The cool place to hang out

We all know bookshops are welcoming places where you can meet new friends (on and off the page), open your mind to different worlds and generally be yourself in friendly surroundings. but not all of us grew up with that understanding, some of us had to take the plunge and discover the joy of bookshops for ourselves.

Which isn't always an easy thing to do – I was certainly pretty nervous before visiting my first bookshop, and these days for non-booky types I tend to guess their idea of a bookshop is somewhere quiet, dull and devoid of interesting people. Most of us know that's a load of rubbish, but for those in doubt this week's destination breaks all those stereotypes.

Universal Books, found just off the main road in Letterkenny in the north west of Ireland, is colourful and inviting on the outside. A theme that continues inside with an assortment of what can only be described as stuff, mixed between shelves of books, CDs and DVDs. Not forgetting – at the time of my visit – a number of young adult browsers, alternately considering purchases and chatting, their banter filling the room with laughter that had to be enjoyed.

Roughly the size of a living room, the customers were scattered around the shop, browsing and chatting, with subjects ranging from the latest computer game to Scrabble to whatever they were looking at, leaving me able to participate or not as I made my way to the fiction along one wall.

With books in a general alphabetical order but slightly mixed up to highlight certain titles, the shelves were equally colourful and eye-catching. I stuck mainly to fiction but also browsed children's, Irish, classics and a good selection of non-fiction, resisting the urge to increase my music and film collection and enjoying the company of an alien, Batman and various others among the previously-mentioned 'stuff'.

Selecting Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda, I decided to join the conversation with a hello at the till. The bookseller immediately treated me to the famous Irish friendliness, making me feel as though I'd been shopping there all my life, enjoying introductions to the other customers and even the offer of a biscuit.

In their own words on Facebook, Universal Books is a "cool bookshop", and I couldn't agree more. It's the kind of place I'd've loved to hang out in as a teenager and would happily frequent now I'm in my 30s, were it a little closer to home.

Sure, some may only visit because they're looking for music and films, but they're doing it in an independent shop so kudos to them: don't forget, these days few remember the joy of browsing an indie music shop and stumbling across new artists. For this reason alone I give Universal Books top marks for attracting customers and continuing that pleasure.

If, while hanging out, chatting and looking at those CDs and DVDs, the shoppers happen to notice the majority of their surroundings and pick up a book too then even better.

Universal Books
Church Lane
Letterkenny
Ireland
Tel: 00353 74 916 1869

Let bookshops be your travel guide

For any traveller finding themself in a different country for a few days the obvious thing to do is explore.

So when a horde of Brits overwhelmed a hotel ahead of a good friend's wedding, it was inevitable the conversation over breakfast would turn to which sights we each planned to visit that day.

Destinations were varied, including beaches, mountains, distilleries and, in my case, bookshops. Reactions were generally similar, including oohs, ahhs, cheers and, when directed at me, raised eyebrows. It didn't take long for me to tire of the quizzical reactions, but mostly I pitied their narrow-mindedness – everyone needs a starting point for their travels, so why not let that starting point be bookshops?

It worked for me. Especially when I found myself driving south along the N15 and struggling not to be distracted by the beautiful, rugged countryside surrounding me. Further on stunning beaches and coastline awaited, and in the middle of my journey was a stop at the Four Masters Bookshop in Donegal town.

Now I admit, when I entered the bookshop it wasn't what I expected. For starters my first view was not of books, but of gifts and cards. Looking to my right, I then saw the books stretching out along one wall, taking up the smaller half of the shop's length. It's not what I'd normally ask of a bookshop, but I kept an open mind and began to investigate.

Thankfully, that feeling of being underwhelmed vanished when I actually started looking at the books. First up were fiction and recommends, swiftly followed by Irish fiction, young adult, classics and all the non-fiction you need, including bargains and an extensive local interest area that could've happily set me up for months of exploration if I'd had the time off work.

