Your favourite bookshops

[GOLLUM]

HMMM......suddenly my enthusiasm appears to diminish somewhat....

Then again it would mean more subjects for my Basement expriements.....

 

[gully_foyle]

Alas Gollum, you have over 700 books in your TBR pile. You may only visit Minotaur for movies and plastic memorabilia.

 

[Rane Longfox]

Forbidden Planet in London is the only one I can think of - and its not half as big or spacious (always feels rather croweded to me in there). I can't think of any bigger in the UK

Possibly, although it is over two floors, so it's probably bigger...

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Forbidden Planet in London is the best one I've been into. It originally had comics on the top floor and books in the basement. That was when, iirc, it was in Denmark Street (which is an amazing street if you're into music), opposite Foyles. I think it moved to a road off Cambridge Circus but it's a long time since I've been down there so I could be mis-remembering most of that (except for the books in the basement).

Sheffield has a good SF bookstore called The Space Centre but apart from those two I don't know of any dedicated SFF bookshop. We have a Waterstones in my town now which put the local bookshop out of business, but that's all.

It's at the top end of Shaftsbury Ave.now,Leaving the office early today as Robert Rankin, David Warner, Andy Serkis, Jason Isaacs Rupert Degas and Sarah Douglas. are doing a singing today of Robert's Brightonomicon cd as they were the cast which the BBC has serialised.

 

[GOLLUM]

Alas Gollum, you have over 700 books in your TBR pile. You may only visit Minotaur for movies and plastic memorabilia.

HMMM.....let me see....*Thinks a moment*

NAH, I don't think so!!....

 

[Taltos]

I'm thinking about a big and heavy object to throw at GOLLUM - because these are really depressing images - THE best bookshop in this country has 3 (let me repeat that ... THREE) bookcases with about 7 shelves per bookcase for SF/Fantasy and even then there are mystery etc. books mixed in and there isn't even one bookshop with old English paperbacks.

OK , I'll go and cry now a little more -> in that corner.

 

[Connavar]

Possibly, although it is over two floors, so it's probably bigger...

For me the thing about Gollum's bookshop wasnt the size of it but how big space SFF corner had.

There are huge bookshops in sweden too, the chains but their SFF corner isnt bigger than my bookshelf which is pretty small.

 

[nomadman]

Forbidden Planet London is now in Shaftesbury Avenue. It's got a pretty decent SF & F section, including both the Masterworks series, and some US imports, though the horror section is a bit disappointing (too much King and Koonzt, which you can find anywhere). There are also a couple of shelves devoted to Manga and graphic novels, and a fairly large DVD collection of cult films.

If you're into second hand or remainder books, there are tons of great shops in the Charing Cross Road: Bookends, Lovejoys, Henry Pordes, Any Amount, Quinto's, plus a number of specialist stores like Murder One (crime fiction and thrillers). There's another (better) Quinto's opposite the British Museum, and a couple of occult stores in the general area. Hunt around. Also check out the Waterstones in Piccadilly for a pretty cool horror and SF section (2nd floor).

Then there's Judd's in Marchmont Street, which is pretty good for general fiction. And nearby, Skoob in the Brunswick Center. I've found some pretty good bargains there.

Holloway Road has the Fantasy Center which I occasionally pop in to. Their books are a little overpriced in my opinion, but they have an enormous selection of stuff, including a lot of hard-to-find books (be prepared to pay through the teeth for these though).

What else? Oh, yeah, Foyles of course. It's OK for SF, but their general fiction section is bind-bogglingly massive, and some of the best fantasy can be found there (Borges, Cortazar, Davenport, Kis, etc), plus they've got a totally groovesome Jazz cafe to while away the hours in.

 

[GOLLUM]

I'm thinking about a big and heavy object to throw at GOLLUM - because these are really depressing images.

Temper, temper...

Actually once I've got my library up and runnnig in my new place I'l post some pics. Think of it as a mini minotaurs...

 

[Hilarious Joke]

As in your home library or your library library?

 

[GOLLUM]

As in your home library or your library library?

Home library.

I recently bought a place and moved in. Am very hard at work setting stuff up including a series of shelves in the study that will house my SFF collection.....

 

[HardScienceFan]

*smells old Ace Doubles,with Emsh covers,and some prime Gaughan ones*

 

[Rosemary]

Minotaur is definitely my favorite. Many a good hour spent there

And many a few books purchased there if I remember rightly!

Looking foward to seeing the pics of your home library Precioussss

 

[Taltos]

Temper, temper...

Me ... I'm peaceful as a pussycat - innocent looking smiley is missing from the smilies section so I'll have to contend with this

I really, really want a place to increase my ever growing TBR pile ... hmmm, now come to think of it maybe its good that we don't have anything like that here

 

[mortbury]

Some of the good ones - Andromeda in Birmingham, and Forever People in Bristol - are no longer with us.

Riley Books in Oswaldtwistle, and Waterstone's in the Galleries, Bristol, deserve a special mention as they have The Black Book of Horror in stock!

 

[Switchback]

Barnes and Noble for perusing the books and figuring out what I want. McKay's for buying the books used.

 

[Sheryl22]

Ha Ha that was really a nice Pics. It is really funny.
Thanx for that.
My favorite Book store is Online Book Store as I prefer to read books through, Audio Books.

 

[Fried Egg]

There doesn't seem to be many decent books shops around any more but I've been in this one in Falmouth, Cornwall a few times and it is excellent.

Beerwolf Books. It combines two of my favourite pastimes (beer and books). They seem to stock books that are second hand but are in excellent condition and so all are priced very reasonably (between £3 and £6). Their collection is not that large but very shrewdly selected (to my mind anyway).

Well worth checking out if you're ever down that way...

 

[nixie]

@millymollymo told me about an amazing second hand book shop for sale in Beverly. I did ask for donations so I could become the proud owner but no one responded.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

I'm thinking about a big and heavy object to throw at GOLLUM - because these are really depressing images - THE best bookshop in this country has 3 (let me repeat that ... THREE) bookcases with about 7 shelves per bookcase for SF/Fantasy and even then there are mystery etc. books mixed in and there isn't even one bookshop with old English paperbacks.

OK , I'll go and cry now a little more -> in that corner.

You could try the conventions - Such as Eastercon.

There are usually plnety of "old" book stalls in the traders section.

One visit to a convention should allow you to pick up lots of lovely contacts.

I suspect most of them have permanent locations and even if they work from a transit van, a contact for books is a contact for books. You may even be able to sneak a peak at the convention web site to get the names from the catalogue. (Ah catalogues - those were the days)

As for big heavy objects - does it need to be a book?