I took my time, I circled around, read the contemporaries, made myself aware of some of the stories via radio and TV, eventually I got a MR James book.
The trip out of Scotland was fun. The rain was heavy and I managed to mishear a direction that resulted in a drive through in Edinburgh and Leith, but arriving in Berwick meant a trip to our regular chip shop (Canon, Castlegate). There's lots of books to be found in Berwick, with a couple of secondhand bookshops and charity shops. Berrydin Books is always worth a look, and I came away with an Ursula le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven. I'd never read much beyond the four Earthsea novels (there are four, I know most people know it as a trilogy but there's a fourth and it's the best in the series) [I haven't just stuck my tongue out in defiance, honest], so this will be a welcome addition to the growing 'to read' pile by my bed.
A trip through various charity shops and a market stall named Slightly Foxed but not the Slightly Foxed of London. Mysteriously I can't remember where, it might have been the heart-stopping British Heart Foundation, the blood-red Red Cross shop, or the plain and not very chilling Shelter, but I found a collection of MR James stories. I knew about James for a while, he's been mentioned by a couple of authors I like, and I've seen some Christmas TV adaptations, so this volume will be another good addition to the pile by the bed.
The rain held off. The old bridge looked fantastic against the new one. The ghostly closed shop frontages where slightly scary (in a broken-down, world economy way).
The Lathe of Heaven, Ursula le Guin, Collected Stories, MR James
Berrydin Books, Castlegate, Berwick
Canon Fish and Chips, Castlegate, Berwick
Showing posts with label Charity shop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Charity shop. Show all posts
Saturday, 2 August 2014
Thursday, 31 July 2014
Europa!
I have only been to Stirling once, to visit the castle during the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1986. I don't recall it much, a vague impression of a long and cobbled road leading up towards the castle lined with antique shops with porcelain in their windows.
Almost thirty years later and only part of my recollection is incorrect. Stirling is a good wandering town, once you find your sense of direction. There's an art gallery underneath the castle mount that has a good history of the area (and there is a lot of history bound up in that part of Scotland).
Sadly though it was a bit of a whistle stop visit. Lunch, a couple of bookshops and record stores, then on to the next destination.
While we were in Stirling I also bought The Man With The Golden Arm (Stirling Books) and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Oxfam).
Leggy Mambo, Cud, Wake of the Flood/From The Mars Hotel, Grateful Dead, Big Bang!, We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Going to Use It, Southside, Texas
Europa Records, Stirling
Almost thirty years later and only part of my recollection is incorrect. Stirling is a good wandering town, once you find your sense of direction. There's an art gallery underneath the castle mount that has a good history of the area (and there is a lot of history bound up in that part of Scotland).
Sadly though it was a bit of a whistle stop visit. Lunch, a couple of bookshops and record stores, then on to the next destination.
While we were in Stirling I also bought The Man With The Golden Arm (Stirling Books) and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Oxfam).
Leggy Mambo, Cud, Wake of the Flood/From The Mars Hotel, Grateful Dead, Big Bang!, We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Going to Use It, Southside, Texas
Europa Records, Stirling
Wednesday, 30 July 2014
The most friendliest of librarians [not in the Fahrenheit 451 sense]
There is a place in Scotland where I was able to do something I never, ever thought I would do. I touched while reading a first edition version of Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queen. It was a kind of of a good feeling. It is also an odd feeling, the book is worth a lot of money (certainly more than I am accustomed to when handling books), and yet the Faerie Queen was practically thrust into my hands to read.
Where was I? This was an unusual sensation for me, very unusual. Aside from the Queen I was told I could read through parts of an English language bible that predates the King James Bible. I passed up on this for the Discovery of Witchcraft. The first few wild sentences of that book, published in the 17th century, more than made up for it.
Anyway, where was I? The Library at Innerpeffray, which was set up during the Enlightenment to lend books to the public. At the time, the most welcoming of staff informed us, literacy was at close to 75 percent of the Scottish population, with England at less than 50 percent (I am a little sketchy on this, so don't quote me in a dissertation or other academic journal). The Library is situated near a bend in a river, not far from the St Andrew's Golf Course, and was lending first editions to the public from 1680 to the mid-1960s.
