I’m a pretty cautious shopper. I spend lots of time weighing up options. When I do opt for a splurge item, it’s usually only on the basis of quality.
But there is a place where I can lose hours browsing – and where I will inevitably spend on things I do not need. It is, of course, a bookshop.
I’m writing this from the cafe in Dymocks on George Street in Sydney’s CBD: three floors of bookish delight and an adjacent stationery store. As much as I miss exploring with my husband, I have to admit, totally uninterrupted bookstore browsing time was blissful.
Apart from the fact it’s lunchtime, I’ve slipped up to the cafe because I feel a little overwhelmed. This overwhelm is definitely down to having too much choice – possibly the best overwhelm to experience. Anyway, a store this large is a rare thing when you live in regional Australia.
But it doesn’t have to be this store. I feel the same whether it’s Foyles flagship in London, the small Waterstones where we lived in England, or the beautiful indie bookstores in Edinburgh (Rare Birds is pictured above).
It also doesn’t have to be a store because libraries, too, are magical places.
Walking into a bookstore fills me with the most delicious hope: hundreds of stories all around me, the promise of my next favourite book, and the thought that I might be about to discover someone whose words speak to my soul.
There’s nothing better than a slow wander through the shelves – admiring the graphic design of covers, picking out with pride the books I’ve actually finished, browsing the ones I’m mentally adding to my ‘to buy’ list.
Shopping for clothes feels, to me, like an invitation to change something about yourself, to improve with this jacket or those perfect heels. I tend to fall into the imagined world where I’m thinner/prettier/more popular thanks to this new dress.
But books? That feels like pure indulgence. It feels like the place where I am most me, and there’s no desire to change or improve, apart from my foolish quest to read all the books that intrigue me (because it is, of course, a universal truth that we book lovers will never get there).
Even better, of course, is doing this with my book-obsessed friends. That’s when we swap recommendations and spur each other on to add another book to shelves that are already kinda overflowing. It’s where we swap opinions on what made the ‘best of’ lists or share our excitement for debut authors we want to see succeed.
I’ve indulged my desire for an aimless wander through the shelves this morning, but I’m even more excited to visit again with my
co-host Caitlin this evening to do what we do best: talk all things books. (We also take particular delight in pointing out books by authors we've interviewed – and maybe shuffling them to the front of a display).How do you feel about bookshops and libraries? Please do share your favourites with me, especially if you’re in the UK. I always love to check out indie bookstores when we travel, and I want a list to check out once we’re back in England.