Saturday, August 18, 2012

I could move to Sydney for the bookshops

This weekend finds me in Sydney.

It'll take another post to ruminate on the city, but let me just say that they have some damn excellent bookshops.

I spent yesterday afternoon in Kinokuniya, which is sort of Japanese version of Border's, only much better stocked. (For example: a whole aisle of poetry, and one entire bookshelf devoted to Renaissance history!)

Today I whiled away most of the morning in Berkelouw. The ground floor is new books, funky stationary and a vegan cafe (I didn't have to tell them that I wanted a soy flat white. It was already soy). And then you climb the stairs and GLORY: shelves and shelves of second-hand and rare books. And more coffee and food, with the sun making golden coin shapes across the tables.

And tonight, while waiting for my Thai take-away to cook, I ducked into Gould's (open at 9pm!), and brought a very clean copy of Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Views the Body and a battered but serviceable copy of George MacDonald's At the Back of the North Wind. All for 8 bucks!

What a winner!

No comments:

Post a Comment