Elizabeth Welsh
Independent bookstore explorations
Secondhand book discoveries – Simone de Beauvoir
A couple of weeks ago, I was exploring one of my favourite secondhand bookstores here in windy, wintery London, and I came upon Simone de Beauvoir’s 1954 The Mandarins. While a devotee to Beauvoir’s existential philosophical works, I confess that I have never read The Mandarins. A creative writing tutor and one of my French … Continue reading
To market, to market, to buy a fat book
Book markets and book fairs are treasure troves to rummage around in and, I often find, are remarkably under advertised. Perhaps that is part of the joy of a market or fair – to stumble over it, to get caught unaware and find oneself surrounded by dusty pre-loved hardbacks of The Golden Bough, ripped pumpkin … Continue reading
‘At the still point of the turning world’: bookstores
My ‘still point’, in Eliot’s fine words, is always a bookstore or a library. So upon moving to a new place, finding my anchors means finding my bookstores and my libraries. They draw my maps and orient my geographically inept brain like a homing dove. In London, there is no end to the new bookstore … Continue reading