I suggest you visit and see for yourself.
Also, on the travels today I bought the Brightonomicon (PDSA in Callander) and Renegade by Mark E Smith (British Heart Foundation Scotland). Renegade is the second book I own relating to the Fall, though this is about Mark E Smith himself (speaking for himself) rather than a collection of stories based on the stories in Fall songs. I was put on to Renegade by a former colleague who put me on to the best ever remix of a James song (Sabres of Paradise's Jam J, forty minutes of absolute dub heaven), so this book will be good.
Where was I? This was an unusual sensation for me, very unusual. Aside from the Queen I was told I could read through parts of an English language bible that predates the King James Bible. I passed up on this for the Discovery of Witchcraft. The first few wild sentences of that book, published in the 17th century, more than made up for it.
Anyway, where was I? The Library at Innerpeffray, which was set up during the Enlightenment to lend books to the public. At the time, the most welcoming of staff informed us, literacy was at close to 75 percent of the Scottish population, with England at less than 50 percent (I am a little sketchy on this, so don't quote me in a dissertation or other academic journal). The Library is situated near a bend in a river, not far from the St Andrew's Golf Course, and was lending first editions to the public from 1680 to the mid-1960s.
I suggest you visit and see for yourself.
Also, on the travels today I bought the Brightonomicon (PDSA in Callander) and Renegade by Mark E Smith (British Heart Foundation Scotland). Renegade is the second book I own relating to the Fall, though this is about Mark E Smith himself (speaking for himself) rather than a collection of stories based on the stories in Fall songs. I was put on to Renegade by a former colleague who put me on to the best ever remix of a James song (Sabres of Paradise's Jam J, forty minutes of absolute dub heaven), so this book will be good.
Saturday, 24 May 2014
I have never been more ready to do this write now
One of the reasons I wanted to start writing about book and
record shops was the difficulty I have found in finding up-to-date information
on them. While researching this trip to York I found one BBC student guide to
the record shops from 2004 (including a good write-up for Borders) and a list
of booksellers in York the majority of which appeared to be private homes where
one had to request a catalogue before arranging a visit. The list of booksellers
turned out to be doubly useless when the first entry on it turned out to have
closed.
Rather than going through the twenty odd shop names I pulled
out, here is where we wandered and shopped. The first bookshop we visited was
Fossgate Books, which had lots of books though nothing to tempt us. After that
we found some books in an antique centre around the corner (I didn’t check the
name, they had about 400 records at £2 each if you fancy finding it). Then it
was our first crossing of the city centre, via the Shamble Market to Goodramgate.
On Goodramgate there are a number of decent charity shops
with both books and records. There was also a man who checked every hardback
copy he could find to see if it was a first edition. Uncharitably we thought he
was trying to find something to sell on at profit. From Goodramgate, across the
river to Micklegate, where there were a lot of race goers. There is also a very
nice Oxfam with a little cubbyhole of records in the back. And then off towards
the minster, for Minster Books.
We came away from York with about ten books. Unfortunately I
didn’t make a note of which came from where, though all the prices seemed
fairly reasonable. Particularly in Fossgate Books, staff were happy to offer
advice and see if there was something we were looking for. What I did come away
with was a reason to continue exploring the city for its literary treasure.
Fossgate Books, Fossgate
Books for Amnesty, PDSA, British Heart Foundation, Oxfam,
Goodramgate
Oxfam, MicklegateSunday, 11 May 2014
Blood-sucking buccaneers in Whitby
What kind of child grows up in Whitby? That’s right, Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Westenra. Maybe the question should be ‘what kind of literary child grows up in Whitby?’…
Anyway, our tour of North Yorkshire has brought us to the outer limits, the extremis to Leeds’s centralness, Whitby. I like Whitby a lot, it has a relaxed air of a town that does its own thing regardless. An example of this would be the seagull nest I found. In the middle of the station car park, the day after a motorcycle rally had met there. After all of those noisy motorbikes it squawked at me.
