I have a weakness for videos of people walking slowly around bookshops, which is a sentence I never expected to write in public.
This one is a cosy tour of independent bookshops in Bath. I watched it with a notebook, as though I were going to do something about it. What I actually did was go down to the only bookshop in our town and stay for an hour and a half.
What a good shop does
A good bookshop is an argument about what is worth reading, made by someone who has opinions and limited shelf space. The handwritten cards help. The slightly crooked table of things the owner likes helps more. An algorithm tells you what people like you bought. A shop tells you what one particular person thinks you ought to try.
Rules I have tried to follow
- Buy one book from the table you would not normally look at.
- Ask what the person behind the counter is reading.
- Never go in with a list. Lists are for supermarkets.
- Leave before you can do any lasting financial damage.
I have never left a bookshop feeling that the world had too many ideas in it.
Ours nearly closed two winters ago. It stayed open because enough of us decided that a town needs somewhere to go and be quietly surprised. So I treat the small amount I spend there as a subscription to that.
Video: Beth Bartholomew on YouTube. Embedded here, not made by me.
Sample content for The Pixel, a fictional personal blog.
