Do You Have A Local Independent Book Shop?

[AB Editor]

Do you have an indie bookshop near you? Is it good?

Maybe you could name some names of particular good and friendly ones? I like one which have a decent amount of new releases and staff who can guide you on.

Here's my favourite bookshop, and probably the best English bookshop in Berlin:

http://www.saintgeorgesbookshop.com/

[wolf63]

We only have an Oxfam book and music shop. It is way better than excellent and is clean, well set out and the staff are brilliant. They also sell books on-line.

[sandyRoe]

There's a real old fashioned one on University Road here in Belfast. I like to browse the shelves and maybe pick up a few books that I wouldn't otherwise have read.

[FredPuli43]

Here we have more bookshops which are independent than we have mobile phone shops, and that's saying something ! But 'here' is Cambridge. Heffers is the biggest, owned by its equivalent in the Latin Quarter of Cowley, Oxford. And we have a goodly number of second-hand and antiquarian bookshops which excel. Went into one and asked for Bacon's Essays,in an old edition, thinking that was an unusual request, and got the question "What size and what binding do you want?" ! I settled for full bound in lambskin, in octavo. That's what they are like.

[woofgang]

I have no idea where there nearest indie bookshop to me is now. We had a lovely one in the village that I used to use a lot because they would order me anything; but all their books were sold at RRP so it couldn't survive. There was another amazing "proper" old bookshop in my local city but property rates and rental put paid to that. It was lovely, a proper L space building and smelt divine.

[wolf63]

Oxfam admittedly sell their fiction at high-ish prices but the supermarkets can still sell them cheaper.

I think that Oxfam is the biggest used books retailer in the UK ~ we sell in shops and on-line.

[chrissa1]

I'm sitting in Barter Books, Alnwick, Northumberland. Fantastic stock of books and where the "Keep Calm and Carry On" slogan was found. Sadly they lost their court case to keep the name theirs.

[chrissa1]

TTFN. My time is nearly up. Broadband on tomorrow, fingers crossed.

[Maydup]

We have a couple of independent bookshops but I'm sorry to say that I use neither of them. One is intimidating and the other is arranged in such a way that I can never find anything. All very random.

I'm afraid I prefer a big shop, with plenty of stock and room to browse or for speed and value I buy online. Boo hiss I hear, but its the truth.

[boxtops]

We have WHSmith and The Works, no indies - but loads of books in the charity shops, which can be great value for money. There's a second hand bookshop too, who is quite picky about what he will buy off you.

[tearinghair]

Warwick Books in the market square. Small, but very knowledgeable, and they run some excellent author-based events.

Oh, and I love Heffers in Cambridge - the best Crime fiction section in the universe. Haven't been able to get there for ages.

[janbee]

We have an EXCELLENT one. It's called City Books and is in Western Road, Hove, Sussex and is run by Paul and Inge and their superb staff. They have a terrific, and well deserved , reputation for excellence and knowledge and helpfulness. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone visiting the town.

[sunny-dave]

I agree with tearinghair - Warwick Books is a really lovely shop. It used to cost me a fortune when I worked in Warwick and is now a 'destination shop' - worth the 30 mile round trip for a visit.

The owner is friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. The little written notes scattered around the bookshelves add a lot to the pleasure of browsing too.

[sunny-dave]

And if you are on holiday in the Peak District, or live within striking distance, I can really recommend The Bookstore at Brierlow Bar (on the A515, about 2 miles south of Buxton).

A great place to spend a morning - and they are biker friendly too :+)

http://www.bookstore-uk.co.uk/about.asp

[candysherbet]

We have nothing like that in my town apart from WH Smiths.The place i like to shop for my books and have a good 'rummage' is this place online https://www.bibliophilebooks.com i've been using them for years and have bought lots of great books at a low price.They also sell things like notecards and postcards now and then too

[DaisyNonna]

Unfortunately not. So I go to Oxfam.