Monday 11 April 2011

The Great Book Buying Expedition

So, yesterday morning I woke up feeling well enough to set out on a Great Book Buying Expedition because, as some of you know, I was recently the lucky recipient of an unexpected present of some book tokens. As real book buying for me always means travelling to one of two fairly distant places it can never be planned in advance, I have to take myself by surprise and just set out. If I know what I want and it's something that I think they are likely to have in, then I go to a small Shropshire town called Much Wenlock to my favourite independent shop, Wenlock Books. If you're ever in the area I can't recommend the shop too highly. Anna sells both new books and second hand volumes and is always only too glad to talk to you about her stock. If you're lucky she will also make you a cup of excellent tea as well. What more could anyone ask?

Yesterday, however, I needed to browse and I also felt well enough to get as far as Oxford and that is a combination which means just one thing - a day in Blackwells.

Some people, I know, find a bookshop that size intimidating and I can understand that. How can you hope to find something that is just right amongst all those books? How do you ever narrow down your choice? Panic ye not! I have the perfect answer - tea and buns. The tea and bun break is an essential part of any Great Book Buying Expedition. Actually, if you're going to be pedantic about things, several tea and bun breaks. Blackwells acknowledges this fact by having a cafe inside the shop, although normally there are so many people having tea and bun breaks that it is hard to find a seat. But don't let that worry you, there are plenty of other appropriate places where you can indulge within very easy walking distance.

So, your plan of campaign should go something like this. Arrive at your destination. First tea and bun break while you decide which sections of the bookshop you are going to prowl round and in what order. For me, yesterday, this was the literary criticism section, the fiction in translation and the history department.

Having made your initial selection you then go back to the shop and carry out a preliminary sweep, logging possible choices as you go. Note book and pencil is essential at this stage, although you will need to be prepared to defend yourself if challenged by concerned booksellers who think you are just noting down titles that you then intend to buy at half the price from the Internet. (You wouldn't do that, would you?) This reconnaissance can take anything from half an hour to half the day depended on the size of the bookshop and how many categories of book you are interested in. However long it takes, by the time you get to the end of it you will definitely need another tea and bun break. You might even need two buns if your exertions have left you really exhausted.

Over your second bun you then peruse and narrow down your lists and decide which books are going to be deemed to be serious contenders. Over your first bun you may have got the list down to a couple of dozen but it's over that second one that you do the really hard work and cull for all you are worth. They will want to close the bookshop at some point that evening.

Back to the book face then, this time for some serious browsing. I hope you haven't come in your best clothes, because this part of the proceedings inevitably means that you will end up sitting on the floor pouring over tables of contents, reading first chapters or chasing through indexes to see if your favourite writer is mentioned or if that essential piece of information is covered. This is hard work. When you have browsed your way through your short list you will justifiably be tired. You will need more tea and buns.

I recommend a real good strong Assam tea for this deliberation because this is where you have to make the final selection and your resolve will need fortifying. However much you want that book on Crime Fiction that's only available in hardback at £125 (I kid you not!) you can't have it, at least not if you have my bank manager, you can't. You have to be realistic and make decisions. You may even find you need a full cream tea to get you through this difficult and heartbreaking part of the operation.

Finally, at a point where the staff of both tea and book shops are ready to have you removed for loitering with intent, you pull out your purse (or in my case, book tokens) and you buy your books. These may or may not be the ones you decided on over your full cream tea. It's not unknown for all this hard work to be in vain and for me, at least, to completely change my mind the moment I get back inside the shop and buy something that just happens to cross my line of vision as I go through the door for that last momentous visit. But what does that matter? I've had the fun, I've had the tea and buns and I've finally got the books. What better way of spending a day?

What's that? I haven't said which books I actually bought? Sometimes I think that is the least important part of the whole expedition, but if you really want to know.

