Books in the Wild: Waterstones Gower Street

Honestly, sometimes it amazes me how different stores in the same chain can be. And here is a case in point. Waterstones Gower Street is the bookshop that serves the University of London and although it’s only about a seven minute walk from the Tottenham Court Road branch, it’s sometimes hard to believe they’re the same company. Gower Street has used books on racks outside, a record store in the basement and sections for remaindered books all over the place. You can often spot something in there you haven’t seen anywhere else – at least not in a physical copy.

Anyway, there’s a bit display for Monica Heisy’s book, which I already own a copy of but is now getting so much hype that I think I’m going to have to read it sooner rather than later or it’s going to hit over-hype and I’ll never get to it because I’m worried it won’t live up to it (see: Eleanor Olliphant which I still haven’t read).

And then the big display as you go in, at the bottom of the stairs is a new non-fiction book that I hadn’t see before – Red Memory by Tania Branigan, which the blurb says looks at China’s Cultural Revolution through the stories of people who were there and how the echo’s of Mao’s decade still resonate today. It looks really good and if the tbr wasn’t already so huge (and space in my suitcase quite limited) I probably would have bought it there and then. One to add to the list of potential Christmas books (yes I start that this early in the year!)

I couldn’t resist a picture of this book arch on one side of the children’s department upstairs – there’s another on the other side too – and although I know some people get really upset at books being used like this, I can totally live with it in a bookshop like this.

And then here is my favourite thing in the whole shop. A books case full of cozy crime novels – American mass market paperback ones. The sort I usually have to order in from that conglomerate. There are Cupcake Bakery, Library Lovers, Maine Clambake, Royal Spyness (technically not a cozy, but you can see it there if you look in the top left), Hannah Swenson and more. Yes I bought one. Sue me

And finally, just to demonstrate what a fabulous shop it is – there’s a whole stack of British Library Crime Classics, including a load that I’ve revived here like Murder in the Basement, Death at High Eldersham and more and if you look to the top left, you’ll also see actual paperback Amelia Peabodys. What more could you want. I nearly bought them – the only think stopping me was the fact that I already own them all on Kindle and audiobook – and I think Him Indoors would think I was crazy!

Have a great weekend everyone