As it was I only had an hour to enjoy my surroundings, realise how many Irish authors are already on my bookshelves and pick a book to get to know another. I should probably have already read something by Joseph O'Connor, so choosing Ghost Light hopefully makes up for lost time.

Having realised a bookshop can still be worth a visit even when forced to share space with other goods – and happily clutching my book of choice – I decided it was probably necessary to explore the rest of the shop. Essentially it was filled with beautiful things, hopefully all selected as a cunning way of drawing in the non-reading public before luring them over to the Book Side. At least, the reverse worked for me as I'd've never entered the shop if it hadn't been the books but somehow found myself at the till buying a necklace to accompany my read...

Which only backs up my earlier navigational reasoning: bookshops are a great way to discover destinations you might otherwise overlook.


Four Masters Bookshop
The Diamond
Donegal
Ireland
Tel: 00353 74 972 1526

It's good to talk

There are certain things every visitor to Ireland has to do: try a pint of Guinness, drink a shot of whiskey, explore the beautiful surroundings and – in my opinion – visit a local bookshop.

The latter is important because to my mind a bookshop is the heart of a community, where people can meet and talk, where the books can help reveal their interests, and quite simply one of the easiest places I've ever found where you can safely strike up a conversation with a stranger.

A bookshop is therefore the perfect place to find out about the place you are visiting. Which this week happened to be Derry/Londonderry in Northern Ireland.

My destination of choice was the secondhand and antiquarian Foyle Books, which although in the middle of the city, was tucked away behind a historic(?) wall and part-way up a slight hill. Located within a craft village, this was a lovely little area away from the hustle and bustle of the modern world and therefore the perfect place to pause and relax in friendly surroundings.

Unfortunately, upon stepping through the welcoming red door, my first reaction was surprise at how quiet the bookshop was. Not empty quiet, the place was packed. But no one was saying anything. It's a long time since I'd been to a bookshop so cloaked in silence, and I admit that as a first impression it made me nervous – where was the Irish friendliness I'd heard so much about?

Fortunately, the silence was momentary and I soon got to experience the welcome I'd hoped for when I introduced myself to the bookseller and our conversation inspired the other browsers. While we talked books, bookshops, Ireland and everything in between, conversations got started, the silence was broken and the whole atmosphere lightened. Which, in my mind, can only be a good thing. Especially in such a bright and interesting bookshop.

Foyle Books, not to be mistaken with the independent London bookseller, is an open, spacious shop taking up what looks to have been two rooms knocked into one. Large enough to house all the browsers but small enough to be cosy, the contents of the shop range from paperback fiction to non-fiction and include a wall almost the length of the shop filled with Irish interest and local, broken up with a delightful full-height mural.

On entering the bookshop I'd been impressed by the sci-fi selection sprawling by the door, followed by a large crime section nearby, but as I was on holiday it was the general fiction that captured my attention this time, with Jenny Colgan's The Little Beach Street Bakery a happy reminder that secondhand and antiquarian doesn't have to scare off everyday browsers.

Which is equally true for silence – next time you step into a silent bookshop strike up a conversation, you never know who you might get talking to.


Foyle Books,
12 Magazine Street, Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland, BT48 6HH
Tel: 028 7137 2530

The quirks of a village bookshop

Should you unexpectedly find yourself driving past, you could be forgiven for thinking this week's bookshop is closed.

I certainly did a double take as I parked across the road from The Old Saddlery Bookshop in Robertsbridge, East Sussex, looking across at an unlit window and a bricked-up front door.

Pausing to consider whether the Twitter-using villagers I'd had contact with weren't simply luring me in to be sacrificed under the village clock I happened to be next to, I looked around very carefully before emerging from my car.

Thankfully, approaching the other side of the bookshop – the side villagers would walk towards – I found the front door. Which was locked. At this point I admit an outsider might be tempted to run away, but following the instructions and ringing the doorbell is worth the effort. Honest.

