Category: Libraries & Bookshops

  • Real books for ever

    I did a little shopping in Daunts in London yesterday. I was about to write ‘a little gentle shopping’ but it really wasn’t gentle because the shop was positively heaving with customers and there were queues to pay. It was a Friday and not a public holiday and there were all these people buying books; […]

  • Concord

    I was in Boston a few days ago and one day we travelled by train to Concord, a pretty small town about half an hour from the city. The purpose of the visit was to go to Orchard House, the home of Louisa May Alcott, she of Little Women fame. Her books were hugely important […]

  • Public Garden Library in Boston

    I won’t post anymore of these but I am delighted to find them in so many places, used and not vandalised. Cheering … and full of that nice word community.

  • Government Library Acts

    Although many would associate the 19th century with much that was dark, dirty and downright bad, it has to be said that there was also a concern for education and social mobility. The 1850 Public Libraries Act was a product of this and thus borough councils were given the power to establish free access to […]

  • Community

    This funny little community library is in Grantchester Meadows in Cambridge. It’s a little bit scruffy and contains a weird collection of things including some children’s board books, some sheet music and what looks like the contents of a whole text book, maybe some research for a thesis? There was also a basket of apples […]

  • The Bookshop Book

    Always lovely to find someone who shares some of your views and maybe thinks as you do. I would love to sit down with coffee and cake and talk to Jen Campbell who has written a book called: The Bookshop Book and has filled it with bookshop chat and observations from interesting emporiums all around […]

  • Normandy Library

    A sweet little community library that I saw in a small public garden in Lisieux, Northern France.

  • The Book Basket

    After one of my fairly regular bookshelf culls, I put a pile of books into a basket and put it in the porch way of my church. The notice beside it said: ‘Summer Reading. These books are free but you can make a donation to the church if you so wish.’ After only a few […]

  • Riverside Books

    I love the bookstalls underneath Waterloo Bridge on the South Bank of the Thames. You never know what you might come across and I’ve seen books there that I haven’t seen for years. This market is packed away each night, open every weekend and some weekdays. It has been a part of the whole South […]

  • Shakespeare and Co. Paris

    To find a bookshop in your own language in a foreign country is always a joy …and yes, a relief! However, this one has far more going for it than that. It is situated on the left bank of the River Seine in Paris, right opposite Notre Dame Cathedral. It must have had a scarily […]