Birthday Book Shopping Trip
- Clo null
- Nov 17, 2023
- 3 min read
Daunt Books, Booksellers Row and more...
So, last week I celebrated my 24th birthday! And how did I celebrate? By dragging my boyfriend to London to go book shopping, of course.
For a while now, I've had a list of book stores in London that I would love to visit, therefore I thought that my birthday would be a great opportunity to head there and check out some of these places. A lot of these stores are independent booksellers, and I've seen a lot of hype for these places online - mainly on TikTok.
On my list of shops to visit was: Daunt Books, Waterstones Piccadilly, Word on the Water, Any Amount of Books and Cecil Court - known as 'Bookseller's Row'. Not to forget a visit to The British Library in the morning too.
THE BRITISH LIBRARY - FANTASY EXHIBITION:
Our first stop of the day was a brand new exhibition at The British Library titled 'Fantasy: Realms of Imagination'. Opening on the 27th of October (my birthday!) the exhibition takes you through the enormous world of fantasy; from the pages of Middle Earth to the streets of Dark Souls. The exhibition isn't exclusively for readers, with online games and classic movies, to intricate board games and stage show costumes. Some of my favourite exhibits here were Neil Gaiman's 'Coraline' notebook (the original manuscript for the novel) and a notebook drawing of the famous map from J.R.R Tolkein's The Hobbit.
WORD ON THE WATER:
After the exhibition, the book shopping trip began. Our first stop was to Word on the Water, a floating book barge. This was probably my favourite store of the whole day - you step down into a canal boat full of books, complete with a log burner and comfy chairs to sit in while you get lost in a book. They had such a plethora of books, from old classics like The Great Gatsby (my favourite book!), to newer publications like The Girls by Emma Cline, which has been on my TBR for a while now. I absolutely loved this picture-perfect book barge and would highly recommend a trip there next time you're in London!
WATERSTONES PICCADILLY:
From Word On The Water, we jumped on the tube down to Waterstones in Piccadilly, Europe's largest bookshop! I was overwhelmed by the sheer size of it, however I did find everything that I set out searching for! I had certain books that I new I wanted to buy when I was in here (mainly because I knew Waterstones definitely had them in stock) including A Curse For True Love, which had only been released a few days before! I also wanted to pick up a biography by Ben Hunt on Lando Norris, which I did have to search a few floors for but eventually found. If you've got a huge TBR list that you're setting out to buy, I would definitely recommend going here.
ANY AMOUNT OF BOOKS:
This bookshop was really different - they had such a wide range of books from rare, to collectors, to special editions. Their books are all secondhand which I loved because they had such a huge selection to choose from. It was lovely to just browse around in here and see what they have to offer. If you're looking for something different, or rarer than the usual find then this is where you need to head.
DAUNT BOOKS:
Daunt Books was a store that I definitely plan on heading back to next time I'm in London. By the time we got there it had started raining pretty heavily and was also beginning to get dark, so it was great to head inside and immediately feel cosy. Again, they have a wide range and I liked that they had a lot of currently popular books, especially names I've seen on Booktok a lot! A large part of the store is also set out in different place and country sections, so if you're after some travel reading then Daunt Books is the place for you. This is also the store (again, that I've seen on TikTok) that has the beautiful skylight and upstairs level, where you can look over the balcony at all of their books!
CECIL COURT/BOOKSELLER'S ROW:
Cecil Court, otherwise known as Bookseller's Row, is a beautiful row of book and art shops. I didn't go in every shop, but even just strolling and window shopping from the outside was worth it. Alice Through The Looking Glass was beautiful; they had a gorgeous window display and had artwork outside the store that you could browse. I also loved Watkin's Books. Their selection focuses on 'spiritual and esoteric literature' , but they also sell crystals, jewellery, and incense - which made the store smell amazing!
Overall, the bookshopping trip was a great opportunity to check out some other bookshops that I would normally never get to see. I'd go back to every shop we visited and I can't wait to do exactly that next time I'm in London!
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