Today's crop of bookshops took me into artistic, existential, floating and political realms. I only completed four visits because I wanted to enjoy the experiences.
31. Artwords Bookshop in Rivington Street, Hackney, is in one of those parts of London quite hard to reach by public transport. Overground and underground trains seem to just miss it. I recommend getting an overground train to Hoxton station and walking 15 minutes down Kingsland Road.
Reaching Artwords is well worth the effort. The area is very colourful. Forget Silicon Roundabout; Rivington Street is cool.
Artwords is an art and design bookshop with a heavy emphasis on design. "We don't just sell pretty picture books" said the shop's curator. Design is about the social influences that affect our choices. I was surprised to find books on veganism, social politics, and data analysis.
All of the books have visually compelling content. The bookshop was also visually compelling and full of surprises. I didn't expect to see statistician David Spiegelhalter's books in an Art bookshop. There were no books about diesel locomotives, though.
32. Libreria Bookshop in Hanbury Street is about 15 minutes walk from Artwords if you don't get lost. It is described as a different kind of bookshop experience. The shop seems very long and thin and the lighting is dimmed. Mood music in the background keeps the atmosphere relaxed.
When I entered the shop I noticed three people inside. Two were standing around, and one, a guy in his fifties with a rucksack on his back, slowly approached me. I had no idea what he wanted and he was acting a bit strange because he kept mirroring me which disturbed me. Then I realised it was indeed a mirror, and the guy was my reflection. The dimmed lights made the effect worse. If you have facial blindness and can't easily recognise people, mirrors can be hell. When I slightly turn I don't recognise myself and I keep getting startled by my own reflection. It is scary.
The idea of the shop is to reinterpret the customer's relationship to the store. Customers can sit down and immerse themselves in an experience, selecting and reading what they want. Books are organised around themes rather than subjects, so there are sections on 'identity', 'time and space' and 'the city' rather than conventional classifications like 'natural history' or 'science'. Books have an existential bias too. I asked if there were books about caring for your Great Dane or how to assemble a diesel locomotive. There weren't any. I found it difficult to navigate books using the themed approach. The curator said this was intentional; by getting lost the customer discovers new books.
Libreria has been open for about four years and has a growing following. It is a bit disorientating and challenging, but it is worth spending half an hour in it to soak up the experience. Because it's quite small - about the size of a narrowboat, I suggest going when it's quieter. The mirror makes a room of five people feel very crowded, particularly if you can't recognise people.
33. Word on the Water is a bookshop on a boat, about five minutes walk from Kings Cross station. Turn right out of the station along Pancras Road and then right along Goods Way until you reach the bridge over the canal. There you will see a sign on a narrowboat saying, "Books". If you head towards it you will reach your destination.
Word on the Water has only had a fixed location for the past two years. Before then it would cruise around the canal. Unfortunately that business model doesn't work because customers can't find you. The owner was going to close down but a petition to keep them open grew and the local council was persuaded to offer them a business address and mooring. They are now a permanent fixture. It is gaining a following from people who attend jazz clubs and other events in the area.
Books are interesting, but boat dwellers are far more interested in the question of lavatory facilities. What sort of toilet does Word on the Water have? Is it a pump-out or a chemical toilet, or a compost toilet? Surprisingly, it doesn't have any toilet at all. I was shocked. It does have an engine though.
There weren't many books on the boat but they were interesting titles. I couldn't resist buying this one:
There were new, secondhand and antiquarian books on the boat.
The bookshop is staffed mainly by boat-dwellers. One member of staff lives in a house, but we have to allow for the weird ones.
34. On the other side of King's Cross station, down Caledonian Road, is Housmans Books. Its history is described on its website, but the real experience of the bookshop is better. Housmans is quite a large bookshop, equal to two narrowboats side by side, and has a basement full of very cheap books. All its books are on left-wing politics, anarchy, and the right to peaceful self-determination. Whether or not to include a particular book is decided by a committee and the edges are a bit blurred, but its success over the past 60 years shows it has support.
Apart from books, Housman has a large number of magazines that I don't think you can buy elsewhere.
Most of the books in the basement are £1 each
Housmans also organises political talks and events in the evenings, many with an international theme. It occasionally publishes books too.
Depending on your political values, you will either feel inspired and love Housmans books, or you'll feel something else. I don't know what that other thing is because I've never felt it.
