Your favourite bookshops

[Extollager]

I suspect most of them have permanent locations and even if they work from a transit van

What's this? Tell me more!

 

[hitmouse]

Ford Transit - Wikipedia

 

[Rodders]

Forbidden Planet in London.

I have many fond memories going to Forbidden Planet with my friends during the six weeks holiday and going through their wares. We used to sit on the fountain outside of the Centre Point building with a packed lunch. (Soggy sandwiches, the lot)

 

[Extollager]

Ford Transit - Wikipedia

So people drive around selling books from the back of a van?

 

[oganalp]

I am relatively new to Canada, and where I originally from; fantasy and sci-fi books were an expensive and rare delight. Therefore, I still freak out whenever I am at an Indigo bookshop.

 

[Anthoney]

I've only ever had one favorite book store. Tappin Book Mine. An antiquarian bookstore that had everything from common paperbacks to the old and rare that you needed gloves to touch. It also bought and sold new and used comics.

Long ago as a young teen I worked here with this guy and his dad. It closed in 2012 along with several other family owned bookstores in Florida.

 

[hitmouse]

So people drive around selling books from the back of a van?

Figuratively speaking. One of my local second hand book dealers has closed his shop and now operates a very interesting service from an old bus.
He explains it here:
DYLANS MOBILE BOOKSTORE : thedylanthomasguy

 

[Vince W]

I am relatively new to Canada, and where I originally from; fantasy and sci-fi books were an expensive and rare delight. Therefore, I still freak out whenever I am at an Indigo bookshop.

I was born in Toronto and grew up there. There was a bookshop on Queen St. W. called Bakka Books. It was science fiction heaven. As Queen St. was gentrified Bakka had to leave and is now called Bakka-Pheonix Books at 84 Harbord St. I keep meaning to get back to Toronto and check them out, but you can see for yourself.

 

[Extollager]

A related thread...

Mourn for Bygone Used Book Stores Here!

It's been many years since I've been in a really good bookshop. The best bookstore that I know of in my region is this one:

https://www.facebook.com/BDS-Books-266360752885/

But I haven't been there in a few years. I remember this place --

For my lifetime, Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon, is certainly my favorite. That's how it looked 40 years or so ago.

I knew it best in the 1970s, when it was (as I recall) just a huge bookstore, not a community center type of place as well, as it seems to be now....

 

[oganalp]

I was born in Toronto and grew up there. There was a bookshop on Queen St. W. called Bakka Books. It was science fiction heaven. As Queen St. was gentrified Bakka had to leave and is now called Bakka-Pheonix Books at 84 Harbord St. I keep meaning to get back to Toronto and check them out, but you can see for yourself.

BMV has some nice selection, and there are multiple locations to pick. There is another one near Spadina and Bloor, near the UofT campus. Still, Indigo seems to have the most varied selection. The biggest problem is, of course, the tiny condos and the lack of space to put the books =).

 

[Vince W]

BMV has some nice selection, and there are multiple locations to pick. There is another one near Spadina and Bloor, near the UofT campus. Still, Indigo seems to have the most varied selection. The biggest problem is, of course, the tiny condos and the lack of space to put the books =).

The other bookshop famous in Toronto was The World's Biggest Book Store. It was on Edward St. and I usually hit that either before or after Bakka. The science fiction was amazing for the fact that they had remainders of almost anything you could want. I found many classic science fiction books for next to nothing there.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I visited Hay-on-Wye yesterday.
There's nowhere near as many bookshops there as there used to be, but it's still well worth a visit.
My parents used to take me there on days out in the '70s, when almost the entire place consisted of bookshops. But slowly it seems to be transforming back into a "normal" town...

 

[Hugh]

The other bookshop famous in Toronto was The World's Biggest Book Store. It was on Edward St. and I usually hit that either before or after Bakka. The science fiction was amazing for the fact that they had remainders of almost anything you could want. I found many classic science fiction books for next to nothing there.

Envy
Envy

 

[BigBadBob141]

Armstrong's in Coventry, which I think is now long gone.
Someone at work told me about it.
The first time I went in I was stripping the shelves of magazines, as well as books.
Mind you it was a small shop and the shelves were not that long.
It was the first time I saw a really large collection of science fiction.
I went back there the next two days.
Up until then I had only come across one of two magazines.
They were like hens teeth!
Now I have a good sized collection including nearly the first four decades of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and all but one of F & SF.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

So people drive around selling books from the back of a van?

For now it does happen.

Soon however, after they legalise drugs and street corners are freed up for other trades you'll be able to find "dealers" there.

The call of

"Hey mister"

will soon be associated with all sorts of goods that have been driven of the high street and that the desperate will be willing to pay any price to get.

You know the type of things. Books, bread, prescription medicines, toiletry's, nylons, meat etc.

Oddly though, papers, will probably not survive to reclaim their traditional stomping grounds.

 

[Vladd67]

Back in the early 90s I think, I visited a wonderful bookshop near Aylesbury. It was a large house in the country and every room and corridor was full of bookcases stacked with second hand book. I was left to wander around the house picking what I wanted from the selves, they even had a special room for rare books. Sadly I can’t remember where it was.

 

[Extollager]

Back in the early 90s I think, I visited a wonderful bookshop near Aylesbury. It was a large house in the country and every room and corridor was full of bookcases stacked with second hand book. I was left to wander around the house picking what I wanted from the selves, they even had a special room for rare books. Sadly I can’t remember where it was.

And all too likely it's gone now; but maybe not...

 

[Vladd67]

Sadly I believe you are right.

 

[hitmouse]

Last month I was introduced to Filigranes, in Brussels, a short walk from the European Commission.
Huge, rambling, and stylish, with an amazing selection of stuff and a nice coffee shop. I could easily spend a couple of hours in there looking through the Bandes Desinees and the Art & Photography sections.

 

[Extollager]

Sadly I believe you are right.

Did you ever spend time with the little books about second-hand book shops -- with plenty of very brief quirky comments -- ach, I'm not remembering the author's name now. He had a code for comments, some of them rather blunt, e.g. for staff who follow you around rather than letting you browse, that sort of thing. He was devoted to Indian food. What, what was his name?

I think these started in the 1980s, not sure when they stopped appearing. He was a keen bargain hunter.