After a few moments I was greeted by a friendly gentleman who asked if he could help. Establishing I was there to visit the secondhand and antiquarian bookshop, he offered his assistance then politely gave me space to browse by retreating to a different room. I was left in peace, able to explore the two-room bookshop at my leisure.

The brightness of the bookshop immediately struck me, with light flooding in from two large windows. Next was the smell, the reassuring mustiness of a traditional secondhand bookshop. Not too overpowering, but just enough to remind you you're in the presence of books that have already enjoyed many lives before they met you.

Finally, looking to the books themselves, you notice the beautiful jumble of your surroundings.

Attractive children's books are directly ahead as you enter, with a range of non-fiction genres all around. Wandering down a few stairs to the second room, a crate of random titles of interest draws your attention, with the fiction wall to one side.

The alphabet isn't needed here, which admittedly took some getting used to but didn't affect my enjoyment as I randomly jumped from one author to the next, with classics and general fiction all sharing the shelves. It was this happy pairing that prompted me to buy Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, a book I've long meant to read but rarely remember to look for.

Honestly, The Old Saddlery isn't a bookshop I'd go out of my way to find, but as a detour to a beautiful village it has now become part of my route and somewhere I'll always pause to visit when passing. Why? Well, apart from the obvious fact it's a bookshop, because it's a wonderful quirk of a rural village.

While there I imagined myself as a local: walking up the road from the village, ringing the doorbell and being welcomed as a friend before diving in to choose my next pre-loved read. I'd possibly take a few moments to relax on a chair with a book, gently warming myself in the sun streaming through those big windows.

For this bookshop alone, next time I move house Robertsbridge may well be my destination.


The Old Saddlery Bookshop
56 High Street, Robertsbridge, East Sussex, TN32 5AP
Tel: 01580 880631

A friendly diversion

Motorways are boring places: hours of tarmac, lorries and generic service stations that offer convenience but very little by way of variety or independence.

Thankfully, the tedium of a long journey can easily be broken up by leaving at one junction and venturing into the English countryside until the next. A tactic I've found to be particularly useful when wanting to speedily skip a non-moving traffic jam. Now don't get annoyed, I'm not advocating using quite country roads as rat runs, but diverting to a nearby town for a break in an independent cafe is certainly easier on a driver's stress levels, especially when you're driving along the M4.

Which is how I ended up in Hungerford one cold winter's day.

Following signs from the High Street I easily found a car park and enjoyed my first experience of the market town's friendliness: a paid-for parking ticket waiting in the pay and display machine. I was so stunned by this uncharacteristic kindness that I found myself loitering until I saw a passer-by to check I'd not misinterpreted the printed ticket in my hands. This random act of kindness may only be a small gesture from one stranger to another, but it cheered me to encounter such kindness.

Still cold, but with a bounce in my step, I wandered back to the main road and my destination: The Hungerford Bookshop.

An understated shopfront with a large window invites visitors in to a well-lit room that immediately feels warm and welcoming. Taking stock of my surroundings, I navigated a selection of recommendations and non-fiction books in the front room of the shop, quietly enjoying the atmosphere of calm friendliness while the bookseller chatted to a customer.

A narrow bookshop, space is cleverly used and it's surprisingly full without feeling overwhelming. Moving to the back I walked in a circle from children's to fiction and round again, before venturing downstairs to the secondhand section.

So well-stocked it potentially deserves its own blog post, I only had time to properly concentrate on one area and returned to the fiction.

A gorgeous wall of books, the fiction section is made snug by the proximity of the banister for the stairs, but what it lacks in space – a browser and I politely alternated shelves – it makes up for in variety. I soon found two or three titles I could've happily rehomed thanks to clever placings and introductory note cards. Then I turned around and a book chose me.

The fiction recommendations are cleverly displayed in what would otherwise have been wasted space above the stairs, and while there may not be a lot of room for books, the whole 'table' was worth consideration during my visit.

