please empty your brain below
Sorry for the delay in posting today. I was out playing with my camera in the snow instead.

I'm slightly concerned to discover that, after 20 minutes, I'm already in Google's Top 10 searches for "Christine Redington".

diamond geezer | Homepage | 06.04.08 - 11:24 a.m. | #

it's hard to prove that things exist without a website
We all know that the existence of a website is no absolute guarentee that something actually exists.

My purchase had a £6 sticker on the front cover but, as it turned out, the intended £9.95 pencilled inside. The owner charged me six quid anyway.
As required by law - or alternatively the item can be withdrawn from sale. What he cannot legally do is demand £9.95 unless it is would have been obvious to the customer that it is an error.

Pedantic of Purley | 06.04.08 - 11:28 a.m. | #

I'm surprised to hear that the shop in Hackney still survives. It sounds exactly as I remember it from about 15 years ago, although the name might have been different. I suspect the stock hasn't been renewed since then.

AlyxL | 06.04.08 - 11:51 a.m. | #

I quite enjoyed Pies & Prejudice but I did spend my first twenty years in the North East - look forward to reading your thoughts on it.

Cynical North Londoners may suggest that the lack of any tube lines forces those in SE postcodes to stay in and read...

Novaelius | 06.04.08 - 12:21 p.m. | #

I used to live above the bookshop in West Hampstead, but to the left. It was and still is a great little place. With that to our right and the library to the left, my reading habits were certainly catered for well!

Tim | 06.04.08 - 12:26 p.m. | #

Those last two shops sounds rather like my kind of place. I'll have to go visit now.

I really miss the remaindered-books shops in Greenwich, Even with prices rarely more than £2 per book, I hardly ever walked out of one of those having spent less than £10-£20.

DTL | Homepage | 06.04.08 - 1:29 p.m. | #

I love bookshops which sell books away from the mainstream. If you really like independent bookshops, then you should try Hay-on-Wye in Wales. That place is full of 'em.

Andrewh | 06.04.08 - 2:50 p.m. | #

Somewhat off the topic, I just returned from my local indie bookstore (just a short hop on BA 092) with a book by Simon Foxell called "Mapping London: Making Sense of the City". It's a lavishly illustrated history of the cartography of London and I think that it's worth a look in your local bookstore or library. Here's a link, though there are many others.

http://blackdogonline.com/all-bo...ing-
london.html

Oliver | 06.04.08 - 5:13 p.m. | #

Today's post is a triple treat:
some personal bookshop exploration, the link in the comments box to beautiful snowy E3 pics, and bang up to the minute Olympic torch pics.
Thanks, DG, we appreciate the effort.

Great Aunt Annie | 06.04.08 - 11:55 p.m. | #

Apologies DG for leading you astray with the least finest bookshop that London has to offer. Next time I'll be sure to give an indication the last time I saw these places. ::hangs head in shame::

Brendan | 07.04.08 - 1:52 a.m. | #

Pies & Prejudice is a great book - full of enthusiasm for life that makes you want to visit the places he describes (except Sellafield maybe).

His autobiography is worth reading as well.

gwplf | 07.04.08 - 9:27 a.m. | #

Pies and Prejudice is an excellent read, a 21st century version of JB Priestley's English Journey.

Greenwich has lost some of it's best features recently - Goddards Pie and Mash shop, 2 record shops, the Cutty Sark and the Gypsy Moth. It's a shame.

Johnny Topaz | 07.04.08 - 10:13 a.m. | #

You bought stuff?!?

Dave | 07.04.08 - 10:49 a.m. | #

Greenwich has also recently lost Flying Duck Enterprises in Creek Road. Boo. I was down there for the first time in about five years the other week and it depressed me how much I used to like about the place had gone.

And if we're talking quality bookshops, Black Gull Books in the west yard at Camden Lock is better than any bookshop slap in the middle of Camden market has any right to be. I've picked up some real gems in there, not least a job lot of 10 of Walter Thornbury's 'Village London' books for about 40 quid.

SimonC | 07.04.08 - 12:34 p.m. | #

What he cannot legally do is demand £9.95 unless it is would have been obvious to the customer that it is an error.

My favourite case of this, at an Oxfam that very commendably checked potentially valuable books on the internet, was a copy of Invasion of the Space Invaders, Martin Amis's very rare early-1980s book about computer games. Ex-library copies go for £40 and above on Abe; this one was ready to go out at £100, because it was in absolutely pristine condition. You could tell it was pristine because it still had the original "49p!" sticker from Booksale on the front.

Jasper Milvain | Homepage | 08.04.08 - 4:08 p.m. | #











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