of secondhand shop, though actually a large amount of the stock is review copies of quite recent publications - around £3-£4 for paperbacks and more for hardbacks, though a bit pricy often for new non fiction.

They also have a section of £1 books outside and in the doorway - some funny little bargains from the 80s (like Virago's more contemporary publications of the time) and some books which are more commercial than literary as they tend to focus on literary fiction (with a crime section and a small SF section).

The Oxfam Bookshop and Bookmarks are across the road from each other on Bloomsbury Street, and if you look at the map you could go there on the way to Persephone and the LRB or on the way back, particularly if you run out of time to travel too much further south or west. If you go to Persephone first, you can do LRB and Oxfam quite easily with less than 2 minutes turning off towards each, then progress towards Tottenham Court Road tube station and turn down Charing Cross Road for Foyles/Any Amount of Books. For Waterstones you turn west along Shaftesbury Avenue.

This all involves a bit of traipsing around but it's really not worth walking to the nearest tube and getting down to the platform for a journey that is only one or two stops in central London, especially on the Piccadilly Line. In some cases you will actually spend more time and energy just getting in and out of the stations than you would staying above ground - eg Persephone to Russell Square, Piccadilly Line to Leicester Square to Foyles would involve 10 minutes walk above ground, getting in and out (and lots of escalators and steps at LS), and it's about 25 minutes walk above ground from shop to shop, perhaps less, with the chance to do others on the way, on foot. If your feet are tired you can do some of this on a bus but they move slowly through traffic. Similarly Waterstones' flagship branch is nearest to Piccadilly but it's actually between Leicester Square and Piccadilly and is probably less than 10 minutes walk from Foyles if you don't get distracted on the way. But if you're find that you're short of time and don't want to miss Waterstones out, the Gower Street branch is handier for being in the Euston/Bloomsbury area.

It's only worth getting on the tube if you want to venture up to the Owl Bookshop in Kentish Town (Northern line from Euston/Tottenham Court Road/Leicester Square, depending again on the order you plan to "do" shops in, a bit out of the way compared to the others. It's now part of Daunt Books operations but still has its own flavour as a large formerly independent bookshop which often has books it's difficult to find anywhere else as well as the books you can find back in Manchester, eg when I had a book token and wanted to buy some specific Virago Modern Classics reprints by Rumer Godden, Owl had more of them than even the flagship Waterstones store.

ritzbiscuits · 15/08/2019 16:20

Thanks @elkiedee I'll definitely take on your advice re:tube stops and walk where I can!

So glad I've booked this day trip, it's going to be fab!!!!

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Octothorpe · 30/08/2019 23:33

Don't forget Jarndyce, right opposite the British Museum. Maybe a little bit specialist but they do stock the very amusing 'Bizarre Books' greetings cards, which I always like to stock up on - and if you're at all interested in 19thc books, and especially Dickens (they are specialists), you'll love it there. You have to ring the bell to get in but they're very friendly!

Handily, it's literally round the corner from the LRB shop, and a stone's throw from the Oxfam bookshop on Gower Street (and not far to walk from the Gower St Waterstones).

The LRB shop has a rather nice cafe and does cakes, by the way....Smile

barkingfly · 31/08/2019 05:00

Skoob is not too far from the BM-over by the Brunswick Center-all the old Penguins you could wish for!

Plexie · 18/09/2019 14:20

Bumping in the hope that @ritzbiscuits comes back to tell us about their trip.

SquirmOfEels · 18/09/2019 14:25

And would also consider asking MNHQ to move this to the 'London" topic, where it would be much easier to find again (pretty please)

ritzbiscuits · 18/09/2019 18:36

Hi @Plexie I was actually planning my trip last night using this thread! I'm going in early October so promise to report back!

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