The Written Word
for June 25, 2000

I buy a lot of books – far more, Wendy reminds me, than I get around to reading. I’m clearly a bookaholic and not to be trusted in a tiny bookstore, in a tiny hamlet in the far reaches of Highland Scotland let alone a really big store like Waterstones on Piccadilly which a year ago took over the five stories of Simpsons Department store making it the biggest book store in Europe.

When I go to Britain, which is usually at least three times a year, there are three constants – first I take along a fold-up suitcase to put the books I buy in. Secondly, I assure Wendy that I won’t need the suitcase because I have, after all, still got all those books left over from the last trip. Thirdly, I will fill the suitcase to the limit and usually within a couple of days after arriving.

It’s a strange thing about book stores and the same holds true for CD stores – sometimes you find just what you have always wanted in a relatively small store. I remember a few years ago I badly wanted a CD of the Mommas and the Poppas, of whose music I am very fond, and couldn’t find anything in the big London stores. I was in a small neighbourhood store in Alnwick (the home of Hardy Bros Tackle, which is why I was there) and tucked in a little table of CDs, there it was … the Mommas and the Poppas complete with Momma Cass singing Dream A Little Dream of Me.

When I’m in London I, of course, see things I want in the big Waterstones store but more often see just the right title in the much, much smaller branch they have on Old Brompton Road, right across from our hotel. I also get nailed a lot in their branch at Harrods. But there are other great sources. Not far from our hotel, in Thurloe Place, there is a small book store that specializes in “remainders’ (books on sale) but very often has a major ongoing best seller at a couple of quid under the market price. Oddly enough, you can often get bargains in new books at Selfridges Department Store on Oxford Street.

On Charing Cross Road, on the east side of the street there are perhaps a dozen used book stores and remainder stores, all of which can not only occupy a day browsing but get you into your wallet with scary frequency. Actually there is a relatively new Blackwell’s store on Charing Cross – Blackwells was, for a long time, the book store in Oxford – and it’s a very good one all on one floor. Just around the corner there’s a store that specializes in sporting books, including a goodly selection of fly fishing books.

But why, you must ask, am I so extravagant on books?

Because I like them, read or unread. I like the feel of them around me. I love the notion that no matter what happens to me, I will have a good book to read.

And, amongst other things, it makes more sense than blowing the same money on the horses or 649 tickets.