For me, it was a Pushkin Press title that jumped out at me. Having not long ago finished another of their books I was drawn to the publisher's name, then before I knew it I'd devoured the first chapter where I stood. The Rabbit Back Literature Society by Pasi Ilmari Jaaskelainen had to join me on the road.

Unfortunately I'd spent so long reading and relaxing that by the time I made my way to meet the bookseller he was already claimed by a crowd of customers. This prevented me from having a proper conversation, but didn't spoil my enjoyment of overheard bookshop banter.

Such friendliness may have been overheard rather than experienced, but it was just the tonic I needed to be refreshed and ready to return to the motorway.


The Hungerford Bookshop
24 High Street, Hungerford, Berkshire, RG17 0NF
Tel: 01488 683480
@HungerfordBooks

The delight is in the detail

Tired of the depressing way Valentine's Day has been corrupted by happy couples*, this year instead of hibernating and avoiding all the hearts, I decided to take control and indulge my own passion: I took a literary road trip.

The bookshop part of my journey was Much Ado Books in Alfriston. From the road there's not much to see, but I knew there was something special about the bookshop the moment I stepped into the entry courtyard and saw bundles of damaged books for sale to be given new lives as works of art. Quite how lovely the place would me took me by surprise.

But first the tour. Taking a straightforward look around Much Ado Books you begin in the courtyard of secondhand books interspersed with interesting literary clippings and bundles of old books in need of a new life. Inside, the ground floor houses the new books with a smattering of cards and wrapping paper and a welcoming bookselling couple who I'll return to later.

Taking the stairs up you pass the thoughtful detail of covers for muddy shoes (this is a country village) and a stunning selection of books that have been given a second chance at life after being transformed into notebooks. Then you enter the secondhand area proper, with a range of titles including the likes of 'old Bloomsbury books'. There's also a mix of crafts and other bookish delights, with my attention captured by the ephemera drawers that – politely – demand to be opened and rifled through. Finally, there's also a not-so-secret door that's private for Friends of Much Ado.

I was lucky enough to be shown behind the door and found my dream library, with everything about the books, comfort and decor absolutely perfect. Were I to live close enough to Alfriston I'd be putting myself on the waiting list to join the friends for that room alone, and it's just one of the many benefits members get to enjoy in an already wonderful bookshop.

Much Ado Books is quite simply a lovingly-crafted thing of beauty, I'd possibly go so far as to call it an interactive work of art.

The books on the shelves are a natural part of that loveliness, but it's the detail that makes this bookshop so special. From the interesting area labels (for instance 'get a life' instead of biography) to hand-crafted book decorations, the big picture is of a marvellous combination of books and crafts – and books about crafts – that are a delight to behold.

Then you look closer and spot even more detail. Poking out of at least one in ten books in the fiction section (and elsewhere too) are bookmarks, which upon closer inspection reveal themselves to be hand-written reviews, clippings of official reviews or even little details about the location/author/anything else that's taken the booksellers' fancy.

Recommendations are nothing unusual in bookshops, but the thoughtful, beautiful way in which these are done really is the most personal touch I've ever seen. It also reassured me that I was in safe hands asking to be matched up with a book myself.

Approaching the counter I met Cate and Nash, the friendly American couple responsible for Much Ado Books. As my visit was on Valentine's Day and my recent reading choices have been a little on the dark side I asked for a recommendation of something happy, possibly a romance, to cheer me up.

The enthusiasm with which they made their suggestions is unrivalled. From books I'd noted during my browsing to titles I already love to authors I've never heard of, their gentle suggestions and interpretations of my request both confirmed my belief in their good taste while also proving that while their stock may be small, the couple's knowledge is in no way limited. Every book on their shelves has been very carefully chosen.

