Tell me about your favourite bookshops.

[ThePineappleSeahorse]

I think that I have a new favourite, and no this isn’t an advertisement. I was in St Andrews last week and went to Topping and Company. I love all bookstores though normally prefer used bookstores but I found so many books that I wanted to buy. They had lots of lovely special and signed editions, ladders on the walls, friendly staff, offered tea and coffee, have a customer loo and was large and just maze like enough to be interesting without being too confusing.

I could only buy one book as I’d already bought several others and I had no more room.

So please tell me about your other much loved book shops as I’m eager to visit as many as possible.

TIA

Tackle and Books in Tobermory (I've only been a few times. Once it had the added bonus of being able to watch dolphins from the window.)
Heffers, Cambridge.

Station books in Tunbridge Wells. It's tiddly but lovely service and such a nice feel.

The Old Pier Bookshop in Morecambe.
only been the once but need to set aside a good half a day to go back and explore properly!

https://www.librarything.com/venue/74076/The-Old-Pier-Bookshop?

Barter books is fabulous. And the Old Pier Bookshop in Morecambe.

Oh wow @deeplybaffledcrosspost!

Yes to Barter Books but it’s a three hour drive for me! I also live Daunt Books in Marylebone as it’s so pretty.
There is a place in Chester called Bookingham Palace, that is combined with Vinyl Richie the record shop. It has some great choices in there but Chester needs an iconic bookshop!
I can spend hours in Books in Llangollen

@CountryQueen 😂
it’s fantastic, isn’t it? I follow him on Facebook too.

Kemps in Malton is a lovely one I discovered randomly last year when we stopped off there en route to a holiday.

Leakey’s in Inverness

I do love Salts Mill too but I was disappointed that they won't accept book tokens. Poor dd spent ages choosing what to spend hers on before we realised.

Another Toppings fan here, but the Ely branch. Three floors of floor to ceiling books, I’m looking forward to seeing the York one

Oh, that's disappointing - Salts has a fantastic selection of children's books, they have some really lovely, unusual picture books.

October Books in Southampton for being quirky and having a cool cooperative model.

St Ives Bookseller for being absolutely rammed full of books, and having a dyslexia friendly shelf and great staff

I’ve also had books delivered from Mr B’s through work and really like their service.

Toppings in Ely is lovely. It just keeps going!
Also love Barter in Alnwick which we are lucky enough to visit a few times a year

https://www.boekhandeldominicanen.nl/
This bookshop in Maastricht is great for wandering around.
Been to Barter Books once and loved it.
All the second hand bookshops on Charing Cross Road in London are good.
And there was a second hand bookshop in Whitstable, on the road in, on the left, but it's closed now.

Hunt’s Bookshop in Rugby. A veritable family owned treasure trove with the very best customer service and a fantastic sense of community.

Barter books
golden hare Edinburgh
rare bird Edinburgh
toppings and co Edinburgh
salt mills saltaire
The bound Whitley bay
forum books corbridge
Newcastle Waterstones
Whitby bookshop
tiny bookshop in Grantown on Spey
hedgehog books Penrith
the New Bookshop Cockermouth

Yes to both. The Furet du Nord is in a lovely building. Really enjoyed browsing there last week. Also like Beerwolf and love Toppings Ely. Have you tried Bodies in the Bookshop yet?

One of my late lamented treasures is Murder One on Charing Cross Road. It closed sometime arounf 2010, I think. It had been my Destination Bookshop for finding new crime writers for about 20 years. It really was brilliant.

Hatchards is a gem for its history alone, and they have some excellent booksellers who really know their stuff. We've found some of our favourite authors thanks to recommendations from Hatchards (even if it is part of Waterstones)

Obviously Barter Books is a treasure trove. Plus a treasure trove you can have an excellent lunch in while you consider your purchases. I don't think I've ever left with fewer than 6 books.

I hate that I live in a major city whose only mainstream bookshop is Waterstones (not counting the comic book shops)

I mean, I love Waterstones, bless them, even though they dropped their apostrophe and they culturally suppress gender critical books and are not staffed by as many gloriously mad book enthusiasts of old, but we used to have two branches, plus Dillon's and about 5 branches of Austicks and 4 storey Borders and, well, lots of bookshops over the decades.

And now just the one.

Much Ado Books, Alfriston, East Sussex.
John Sandoe Books, Chelsea, London.
Edge of the World Bookshop, Penzance, Cornwall.
Daunt Books, Marylebone, London.
The Bookseller Crow, Crystal Palace, London.

All wonderful places in which you lose all track of time and spend an alarming amount of money on books you hadn’t heard of before but find you now can’t live without.

The trouble with Waterstones is once you’ve visited one branch you’ve visited them all.

Daunts in London (Marylebone High Street main branch)
Toppings in Bath
Persephone Books in Bath
Mr B's in Bath
Heffers in Cambridge
Storysmith in Bristol
The Book Hive in Norwich
Booths in Hay-on-Wye
Book-ish in Crickhowell and Abergavenny

In common with most:
Daunts Marylebone
Hatchards Picadilly
Heffers Cambridge
Topping &Co Ely
Forum books Corbridge
Minster Gate bookshop York

Ooh so many! barter books in Alnwick, Leakeys in Inverness - I also love the Bookshop in Wigtown

Definitely Barter Books!

Collected in Durham is fab, they only stock female authors and you can drink wine and eat very nice cake too!

The best looking one I've been in is The Wee Bookshop in Dollar , Scotland. Even has a cafe.