I rejected the fiction in translation because I've had so many bad experiences recently with poor transitions and I didn't have anyone with me who could vouch for the quality of what I was looking at. The history section was always little more than a preliminary scan for when I move on to study medieval literature next year and want some social and political context. The serious buying in that area won't happen until Autumn at the earliest. So, that left literary criticism and within that I found myself drawn back again and again to the essay section. I looked long and hard at the latest volume of Virginia Woolf's collected essays, but it was very expensive, and I also hankered after the new Zadie Smith collection, but that is coming out in paperback later this month and I am prepared to wait a little longer. So, what I finally came home with was a volume of Michael Chabon's essays in praise of reading and writing, Maps and Legends, and a collection edited by Susan Hill, The Best of Books and Company, which comprises a selection of the essays that originally appeared in the magazine of that name. I love nothing better than reading about other people's bookish loves. Both of them will give me hours of pleasure, accompanied, of course, by more tea and buns.


Annie

29 comments:

  1. I love this post! I thoroughly enjoy just such an expedition myself, though sometimes I make the mistake of having coffee instead of tea and then finish the outing feeling far too buzzed and anxious.

    I was in Oxford a couple of years ago for my first real visit and stayed at The Buttery, right down the street from Blackwell's and across from Peter Wimsey's college--ideal location!

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  2. That must have been a seriously expensive visit, Rohan! I would have been in there twice a day, every day. I once rented a cottage for a week in Hay-on-Wye, known as the secondhand book shop capital of the UK. My literary bill at the end of the week was larger than that for the rent of the cottage and all my food and travelling expenses put together. Never again!

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  3. What a fun day and your description of it was perfect. One must always fortify oneself with teas and buns for such strenuous work as book shopping. Enjoy you new acquisitions!

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  4. I will Stefanie, over more tea and buns, of course!

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  5. I enjoyed your book buying expedition - beverages, buns and book heaven. I think the anticipation of all that indulgence is as good (well, nearly as good) as the choosing, buying and taking home the booty! Now you have the pleasure to come of the reading :)

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  6. I LOVE Wenlock Books, I was there just a couple of weeks ago! Have you been to Burway Books in Church Stretton? They've just moved shops, so I must go when I'm next that way.

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  7. I haven't been to Much Wenlock for many years, being a huge fan of Mary Webb I took off around Shropshire locations to visit the places from her books and also her life. Beautiful part of the country. Interested to hear what you think of the Susan Hill book that you got. Love the post.

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  8. This post is so much fun! Your technique mirrors mine when I visit the huge Powell's Books across the river from my house (well actually it's on my walk home from work, which is somewhat dangerous), except of course that on this side of the pond we have cookies instead of buns, and coffee tends to take pride of place even though I'm a tea girl. But still, I love taking my big stack of contenders into the in-store coffee shop and having a nice leisurely decision-making process. One of my favorite rituals. :-)

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  9. Margaret, it took me all day yesterday to recover from the exertion - clearly not enough buns were consumed.

    Nikki-ann, I'm so glad i'm not the only one who loves Wenlock Books. I didn't know Burway Books had moved. Next time I'm feeling up to it I must go over that way and investigate.

    Leah, if you haven't been since Anna took over the shop then a visit is definitely in order. She's made great changes all for the better.

    Emily, how do you manage having a shop like that so close? I would be perpetually penniless!

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  10. Hello Annie,

    Hope that the allergies aren't getting the better of you.

    Going into any bookshop is fatal for me, as I want to buy up the whole store!

    I can't bear to browse, then come out with nothing, unlike my husband who seems to enjoy this pointless exercise!!

    The tea and buns always manage to make up, in some small way, for the disappointment!!

    I just read your 'Triple Choice Tuesday' spot, over in Kim's site at 'Reading Matters'. I tried to leave a comment, but couldn't get to the 'comments' box.

    Some fantastic choices , especially the Enid Blyton. Her books will always be dear to my heart.

    Yvonne

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  11. Yvonne, surely it is just pure bad manners to come out of a bookshop without having bought anything:) Enid Blyton gets a bad press. She is responsible for getting an awful lot of children reading.