Choosing The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera both for their spoken recommendations and the delightful review poking out from between the pages, I returned to chat more about the bookshop and enjoy a homemade blondie (like a brownie but better). Noting a basket of anonymously-wrapped books by the till I asked what they were for only to discover the couple were holding a give-away with purchases. I love the idea of unknown books so was immediately impressed, only to be surprised by Cate handing me Stella Gibbons' Westwood with the explanation she'd personally selected it for me following our earlier conversation about books.** In the presence of such thoughtfulness what's not to love?

I may have been on my own for Valentine's Day, but thanks to Much Ado Books I was in very good company.


Much Ado Books
8 West Street, Alfriston, East Sussex, BN26 5UX
Tel: 01323 871222
@MuchAdoBooks


* It's supposed to be about secret admirers.
** To make it clear, it wasn't until after this conversation that I told them who I was or why I was there.

Breaking the rules to meet a nearly new bookshop

Just last week I wrote of my often long search to find certain books, preferring to wait and encounter them in the wild.

This is partly, as I explained, to allow serendipity to take its course. But there's another reason: I like my books to have a story behind them as well as within them.

There's something special about being able to look along my shelves and remember not only the experience of reading the book but also the experience of buying. Perhaps I was with a friend, or on a bookshop crawl, or maybe I just needed some time to myself. This means every book in my home has a story behind it, even if it's as yet unread.

However this week's purchase, at least the main one, was not found in its natural habitat on a bookshelf but came from behind the counter, having already been caught for me by the bookseller. Meaning my meeting with neither book nor bookshop was unexpected, although thankfully it still includes a story, because when David from Balderdash Books replied to one of my tweets about a book-turned-film I had to reply.

The subject was Ender's Game, a 2013 film based on a 1985 book by Orson Scott Card. Essentially, I've wanted to read this book for years but, not being able to get my hands on a copy, I'd finally given up and watched the film. It wasn't great, but the themes and ideas it addressed were fascinating, I tweeted to say as much and before the evening was out the bookseller had got in touch telling me he thought he had a copy.

Less than a week later I was driving through the Kent countryside to the lovely market town of West Malling.

Balderdash Books isn't the most obvious of places to find, but if you look for The Five Pointed Star pub you can't go wrong, it's roughly two doors away. Located within an arcade, you get to the bookshop down a short alley decked out with bunting and signs advertising a range of independent sellers.

Being a boutique within an indoor setting (it's far too pretty to call an indoor market), Balderdash Books has no front door or window display, instead you enter the arcade and are treated to the sight of books.

From cheap paperbacks to pricy antiquarian, Balderdash Books calls itself secondhand, but in this case I think 'nearly new' would be more appropriate. Entering the bookshop space I found it hard to pick out any titles that looked like they'd even been read once, nevermind handled again and again - this is a high quality bookshop for well cared for books. In fact, talking to bookseller David (who knew me the moment I walked in) I discovered many of the books were from his own shelves following his efforts to fill the shop when it first opened just a few months ago in November.

This dedication means, as David freely admits, there are many books that appeal to his own interests: it would be hard to visit without appreciating the wide range of good quality history books, including both world wars, with several more unusual titles thrown in. However the selection on offer is by no means limited.

All the usual genres of fiction and non-fiction are covered and the natural turnover of stock means variety continues to grow. Which is how I was fortunate enough to end up with my long-sought after sci fi gem – David had realised the shop was lacking in that area and so made a point of stocking up. This meant I was able to add to my purchases, snapping up Arthur C Clarke's Prelude to Space and John Christopher's The World in Winter alongside the pristine copy of Ender's Game.

So much for my one book per bookshop rule.

I may have broken many of my own rules with this visit, but it's not every day you get to meet a recently opened bookshop so I'm very glad I did.

Balderdash Books may still be nearly new at just three months old, but I very much look forward to seeing those months turn into years, and hope the people of West Malling know how lucky the are to have such a rare new venture in their midst.


Balderdash Books
Abbey Arcade, 98 High Street, West Malling, Kent, ME19 6NE
Tel: 07984 127271
@booksbalderdash

UPDATE: 16th March, 2015. Balderdash Books has now closed.