Whitby is at the end of the heritage railway line from Pickering and has a lot of attractions. One might be of the opinion that the Dracula aspect is played up an awful lot, though to be fair what is a lot more annoying about the place is the endless stag and hen parties. Yes, you’re wearing an L-plate, did you know that this is the town that a young Sherlock Holmes was sent to for holidays?, no, I didn't know that shot was £1.
There are a number of secondhand bookshops in Whitby (Endeavour Books being the one we shopped in, my wife picking up some detectives), a fair few charity shops, and at least one record shop. I don’t know what it was called, I found it in the Shambles Market, tucked way behind sweets and charm bracelets. I didn’t know what to expect, there was some very nice looking records (as in, if money was no object they would be coming home with me) though the pricing seemed a little hit and miss. For example, there was an Elton John lp that I’ve been umming and ahhing over for a while which was easily double the most expensive I had seen it previously.
In the end I found a Bread record. Again, I am not sure what to expect, my mother-in-law said that she rather liked it way back when, so for £2 I thought I’d give it a go (even if I would be fixing the sleeve myself).
Of the charity shops they proved yet again the random nature of the books you might find. In Mind, up near Sherlock’s Café (home of the best scones I’ve ever had), I found Vampirates. It’s a children’s book and book two in a series, so I put it to the back of my mind for another day. I mean, who can pass up the first book in a series called Vampirates? What I couldn't pass up any longer was the first book of Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin. I remember the TV programme on C4 (well, the publicity for it) and have always wanted to read some of it so this was the perfect opportunity. The book itself is okay, for my liking it probably works better serialised, though there is something about the characters that have stuck around in my mind (except for Mary Ann Singleton, she better make a better impression in book two). The other charity shop I noted was the Oxfam overlooking the quay. It’s snook away behind pubs and fast food outlets, so it is worth remembering that it is there and worth a look.
Armistead Maupin, Tales of the City, Bread, The Sound of Bread,
Whitby
Note: Aside from the scones, which are lovely, we had fish and chips in Hadley's, which is equally lovely even when there is a group of stags from London who are quite proud to announce that they are from London loudly every minute or so. Oddly, the people of Whitby have encountered Londoners before, and commenting about how cheap beer prices are up north only really highlights how overpriced they are in London.
Anyway, our tour of North Yorkshire has brought us to the outer limits, the extremis to Leeds’s centralness, Whitby. I like Whitby a lot, it has a relaxed air of a town that does its own thing regardless. An example of this would be the seagull nest I found. In the middle of the station car park, the day after a motorcycle rally had met there. After all of those noisy motorbikes it squawked at me.
Whitby is at the end of the heritage railway line from Pickering and has a lot of attractions. One might be of the opinion that the Dracula aspect is played up an awful lot, though to be fair what is a lot more annoying about the place is the endless stag and hen parties. Yes, you’re wearing an L-plate, did you know that this is the town that a young Sherlock Holmes was sent to for holidays?, no, I didn't know that shot was £1.
There are a number of secondhand bookshops in Whitby (Endeavour Books being the one we shopped in, my wife picking up some detectives), a fair few charity shops, and at least one record shop. I don’t know what it was called, I found it in the Shambles Market, tucked way behind sweets and charm bracelets. I didn’t know what to expect, there was some very nice looking records (as in, if money was no object they would be coming home with me) though the pricing seemed a little hit and miss. For example, there was an Elton John lp that I’ve been umming and ahhing over for a while which was easily double the most expensive I had seen it previously.
In the end I found a Bread record. Again, I am not sure what to expect, my mother-in-law said that she rather liked it way back when, so for £2 I thought I’d give it a go (even if I would be fixing the sleeve myself).