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  12. What a great ritual! This must be even worse manners than browsing in a bookshop and not buying anything, but sometimes I take notes and look the books up in the library! In my defence, I would only ever do that in big box book stores...

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  13. Don't worry about it, Motheretc, I do that all the time. After all, we have a duty to keep our libraries open, don't we.

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  14. Can't wait to see what you think of the Susan Hill.

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  15. I expect I'll post about the collection bit by bit, Nathalie, as the pieces are all by different authors. As I come across one that raises an idea I'll almost certainly discuss it here.

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  16. What a wonderful post, Annie! I love your process. I'm applying it next time I venture into an overwhelmingly large book shop! And I think you're right...the books you end up with aren't really the point, are they?

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  17. You only go for a day?? Me?? I've just been to Dublin for 9 days and I think I spent a good few hours EVERY DAY inside a book shop. That city is a bibliophiles idea of heaven. Needless to say, my baggage weighed considerably more when I returned to London yesterday than it did when I went out there ;-)

    BTW, your Triple Choice Tuesday selections went up yesterday.

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  18. Erin, the books are what you might call an added bonus!

    Kim, I would love to go for longer but I would be on my knees before the second day even began. Thanks for putting the post up.

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  19. Loved reading about your book expedition - haven't been to Hay-on-Wye for a few years, nice to be reminded. I get my fix pottering around OXFAM'S delightful bookshop in Harborne - now and then one comes across rare treasures of books, especially collectibles.

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  20. Kalpana, I love the OXFAM shop as well. They were a life saver when I had to clear out my office. I had somewhere I could take books and know that they would be put to good use. Now I go in there at least once a week in the hope that I'll find something I'd never dreamed of. Pottering around bookshops is good for the soul.

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  21. Wonderful post. I envy you the luxury of a whole day's book buying & tea as well. Thank you for mentioning the Books & Co anthology, it sounds lovely.

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  22. Oh Lyn, it was wonderful. I just wish it was possible more often, but then where would I keep all the books and how would I find time to read them?

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  23. Well, I most definitely want to go to Blackwell's, and why do I all the sudden have a craving for tea and buns? I agree that book shopping requires serious fortification and shouldn't be taken lightly. You came away with some very interesting sound books -- hurrah!

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  24. Heavens, that's a lot of tea and buns! If you took a flask and a packet of Maltesers you'd save enough money for another book! It probably wouldn't be the same experience though would it? I'm interested in the Michael Chabon book. I've just discovered him and loved The Yiddish Policemans Union.

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  25. Dorothy you would be in seventh heaven in Blackwell's, although how you would get your purchases home, is another matter. They probably do a postal service for overseas' visitors. If you get as far as Oxford and feel like making it down the road to Stratford do let me know.

    Joanne, I'm sorry, but tea and buns are every bit as important as the books. Actually, given the prices charged in tourist traps these days, I could have bought two more books, if not three, but it just wouldn't have been the same.

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  26. I take it your bank manager is not a reader?! Sounds like a perfect day (particularly if it called for not one tea and bun break but two!). Enjoy your new books. And I always make lists, too!

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  27. Danielle, you miscounted. It was was THREE tea and bun breaks!

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  28. Annie - I know that Blackwells too, though my speciality was the cheap(ish) second hand textbooks upstairs. I was always a bit surprised to remember that they also sell 'normal' books.

    Fully endorse your book choice technique - my equivalent is a day in the Waterstones in Piccadilly. I collect 'potentials' in a shopping basket (commodotisation much?) and then sort them out in the 5th floor cafe with caffeine, cake or occasionally a cocktail. My approach here - www.rosesyear.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-to-browse-bookshop.html

    And bring it on for Hay this year - I'm so excited!

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  29. Rose, how nice to meet you. I don't get down to London these days, which is probably just as well given the grouchiness of my bank manager, who simply doesn't seem to understand about book fetishes. However, I do know what you mean about the Piccadilly Waterstones. My own personal downfall was always The Silver Moon bookshop in the Charing Cross Road. Fortunately, my bank manager would say, that is no longer there.

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