I'm eagerly anticipating a visit to one of my favourite second-hand bookshops tomorrow after school: My Back Pages in Balham. This little gem is a cavern of books on all topics, overflowing from shelves onto stacks on the floor. The books have that satisfying old-book smell; slightly damp, musty, pungent - oddly lovely. I'm definitely going to buy something, anything that takes my fancy. It's a shop worth saving.
Before I started writing this post I thought, romantically, oh - it's all about the end of the secondhand bookshop. Amazon and e publishing have killed them off. To an extent this must be true; witness the much quoted figures on the decline of bookshops on the high street.
That's not the whole truth though. Some of those bookshops must have been just not very good. I think, for example, of the lovely independent bookshop in Dulwich Village, Village Books. I love that place. The stock is up to date, the shop is beautifully laid out, Radio 4 or Classic Fm is on quietly in the backgrounds, and the assistants are knowledgeable and friendly. I make a point of buying books every time I go in, and would be truly sad if it were to disappear.
I think, too, of some of the great things about online bookselling. Over the last few months I've bought a large number of books from secondhand sellers on Amazon and have been more than impressed by the service and the price. I've also been introduced to new authors through the Kindle daily deals and the 7 days of Kindle promotion. Don't forget, either, why we fell in love with Amazon - the range it offers is incomparable with a high street bookseller. As an Eng Lit undergraduate it was invaluable to be able to order copies of the obscurer books that were always out of the library.
And even on the high street I enjoy buying books. After a shaky period Waterstones appears to be back on form. I spent a wonderful hour in the Piccadilly branch spending my Christmas voucher - and got a signed copy of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. I left inspired and refreshed.
There's obviously an awful lot of debate around the future of bookselling, and a long way to go before anything is certain. But I have to admit I very much like how things are now: an unprecedented plurality of options for the book buyer. A myriad of ways to be beguiled by a book.
There's obviously an awful lot of debate around the future of bookselling, and a long way to go before anything is certain. But I have to admit I very much like how things are now: an unprecedented plurality of options for the book buyer. A myriad of ways to be beguiled by a book.
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