31. Artwords Bookshop in Rivington Street, Hackney, is in one of those parts of London quite hard to reach by public transport. Overground and underground trains seem to just miss it. I recommend getting an overground train to Hoxton station and walking 15 minutes down Kingsland Road.
Reaching Artwords is well worth the effort. The area is very colourful. Forget Silicon Roundabout; Rivington Street is cool.
Artwords is an art and design bookshop with a heavy emphasis on design. "We don't just sell pretty picture books" said the shop's curator. Design is about the social influences that affect our choices. I was surprised to find books on veganism, social politics, and data analysis.
All of the books have visually compelling content. The bookshop was also visually compelling and full of surprises. I didn't expect to see statistician David Spiegelhalter's books in an Art bookshop. There were no books about diesel locomotives, though.
32. Libreria Bookshop in Hanbury Street is about 15 minutes walk from Artwords if you don't get lost. It is described as a different kind of bookshop experience. The shop seems very long and thin and the lighting is dimmed. Mood music in the background keeps the atmosphere relaxed.
When I entered the shop I noticed three people inside. Two were standing around, and one, a guy in his fifties with a rucksack on his back, slowly approached me. I had no idea what he wanted and he was acting a bit strange because he kept mirroring me which disturbed me. Then I realised it was indeed a mirror, and the guy was my reflection. The dimmed lights made the effect worse. If you have facial blindness and can't easily recognise people, mirrors can be hell. When I slightly turn I don't recognise myself and I keep getting startled by my own reflection. It is scary.
The idea of the shop is to reinterpret the customer's relationship to the store. Customers can sit down and immerse themselves in an experience, selecting and reading what they want. Books are organised around themes rather than subjects, so there are sections on 'identity', 'time and space' and 'the city' rather than conventional classifications like 'natural history' or 'science'. Books have an existential bias too. I asked if there were books about caring for your Great Dane or how to assemble a diesel locomotive. There weren't any. I found it difficult to navigate books using the themed approach. The curator said this was intentional; by getting lost the customer discovers new books.
Libreria has been open for about four years and has a growing following. It is a bit disorientating and challenging, but it is worth spending half an hour in it to soak up the experience. Because it's quite small - about the size of a narrowboat, I suggest going when it's quieter. The mirror makes a room of five people feel very crowded, particularly if you can't recognise people.
33. Word on the Water is a bookshop on a boat, about five minutes walk from Kings Cross station. Turn right out of the station along Pancras Road and then right along Goods Way until you reach the bridge over the canal. There you will see a sign on a narrowboat saying, "Books". If you head towards it you will reach your destination.
I expected the bookshop on a boat to be one narrowboat in size, but it was smaller than that. It is in fact a barge rather than a narrowboat. Many books are outside the boat unless it starts raining, when they are quickly gathered together and dried inside. The inside is quite small and low (be careful anyone who is large and tall because you will bang your head).
Word on the Water has only had a fixed location for the past two years. Before then it would cruise around the canal. Unfortunately that business model doesn't work because customers can't find you. The owner was going to close down but a petition to keep them open grew and the local council was persuaded to offer them a business address and mooring. They are now a permanent fixture. It is gaining a following from people who attend jazz clubs and other events in the area.
Books are interesting, but boat dwellers are far more interested in the question of lavatory facilities. What sort of toilet does Word on the Water have? Is it a pump-out or a chemical toilet, or a compost toilet? Surprisingly, it doesn't have any toilet at all. I was shocked. It does have an engine though.
There weren't many books on the boat but they were interesting titles. I couldn't resist buying this one:
There were new, secondhand and antiquarian books on the boat.
The bookshop is staffed mainly by boat-dwellers. One member of staff lives in a house, but we have to allow for the weird ones.
34. On the other side of King's Cross station, down Caledonian Road, is Housmans Books. Its history is described on its website, but the real experience of the bookshop is better. Housmans is quite a large bookshop, equal to two narrowboats side by side, and has a basement full of very cheap books. All its books are on left-wing politics, anarchy, and the right to peaceful self-determination. Whether or not to include a particular book is decided by a committee and the edges are a bit blurred, but its success over the past 60 years shows it has support.
Apart from books, Housman has a large number of magazines that I don't think you can buy elsewhere.
Most of the books in the basement are £1 each
Depending on your political values, you will either feel inspired and love Housmans books, or you'll feel something else. I don't know what that other thing is because I've never felt it.
No comments:
Post a Comment