It is so easy to sit and purchase books online, or to download them on to our e-readers. I find that by doing so I stick to the same authors and genres, which means I never really get to try anything new. However, I really love a trip to the bookstore, my bookstore of choice is Waterstones.
I love going into Waterstones because I can enjoy browsing the books, there is no feeling of being rushed to get in and out which makes you grab the first book you find interesting. I do however feel like this with one of the other high street bookstores. Waterstones has lots of space, you’re not cramped into small aisles, instead you are faced with huge bookcases full of books to choose from.
One of my local towns Blackburn has just opened up a Waterstones Sale Outlet store, i’m sure you can imagine my joy when I discovered this a few weeks ago. I just had to take a trip there, and luckily I was tagging along as my mom went to return some clothes she’d impulse bought in the sales.
I will admit now that this store is not quite as amazing as other Waterstones i’ve been in, it has the same space and charm, but the books are not in any order, they are split into Fiction, Non-Fiction, Childrens, and New Releases, but other than that they don’t seem to be in alphabetical order within these sections or in genre order. It makes it very difficult when you have a book that you are looking for, I was after The Virgin Suicides by Jeffery Eugenides which was not in the area which contained a lot of authors with surnames beginning with E, I actually found it within a section which seemed to be home to the Bronte books. If I was in a rush and looking for the one book I would never have found it, I luckily had lots of time to spare and must have looked at each book at least twice before making my final decision.
As I said it is a Waterstones Sale Outlet store, where pretty much all the books are buy one get one half price, but they also have a selection of books which are priced at £1, and you’ll also find ones hidden on the shelves priced at £3 or £5. I bought 7 books for £20!
The staff in the store are lovely! On my second trip in that day to pick up a book for someone else, I had a lovely chat about books with the lady who served me. She was pretty sure i’d bought enough books to last me a long while, though commented if I was anything like her they’d be read in a couple of weeks!
I will definitely making a trip back there to stock up on books and chat with other fellow book lovers, however I am hoping that the lack of organisation with titles is due to how busy the store was with the sales being on and a lot of people out spending their Christmas money. I think i’ll be making a midweek journey so that there aren’t as many shoppers in the store, people annoy me when I’m shopping for books, I get a little lost in my own world and don’t need people getting in my way!
If you want to see the books I purchased then take a look at the January Book Haul I posted on YouTube yesterday.
Do you have a favorite bookstore?
