This is Thomas A Becket Church in Pagham. Totally unrelated to today’s post, but I think quite a nice picture nonetheless.
Ah yes, 2nd hand bookshops. Now sadly, I don’t really class charity shops to be any good in this field, unless they are dedicated. Oxfam seems to be quite good at this, they have two dedicated book shops that I am aware of one in Cambridge and the other in Fareham.
No, I mean the proper dedicated 2nd hand books shops that are run by people who just love books. Now, I am sure there will be hundreds of these all over the country, but there are three that I particularly want to mention as they are accessible (now, I had three in mind as I started typing this paragraph, and of course one of them has decided it doesn’t want to play and has, without permission gone out. Hopefully, I will find the little so and so, otherwise it won’t get mentioned, Ah there it is you see; Chichester, you blighter, come here, where have you been these last few clauses?
OK, before any more of them become a nuisance, lets list them, not in order of preference, rather proximity (but not necessarily ease of access);
- The Ryde Books shop, the Isle of Wight
- Kims Bookshop, Chichester
- The Petersfield Bookshop
I can easily spend a couple of hours in any one of these. For pure browsing pleasure they are all on a par. Whether all on the same level (Petersfield) or spread over multiple floors, they are all rabbit Warrens of sheer delight. It is extremely rare for me to walk out of any of them not having bought something.
It’s always a pleasure to find a “new” shop on the scale of these. I have to admit I wasn’t aware of the Petersfield shop until it came up on the news as being in difficulty – a social media campaign rescued it. I made a point of visiting and buying several books. I am looking forward to going back sometime in the future.
If you live near any of these bookshops, or if you live near a similar shop, pay them a visit, have a browse, buy a book to support them, but most of all, enjoy the time you spend there. It is most assuredly, time not wasted.
Bills Posts 