Of the charity shops they proved yet again the random nature of the books you might find. In Mind, up near Sherlock’s Café (home of the best scones I’ve ever had), I found Vampirates. It’s a children’s book and book two in a series, so I put it to the back of my mind for another day. I mean, who can pass up the first book in a series called Vampirates? What I couldn't pass up any longer was the first book of Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin. I remember the TV programme on C4 (well, the publicity for it) and have always wanted to read some of it so this was the perfect opportunity. The book itself is okay, for my liking it probably works better serialised, though there is something about the characters that have stuck around in my mind (except for Mary Ann Singleton, she better make a better impression in book two). The other charity shop I noted was the Oxfam overlooking the quay. It’s snook away behind pubs and fast food outlets, so it is worth remembering that it is there and worth a look.
Armistead Maupin, Tales of the City, Bread, The Sound of Bread,
Whitby
Note: Aside from the scones, which are lovely, we had fish and chips in Hadley's, which is equally lovely even when there is a group of stags from London who are quite proud to announce that they are from London loudly every minute or so. Oddly, the people of Whitby have encountered Londoners before, and commenting about how cheap beer prices are up north only really highlights how overpriced they are in London.
Saturday, 5 April 2014
I Had To Start It Somewhere So I Started There
Charity books shops survive on donations of books, so armed with plastic bags of my wife's recently read books we head to Headingley, Leeds. Two bags equalling roughly twenty-odd books shared between St Martins Hospice and the British Heart Foundation.
Good deed done, a suggestion is made, 'I might have a look next door', next door being a RSPCA branch. I like this one, it has clothes, books, CDs and DVDs, and random stuff, as well as some vinyl. So, while my wife scans through the books (and finally picking Eric Newby's Something Wholesale), I have a look at the records. Some of them are not very well cared for, the same copy of Hunky Dory by David Bowie is still here since the last time I visited, and then there is Madonna.
She stood out, an instantly and very noticeable woman in a roomful of musical talent, showing off her early singles. Hey, James, do you want to have a good time? I have never owned The Immaculate Collection before but know the songs off the radio, they are mostly familiar, and £3 for a double LP seems a good purchase. The sleeves are good, the cover looks nice aside from the little price tag (which hours later is easily removed) and I am happy with my buy.
In the shop I also noticed Uriah Heap, Jesus Jones, Blondie and Queen's News of the World. I will be back, and probably in a few weeks' time.
Post Script. The Immaculate Collection is not the first vinyl I got this April, before the trip to Headingley I picked up my copy of The Understudies Let Desire Guide Your Hand from the Post Office sorting office. I pre-ordered it in March as one of the limited available from Fire Station Records. I've been a fan since seeing them at the Indietracks festival.
Madonna, The Immaculate Collection (double LP)
RSPCA, Arndale Centre, Headingley, Leeds
Good deed done, a suggestion is made, 'I might have a look next door', next door being a RSPCA branch. I like this one, it has clothes, books, CDs and DVDs, and random stuff, as well as some vinyl. So, while my wife scans through the books (and finally picking Eric Newby's Something Wholesale), I have a look at the records. Some of them are not very well cared for, the same copy of Hunky Dory by David Bowie is still here since the last time I visited, and then there is Madonna.
She stood out, an instantly and very noticeable woman in a roomful of musical talent, showing off her early singles. Hey, James, do you want to have a good time? I have never owned The Immaculate Collection before but know the songs off the radio, they are mostly familiar, and £3 for a double LP seems a good purchase. The sleeves are good, the cover looks nice aside from the little price tag (which hours later is easily removed) and I am happy with my buy.
In the shop I also noticed Uriah Heap, Jesus Jones, Blondie and Queen's News of the World. I will be back, and probably in a few weeks' time.
Post Script. The Immaculate Collection is not the first vinyl I got this April, before the trip to Headingley I picked up my copy of The Understudies Let Desire Guide Your Hand from the Post Office sorting office. I pre-ordered it in March as one of the limited available from Fire Station Records. I've been a fan since seeing them at the Indietracks festival.
Madonna, The Immaculate Collection (double LP)
RSPCA, Arndale Centre, Headingley, Leeds
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