We had a wonderful weekend staying with friends in the East Midlands. We had two days out bookshopping and cafe hopping - all our favourite things. It's all about the company, really, and mooching about as a gang - much more than it is scoring that pile of curious paperbacks from a series of eccentric, run-down shops. (Or, in Jeremy's case - a large boxload of books - mostly vintage home decor manuals.) I was picking up my usual pile of weirdo sf, obscure fantasy and historical romance - and serendipitous finds by Margery Sharp or Michael Bond.
And there always has to be a fancy teashop as a place to gather an assess your spoils. At the top of Lincoln's steep hill up to the cathedral we found a trendy teashop in a rather tidy catacomb. They brought us fancy teas in Dalek-shaped pots. Best bookshop of the weekend, though, was near Newark, and it was in someone's back garden and garage. Generations of endless books were heaped seemingly willy-nilly in layers of boxes ten deep. Funny, how in a place where you think you'd have to spend your whole life rummaging, you can suddenly find exactly the book you're looking for. In a matter of minutes I'd found the precise Penelope Lively I was after - as recommended by Adele in a comment after my last post.
Anyhow - fantastic company and fun. And a drive home on Sunday with a carful of old stuff - ready for the week.
I meant to ask - since I managed to salvage most (i hope!) of the text of my old blog - are there any old reviews or posts you'd like me to repost here? I'm thinking I've picking out the bits I wrote about my favourite reads of the past few years. What do you think? This month it's exactly three years since I started that blog, and maybe I could mark the anniversary by picking out some best bits? Let me know!
In the meantime - back to work on Monday morning - and two current projects I hope I can tell you about soon.
That looks a heavenly day out. I’ve never rummaged in a gang – in fact, it’s normally solitary, and sifting through things on the train home, clutching a ginger beer can.
ReplyDeleteAnd there's the House in Norham Gardens!
From the last three years, the first thing that springs to mind is Fester’s review of that novel about the cat – surely the funniest, sweetest book review ever written, by human or feline hand.
I'll try to find the Dewey review by Fester, Nick!
ReplyDeleteAh, it wasn't Dewey - it was Casper the Commuting Cat that Fester wrote about! I've found it and will repost now.
ReplyDelete