Another slice of Heaven

Following on from my post about the bookshop in Argentina that used to be a theatre, I've found another amazing place, The Strand in New York is 18 miles of books, 18 miles!!! It's on the list. http://www2.strandbooks.com/

Spotted this on a blog I read and thought it was awesome! It's a bookshop in Beunos Aires, Argentina that used to be a theatre. Combining 2 of my favourite things, books and the theatre. I'm adding it to my list of places I absolutely have to go to!!

The problem with Amazon

Amazon is basically brilliant, I can buy pretty much any book, at much lower prices than on the high street at the click of a button. But it's stranglehold on the market is killing off my beloved bookshops, especially the smaller, independent ones and the secondhand bookshops with their lovely old book smell.
There was an article in this week's paper about how Waterstone's had killed off the competition (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/10/waterstones-high-street-bookselling), but the chain faces competition itself, from supermarkets with their ridiculously low prices, from super-chains like American giant Borders, and online retailers, specifically the monster that is Amazon.
I like bookshops, I've blogged about charity shops, and they too have become a problem for independent secondhand and antiquarian bookshops. Something I also feel bad about, there's nothing quite like a shop devoted to out of print and ancient texts, with that warm musty smell of slowly yellowing paper and leather bindings, libraries seem to have lost that, which is a shame.
I walked down Charing Cross Road not too long ago, and where there were once many little independent shops, there are fewer and fewer all the time. Seen off by over-competitive pricing in Tesco and Waterstone's 3 for 2 promotions. It's far from the street depicted in Helene Hanff's gorgeous 84, Charing Cross Road, which is a hymn to the independent bookseller.
Yes, buying from independent shops or directly from small publishers is more expensive, and no I'm not immune to Amazon's power, but part of me mourns the lost of those sometimes dusty, charming bookshops, full of character, where you might just stumble across a masterpiece you never knew existed.
The Waterstone's article sparked a bit of a debate, with it's chairman coming out in defence of the 100 year old company (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/12/waterstones-passion-always-books), and I do think the Piccadilly branch, with it's five floors of mostly books, is rather wonderful. But it seems to be almost the only option for book buying that isn't online. And that's rather depressing. I don't want it to be a choice of one shop or Amazon, I want to be able to browse several shops, hunting out the right edition, deciding whether I want the older cover or the shiny new one.
We live in a digital age, I appreciate that (look where I'm writing this), but while the physical book reigns supreme (the anti-electronic reader rant I'll save for another post), only being able to use digital bookshops takes away the fun of seeking out the perfect novel. I know Amazon isn't the only option, there's Abe Books or the Book Depository for starters, it is the dominant one. It's also often the cheapest, fastest option. Albeit not one without controversy (again, that's another post for another day).
I'm not sure what to do, I order books from Amazon, knowing I will probably have them by the end of the week, while knowing full well that each time I click 'submit order' I'm helping sound the death knell for independent retailers and small publishers who cannot compete. It's a dilemma that's becoming more and more frequent as we slowly turn away from brick and mortar to cyber shopping.

Sometimes all it takes is a bit of luck...

I got my hands on a copy of Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable!! For nothing. I love bookmooch.com.
It's pretty much the ultimate reference book, listing everything from mythical characters to turns of phrase, historical moments and odd things such as the correct terms for groupings of animals, eg: a murder of crows. I've been after a copy for ages, but they're not cheap, so thank goodness someone out there was willing to post me a copy.
I'm well aware that this is an incredibly book-geeky thing to have been searching for, but I'm not a bookworm for nothing. I'm off to search for more goodies with my fingers crossed!! Happy reading.

Shelf space needed!

Help!! I've run out of shelf space!! This is a recurring problem, I get attached to my books and cannot bring myself to either donate them to charity or add them to bookmooch. Some I will always hold onto to, but do I really need all the others? It might be time for an assault on the shelves and for some of the books to find their way to new homes, if only so I can see what I've got on the shelves when I'm looking for something good to read!!

Short and sweet

This week's recommended reads are a few days late (apologies, I got distracted!) and are all short story collections. Neil Gaiman is one of my favourite writers and as well as several novels, films, graphic novels and other writings, he has written several collections of short stories, I picked FragileThings as it happened to be the one I'm re-reading right now. I also suggested one of Roald Dahl's deliciously dark collections for adults, Switch Bitch, and Emma Donaghue's fairytale retellings Kissing The Witch.
Short stories can be fun, dipping in and only requiring a little time in a busy day to stretch your imagination and take a moment to recharge. Short stories are often dark, creepy, a little strange. Some of them grow into full novels, others just stay a brief glimpse at a narrative that never gets to be fully realised. Not everyone likes short stories, generally I prefer nice tasty novels I can get lost in, but if they're well written short stories can be almost as satisfying.
Even if the short story isn't normally your cup of tea, give one of these collections a read or find another author who tickles your fancy and stop for a while and go somewhere else in your head!
Happy Reading!!

Music to read books by...

Certain books are inextricably linked for me to certain songs or artists. Others require silence to really be able to come alive in my head. I play music all the time, whatever I'm doing, and since quite often, that's reading, the two have become intertwined. Tamora Pierce's Lioness Rampant quartet is linked to Alanis Morissette's Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie album, because that was what I was listening to (a lot) when I first discovered Pierce's heroine Alanna (and yes I have noticed the similarity in the names, no that is not why I was listening to that album).
But other books are better without a soundtrack, I tend to read crime novels (such as Agatha Christie's Poirot books-see previous posts-) late at night when I should be sleeping. I prefer these in the silence of the night, maybe because it enhances the mystery, I don't really know.
What books have a personal soundtrack for you and which books are better read without the addition of music?