Book-a-palooza: A Walk Down Charing Cross Road

Thomas

  
I have gotten way behind in writing about recent book adventures, so all this week I will be posting about some of fun things I have picked up in the last couple of weeks.

I was on a hunt for something in particular when I went into Foyles on Charing Cross Road. (Much more on that later this week.) When the young man at the information counter told me they didn’t have it I noticed over his shoulder Deborah Devonshire’s latest book. Turned out it was even signed, albeit on a bookplate pasted in the front. I am looking forward to this.

But then I noticed Darlene at Roses Over a Cottage Door that the Canadian cover is way better (I think). I would give up my signed English copy for her Canadian one. Frances writes about it and other things Mitford here.

And in the basement of another shop I found these two little gems plus a similar sized A Passage to India. I am ashamed to admit I don’t know the shop name. I have been in the place numerous times over the years, as I have been with many of those secondhand shops that line the east side of Charing Cross Road, and I have never bothered to look at the names of the stores. Even when I lived just around the corner and walked by almost daily I never took notice of what the shops were called. Now that I think about it, even more amazing is that I lived so close to Charing Cross Road and bought so few books. That’s what happens when one is young and broke. I think at the time any extra money I had went to buy tickets for classical music concerts.

5 thoughts on “Book-a-palooza: A Walk Down Charing Cross Road”

  1. Coffee and a Book Chick November 30, 2010 / 11:13 pm

    Yes, I do like the other Canadian cover much better — I don't quite grasp why the covers always have to be so different. I would think it might make a bit more sense to keep the same cover and thus create more of the brand recognition. But perhaps I don't understand that part of the industry!

    Love the stack of fabulousness you've picked up! You've inspired me to head out to my local used bookstores to see what might be hiding in my (normally) uneventful neighborhood!

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  2. Bibliophile December 1, 2010 / 12:53 pm

    Whenever I visit London one of my first stops in Charing Cross Road, and I never fail to bring back at least a couple of books, sometimes a lot more than that. I'm glad I don't live anywhere near it, or I would be permanently broke and drowning in books.

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  3. Thomas at My Porch December 3, 2010 / 9:05 am

    Coffee: I have been known to buy multiple covers. I have 3 versions of Oryx and Crake (Canada, US & UK) in hardcopy.

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  4. Thomas at My Porch December 3, 2010 / 9:05 am

    Bibliophile: Oddly enough I am ususally very restrained on trips to London. This time though I went crazy.

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  5. StuckInABook December 3, 2010 / 9:24 am

    My favourite shop on Charing Cross Road is Henry Porde Books, and that has a basement, so maybe it was that… it's there that I bought Economy Must Be Our Watchword by Joyce Dennys, which I adore, and which I haven't found anywhere else – including all the secondhand sites on the internet.

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