In no particular order here are five good ways to ignore Amazon and tell E-books to shut down! We may not have the eighteen miles of books like The Strand in Manhattan and most of this list will probably never hit celluloid in movies as cheesy as Before Sunset like Paris’ Shakespeare and Company, but they rule hard all the same...
The South Kensington Bookshop
In the heart of museum land, this remainder book shop (aptly previously named Bookthrift) is the place to cop art and history bargains. Mess up your coffee table with discounted exhibition catalogues, photography and fine art bibles and get paperback fiction from £2.99! The staff and the stock are both carefully selected so you’ll aways get sweet service on those sweet deals...
Foyles
Any best bookshop list has to feature this megastore on it, once London’s biggest independent it’s a bit of a stretch to give it that status now with five outlets across the city. However, the flagship on Charing Cross Road is in a league of its own covering a huge range of subjects with departmental buyers delivering their knowledge in each section. Get a little Love Supreme in Ray’s Jazz, the in-house music store with the clue in the name and dare to find a seat in the excellent cafe upstairs.
Broadway Bookshop
If you live locally, like me, you’ve got the right to get all snooty about the masses on the market, but you can also be soothed by the Broadway Bookshop- a picture perfect book seller and peaceful to boot. It’s mostly fiction but there’s really good travel and popular non-fiction on the table tops, plus the well stocked Children’s Corner and a cosy little art section to target the Broadway Market types. It’s gimmick free and clearly run on a passion for books.
Any Amount of Books
It’s no secret treasure but this is my second-hand bookshop of choice. Okay, it’s another visit to Charing Cross but there are so many there to choose from and here lies the true alternative to Amazon with its piles of popular fiction simply displayed at bargain prices. Even better are the rare editions which make good gifts and mean you don’t have to settle for the movie poster on the cover. There’s also the Books for Decoration service so you can buy leather or cloth bound books by the yard for that instant library that everyone just has to have...
Gosh!
Finally, got to throw in a specialist and it has to be Gosh! comic store. I just found out this is moving to larger premises on Berwick Street, which is good news for everyone as it means more! Everybody knows comics are cool now, with the validation from Hollywood studios and the persistently peddled lines from celebrities about their geeky comic love and blah, blah, yawn, yawn... BIFF!! Once you visit you’re bound to find something worth, er, marvel-ing at from awesome artwork to that super cynical graphic novel, plus there are signings and events (Alan Moore, July 30th). So, until Peter Parker relocates from Queens to London with the Green Goblin disguised as MJ, make mine Marvel. I mean Gosh! Make mine Gosh!
