And says wise words about book stickers.
And while I'm on a rant, please can someone recommend how in bookshop starved Nottingham I can actually visit real life INDEPENDENT bookshops without having to hire long-distance travel facilties? We have H20Boulders, WHSugar-selling-books-for-a-lark, copious remainder stores, barely a couple of non-antiquarian 2nd-hand shops within just-about trekking distance, and perhaps at a push non-chain stores who STILL only sell the mainstream pap that Waterstones do. Oh yeah, and a couple of Oxfam book stores. There are the specialist stores like the glorious Page 45 for all my graphic novels needs, but sometimes a girl needs more...
I'm sorry, but for a city the size of Nottingham that is just CRAP and I want to know if I am just ignorant and stupid or if the bastards are hiding the bloody decent bookshops or if they just do not exist and I must find ways to get out of the sort of place where clearly there is a Bill Hicks sketch mentality to life:
I'm eating and I'm reading a book. Fine. Right. Waitress comes over to me (chewing), "What you reading for?" Now, I said, "Wow, I've never been asked that. Goddang it you stumped me. Not what am I reading, but what am I reading for? I guess I read for a lot of reasons, but one of the main ones....is so I don't end up being a fucking waffle waitress. That's pretty high on the list." Then, this trucker in the next booth gets up, stands over me and says, "Well, looks like we got ourselves a reader"....Please, someone, make my 2006: find me the LOCAL bookshop that is staffed by people who actually LIKE books and are happy to order me stuff and recommend me goodies... I want to support small providers as I do for music. Make my 2006 an Indie BookShop Happy Year.
5 comments:
I am a bookshop addict I confess. I love the look and the feel of them - the mustier the better too !
If you can bear to venture out to West Bridgford, you could try these folks
www.buythebook.co.uk
My place of work is just off Lower Marsh street... I must have a look in that place. I think its the new bookshop which sprung up a month or two ago.
Don't knock Borders though. I would love to have one of those in Crawley!
Do you think a proper independent bookshop in Nottingham would be profitable. And if so, might I suggest you look into opening one! It could be a New Years Resolution.
Tina: hmmm... are buythebook helpful and nice? Whenever we've been to West Bridgford it comes across as a little too narrow, giving over its small space far too much to alt. therapy nonsense (I'm a Bad Science reader). But we'll give it a bit more benefit of the doubt. Before it too went the "way of the crystal", Mushroom Bookshop managed to be small and brilliantly diverse (even before it expanded into the next-door space).
Alan: yikes! A project! Set up a Bookshop! (could probably initially stock it with what we own! but cannot bear to part with books we have!) Not a bad idea though... [Would insert Black Books joke about having to "phone the book ordering people" but would need to transcribe from DVD....]
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