Confessions of a Book Browser
I recently read a history of Shakespeare and Company in Paris (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shakespeare-Company-Paris-History-Heart/dp/B01EL38QUW) which is a beautifully illustrated memoire of the post war years. The name, of course, originated from the original bookshop run by Sylvia Beach (detailed in her own memoir https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shakespeare-Company-Sylvia-Beach/dp/0803260970/ref=pd_lpo_1?pd_rd_i=0803260970&psc=1) which was haunted by the lost generation of American authors and James Joyce and which published the first edition of Ulysses.
This got me thinking about my favourite bookshops past and present – of which Shakespeare and Co is one. It was also prompted by talking to a neighbour who, like me, used to root through the cheap books in Woolworths, many of which were imported as ballast from America. One of my more recent favourite places to browse for remainders was in Galloway and Porter in Cambridge – now sadly closed – and I love browsing through titles in charity shops. If you are in Frinton in Essex visit the St Helena Hospice bookstore.
The only unfortunate thing about charity shops is they (along with Amazon) have taken a large slice out of the second hand book market so many shops have now vanished. Charity shops are good for recent bestsellers, and Amazon is fine if you know what you want, but nothing beats a browse through a mishmash of volumes and coming across something you didn’t know you wanted but have to have. Barnabees Books in Saxmundham is one of my current favourites. The owner makes regular attempts to sort the vast number of volumes into categories but there will always be piles where you can find odd bedfellows.
When it comes to new books it is also better to go independent rather than Waterstones. The choice of stock of the owner is always more interesting than an identikit set of shelves. When I was a student in Manchester I used to haunt Orbit Books (originally House on the Borderland) run by the sadly departed Dave Britton. Funded by soft porn magazines and regularly raided by the Police who would confiscate titles that were openly on sale in W H Smith, the heart was an eclectic collection of science fiction and fantasy along with more unusual titles and Dave’s encyclopedic knowledge guided me to writers like Kenneth Patchen. Dave later founded Savoy Books which published the definitive beautiful editions of The Exploits of Englebrecht and A Voyage to Arcturus as well as books no-one else would publish. At one stage M John Harrison would sit in a secret room there writing one of his Viriconium books commissioned by Savoy and he pseudonymously stars Dave Britton in his story Egnaro. This sponsorship of writers in bookshops goes back to Sylvia Beech and is continued in the present day Shakespeare and Co.
Dave also recommended Dark They Were and Golden Eyed and Compendium Books in London. The former was in what looked like a bomb crater in Soho and had a more interesting selection than you currently find in Forbidden Planet (apart from the main branch in London). The latter was a hotbed of radicalism and the esoteric in Camden where you could always find something interesting – including the hippy clientele. Both are now sadly gone.
If you visit New York you have to go to Strand Books with its miles of titles (featured as the shop Edie’s son works in Absolutely Fabulous) and in Seattle you used to be able to drink in the inspiration for Frasier’s Cafe Nervosa in the Elliott Bay Bookstore – now relocated but with a cafe still in its old building.
I can’t leave the topic without mentioning The Scientific Anglian in Norwich. The crumbling fire hazard was not somewhere I bought many books, but it was always a pleasure to talk to its owner Norman Peake before he retired about not just books, but the history of the city. I pay homage to him (and unfortunately kill him off) in my novel Masonic Fire.
Visiting bookshops is a joy for the eclectic reader, although you will end up with shelves of the things. Quelle domage.
