Well, we finally hit some bookshops. However, only about half of the ones we made it to were open. Can you believe the nerve of some of these bookstores? Closing between Christmas and New Year's?
Alright, I'll be quiet now.
Anyway, the area in London surrounding the British Library and the British Museum (which is a fairly large area) is packed with bookshops. I bought a book at
Skoob Books to start us off. It's located in a small, seemingly dying, outdoor mall. The store itself was quite nice, though it tended more toward used books than anything antiquarian or rare (though there were a few of those evident as well). They offered a student discount, which I again made use of.
We went from there to Collinge and Clark, which was closed. But we took the requisite photos of ourselves outside the storefront used in
Black Books. And anyway, it was quickly apparent (though I don't know why we didn't assume this anyway) that Black Books was shot at a studio and that Collinge and Clark was only used for outdoor shots. The interior of the store was much too small to accommodate all the inside shots.
Steve Burak Books, which was just a few doors down from Collinge and Clark was also closed (through the 3rd).
So, we continued to walk down to
Unsworth's Booksellers, which has two locations (I visited both). They have a nice stock of used and antiquarian titles but also had many remaindered books, which took away a bit from the look of the store.
By this point we had made it to the
British Library. And, though I had seen its exhibits the last time I was in London, Katie had not, so I dragged her inside. There, she was able to see an original Magna Carta, a Gutenberg Bible, Shakespeare's First Folio, the only document written in Shakespeare's hand, handwritten Beatles' lyrics written on the back of a children's greeting card, an original King James Bible, and much more.
Katie wasn't feeling well at this point, so she decided to go back to the hotel on her own, while I explored more bookstores.
I originally thought
Jarndyce Antiquarian Booksellers was also closed, as the door was locked, but I realized upon seeing people inside, that this was the type of place where you had to be buzzed in. The store was wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling old, leather-bound books. They were gorgeous, though far outside our budget (or most people's budget).
Nearer to British Museum, I found a place called Left Books (or something of the sort), which specialized in books on the Left (makes sense). They only had a small used section, but I found several books reasonably priced. Expect to see them on a bookshelf near you shortly.
--Greg
