As you may know, I'm a huge bookworm! I love books , holding and smelling them! They are my babies. I always wanted to do a bookshop crawl but with work and kids, I never found the right time. But towards the end of autumn, I had a great opportunity and planned b crawl.
I looked for independent well-known bookshop. As you may expect, there were too many of them so I wanted to pick bookshops which are quite easy to get to and came up with an itinary which will cover most of these bookshops within a 4hour period (I was on school run duty that day unfortunately). I mapped out my route very carefully and pleased that out of the 10 bookshops I wanted to visit, I only had to cut 2 out of my route! Map in hand, I bought a one day travelcard (there was going to be a lot of me going and out of zone 1! Then, out of my 400+ books on my TBR (to be read list), I picked books which I couldn't get from the libraries and were uncommon. That took me 2 hours for me to score through my borough's online libraries to see which ones weren't available in the libraries! I also set a 'budget' but as you'll see, that went straight out of the window!
Here was my route:
1. Libreria - got off Liverpool Street and was a 15minutes walk from the station. It was such a nice cozy bookshop and the staff were so welcoming and knowledgeable. I manged to get 3 of the books that was on my list. If they didn't have the book, they were able to order them from their supplier!
2. Word on the Water - on the canal, off King's Cross Station. This opens at 12. The bookshop is on a narrowboat and I loved this unusual setting. It had 3 compartments, even a children's section. I managed to find another 3 books from there! I think I spent more time taking pictures of the quotes and items then looking for books in their small collection.
3. Leicester Square - this place is filled with independent specialist bookshops! I first headed over to Cecil Court. These bookshops were highly specialised. Some just about Alice in Wonderland, some covered first edition books only, etc... Then on the main road, there were more bookshops. I managed to find a few more books from my lists from. Don't forget there's also a massive Foyles too that I used to visit quite often when they were hosting family events but I didn't venture in this time. In total, I have no idea how many bookshops I visited at Leicester Square but it was at least 5!
4. Hatchard's - Picadilly Circus. Right next to Fortnum & Mason, this bookshop was magical. It is a bookshop straight out of a movie. It is now my favourite bookshop! It has 5 floors and this is where I blew about £100 in books and threw away my book lists and just went absolutely crazy! I literally had no control! 5 floors of books!!!!! How was I supposed to control myself. Thankfully, it was affiliated with Waterstones so I was to collect many loyalty points! You have to visit this shop. I went another day with my kids and they loved it too! You must visit this place even if you are not a bookworm!
I was then meant to visit Daunt books in Marylebone but didn't have the time so I will need to fit it in on another day! I did go to their Notting Hill Bookshop over the summer which was a beauty so I can't wait to visit the main one on Marylebone! I just need to leave my bank card at home!
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