Huzzah for Independent Bookshops!

A couple of weeks ago I went to Mostly Books near my home in Abingdon.  I was there for an hour and a half just browsing and talking about books, not only with the people who work there but with other customers as well.

This does NOT look like me

In the decades since Arthritis arrived in my life it has chomped away on most of my joints and so, despite the insertion of a variety of bits of metal and plastic into my legs, I find walking difficult. Instead I terrorise pedestrians with my mobility scooter. Often smaller independent shops are off limits; either because they have steps or because, once inside, there is so much stock that navigation is either impossible or potentially expensive.

Mostly Books, is both accessible and navigable, but I often find that I am causing an obstruction. On this occasion, however, I found a spot near the picture books where I seemed to be out of everyone’s way. And so I felt no need to rush home. Why would I? What better productive procrastination for a children’s writer than to read the Guardian’s Independent Booksellers’ Week (IBW) supplement about children’s books, choose which ones to buy, realise I can’t afford them all…you get the gist.

Now, in fairness to the big-bookshop-chain-that-no-longer-uses-an-apostophe, I have had a few good book-related conversations with members of their staff. I may even have spent ninety minutes in said shop. BUT, and it’s a big but (a bit like mine), there just isn’t the same informal, comfortable atmosphere as in a good Indie bookshop.

Mark Forsyth with Mark of Mostly Books and assorted
 Abingdon book lovers all listening attentively

 Later that week Beardy Man and I returned to  Mostly Books to sit in their courtyard garden in the  evening sun and listen to the wise words of Mark  Forsyth* – expert in etymology (not to be confused  with entomology -  there are certainly no flies on him  [I know, I’m sorry])

 Mark has written this year’s IBW essay The  Unknown Unknown based around the idea of  discovering books that you have never heard of and,  therefore, don’t know you haven’t read. He rightly  points out that, in an Indie bookshop, the stock is  much more discerning (leaving the vacuous autobiographies of the latest tabloid sensation to The Others,) and so you will inevitably spot a compelling unknown unknown book on a promo table or shelf. What he doesn’t mention is the role of the staff.

Everyone in Mostly Books is a font of knowledge – including the work experience student, TJ, who was there during IBW – and most of my unknown unknown purchases have been made after talking about books...

 

“Oh yes I loved that book too. Have you read this one? No? You must! If you loved that then you’ll definitely love this...”

…and home with me it comes.

What might, in another type of shop, feel like hard sell, in a good indie bookshop is merely a sharing of passion. In fact, the staff gets quite embarrassed if they think they’ve whipped you up into an excessive book buying frenzy - like drug dealers with consciences.

Oh my! Nearly got lost for hours just looking at
pictures of books. I have a serious habit

I returned home after that glorious ninety minutes of soaking in bookishness with three books, all unknown unknowns. One that had been ordered after another evening in the courtyard with authors Kate Clanchy and Louise Millar (Antigona and Me by Kate Clanchy) one plucked from the Guardian IBW supplement (The Lost Gods by Francesca Simon) and one thrust eagerly upon me by TJ and just as eagerly added to my purchase pile (Magyk by Angie Sage, the first of the Septimus Heap, Wizard Apprentice series)

Thank you, Mostly Books, for broadening my horizons: Long may independent bookshops thrive by selling us the books we didn’t know we wanted – the unknown unknowns.

*This link is not only ironic but virtually sacrilegious. I am using it instead of listing and detailing Mark's books. The other authors/books mentioned in this blog are not linked on principle!