bookshops

Photo Log: Things To Do In Santander

28th February 2017 by Gemma 2 Comments

Santander, in case you were not aware, is not part of the Spanish Basque region. It is the capital of Cantabria, a different area altogether, but also lies along the northern coast. The city is roughly two hours by bus from Bilbao. things to do in santander

Santander is not a city that would pop in a tourist’s mind. What are entertaining things to do in Santander, anyway?

However, I have a somewhat personal connection to it: one of my lovely colleagues that I used to work with was born and bred in Santander….

Photo Log: Bilbao 2016

21st February 2017 by Gemma 4 Comments

Around the same time last year, we went to Northern Spain, somewhat skirting the coast of the Bay of Biscay for a week. We flew into Bilbao, took a bus to San Sebastián and spent most of our time there, then another bus to Santander, before returning to Bilbao to see the city for two days then flew back to London. This post has photos from Bilbao so I’m obviously going backwards — it was a bit easier to sort out the photos this way!

Bilbao is the biggest city of the Basque Country, or Euskal Herria in Basque. The Basque Region includes three provinces in France (Northern Basque) and three/four in Spain (Southern Basque — someone correct me, please, as to whether Navarre is definitely in Basque?).

When you hear of Bilbao, is the Guggenheim Museum the first thing you of? I wouldn’t blame you because that’s what came to my mind too. It’s the most architecturally imposing building in the centre of the city, and its very modern design rises quite singularly from the other buildings around it. …

Independent Bookshop Crawl 2016: Goldsboro Books & Marchpane (3-4/8)

22nd August 2016 by Gemma Leave a Comment

Before I went on an unannounced blogging sabbatical, I was in the middle of featuring different independent bookshops in London. Let me resume with two bookshops located in famed Cecil Court, also known as a model for the movie version of Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter movies!

Independent Bookshop Week (IBW) in the UK is a campaign run by Booksellers Association and its members to celebrate indie bookshops in the UK and Ireland¹. It is modelled after the American campaign bearing the same name¹, which was held earlier across the pond in 2016. The UK had theirs on the 18th to 25th of June in 2016, and on the last day, the campaign encourages people to do a bookshop crawl (if you can’t do it on one day, do it during the whole IBW!).

I did the bookshop crawl on the last day, and planned to visit ten bookshops. All the best plans do not go as expected sometimes, and I only managed eight. Still a respectable number I think, considering I started at 12 noon and finished by 5:30 PM! I first went to Belgravia Books then John Sandoe Books, and I’ve shared photos of those visits in previous posts here and here, respectively.

Goldsboro Books is called as ‘The Home of Signed First Editions’, and they have over 25,000 first editions of various books in stock². Their collection is carefully curated; their books are the kind that readers would actually want to read, and not just display on their shelves. …

Independent Bookshop Crawl 2016: John Sandoe Books (Bookshop 2/8)

1st July 2016 by Gemma Leave a Comment

I did the bookshop crawl on the last day, and planned to visit ten bookshops. All the best plans do not go as expected sometimes, and I only managed eight. Still a respectable number I think, considering I started at 12 noon and finished by 5:30 PM! My first stop was Belgravia Books, and I’ve shared photos of it in a previous post.

My second stop was not so far away from Belgravia Books; Google Maps says it takes approximately 17 minutes walking from there to John Sandoe Books. I did not want to waste a lot of energy though (this was a crawl after all), so I took the tube and got off at Sloane Square. From there it was another 5-minute walk from the station to the bookshop*.

John Sandoe was founded by John Sandoe (duh) in November 1957, and his vision for it was to “to offer his selection of the best current books and to obtain any other books he might be asked for”¹. The bookshop is able to trace a history of its current premises. John Sandoe is made up of three shops, number 10, 11, and 12 — number 10 was a ‘seedy little tobacconist’ before the war, then became occupied by a man that sold antiquities, then became a secondhand bookshop after the war; number 11 was a dress shop, and number 12 had a vet.

You enter through the door that was number 11 Blacklands Terrace, and you immediately feel that you are in a place where books are ardently loved. …

Independent Bookshop Crawl 2016: Belgravia Books (Bookshop 1/8)

30th June 2016 by Gemma 2 Comments

The first bookshop I visited was Belgravia Books, which has been open since September 2011². They’re very easy to find — just get off Victoria station and it’s a 5-minute walk to get to the shop*.

I currently reside in north London, so Belgravia Books is nowhere near my immediate vicinity. It is a lovely modern-looking bookshop, and they have a large collection of the Pocket Penguins on their shelves, as well as beloved classics….