Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Secondhand Book Hunting
I've been reading Cass Sunstein, the former law professor who's now working for Barack Obama. And also watching his clips on YouTube. People may have heard of him as co-author with Richard Thaler of Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.
Curious to read more, I looked up his other books. He's written rather a lot. And new, they often cost in excess of £20 / £30.
Except secondhand via Amazon of course. But really, I prefer to give my money to London bookshops, since, if we don't make even a small effort, they'll all disappear. So I tried searching websites to find out where I could take a bus and - cash eagerly in hand - look at and buy some secondhand copies.
Not easy. In fact, disappointingly difficult.
I did find one very friendly bookseller where they have a copy of Sunstein's Republic.com - which sounds like a must read. Do they have any more books by him? The bookseller apologised; she was on her own; but will go down to the basement and look later.
Anyone got some practical ideas about how to find secondhand books in central or north London? Or should we give up and go the mail order route?
Tags for Forum Posts: Cass Sunstein, bookshop, locating books, secondhand books
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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Abebooks are a big international secondhand book search thing - you may know of them already. It can only filter down to UK sellers (via More Search Options) so will look beyond N London. They can save searches so you get emails months later with things you forgot you ever wanted.
Don't know of other more local searchers. It shouldn't be that difficult to set one up for a webhead? But post is cheaper than bus fares anyway, unless you're as old as me.
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Permalink Reply by james walsh on
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Alan* sorry if this is sounding vague but there are loads of great second hand book shops around Museum street just south of the British Museum
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I buy a huge amount of books each year for work (I'm an author and editor) and leisure and have done for years. Although I do use online multinationals such as AbeBooks and Amazon, and the cheaper but less comprehensive Awesome Books, like you I prefer to keep real, physical bookshops in business. My family complain sometimes if we are out either in London or farther afield (including Canada and the US recently!) as I find it near impossible to resist entering every second-hand bookshop I encounter. As to tracking them down in London, where there are still a relatively great number, I've built up knowledge of many good ones, mainly in central London. In the Russell Square/Bloomsbury area I can recommend Judd Books, at 82 Marchmont Street and especially Skoob Books at 66 The Brunswick Centre, just off Marchmont St (almost next to the Brunswick branch of Waitrose), as they have a very large and constantly changing stock. About 58,000 titles on-site and far more on their warehouse catalogue to view within 24 hours. The 2nd hand departments of Waterstones university branch, 82 Gower Street and of Foyles main shop in Charing Cross Rd are also worth a look. Although sadly one of my regular stops at the top end (forget the name) closed recently and is now a branch of TK-Max (!), there are still several good shops farther down C. Cross Rd, including Henry Pordes at 58-60 and Any Amount of Books at 56.
I know of lots more, but your best bet is to order (easiest from Amazon!!) an excellent little paperback guide, crammed with over 250 pages of succinct but helpful info about a huge number of shops (including 140 pp of sellers of new books as well as 40 pages of most of the 2nd hand ones worth visiting, and other useful info including charity shops selling books (I find surprising bargains in many, especially the Crouch End branch of Oxfam), book markets (another good possibility), pages and pages of specialist and general libraries, museums and galleries with bookshops and places of literary interest. Latest edition is November 2009 and costs only £8.99 full price (from £6-34 via Amazon). Worth every penny. (And no, I didn't write it, or even edit it!) Good 2nd hand shops often sell it (and so does the very good though rather small shop at the British Library); one place used that had it was the late, much lamented Prospero's Books in Crouch End; their branch in Muswell Hill (The excellent Muswell Hill Bookshop, 72 Fortis Green Rd: 020 8442 7588) should have it.
If you need more info, please contact me, at Jonathan@jonelph.myzen.co.uk
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Jonathoan* Thanks very much for the valuable info.
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But in my haste to share the knowledge, I forgot to include the details of the book!
It's Book Lovers' london by Lesley Reader (who else? a clear case of nominative determinism!) published by Metro Publications.
Also, I should add here (or could have been in a food-related blog) that there is also a great companion guide to the capital's food, not just reataurants and cafes but also food shops of all sorts, markets etc.
It's called (unsurprisingly) Food Lovers' London.
As one who loves eating, cooking and all things food-related, I also recommend this highly, as did Nigel Slater (calling it "A Joy"). Same publisher, author is Jenny Linford.
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Metro Books publish various other titles on London that may be of interest to HoLlers.
This isn't actually from Mel but from me, Jonathan!
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There is a traditional chaotic secondhand bookshop on Hartland Road near Camden Town. I doubt they would know their own catalogue, however, but it's a great browse.
If you need new books, then The Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green has good stuff, and seems to be well-established now. (http://www.biggreenbookshop.com/)
Somebody mentioned Oxfam in Crouch End? Apart from the excellent books, they have a superb selection of old vinyl LPs, at the best prices. Other places, such as the Mind Shop in Stroud Green, are trying to price up their stock according to some idea of each item's 'value'. The only result is that things cost too much there and the stock stays on the shelves.
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Permalink Reply by Kake on
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Alan, you might want to take a look at my London Bookshop Map.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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A belated Thankyou!' to everyone offering advice about second-hand bookshops. I thought some people might like to know how I got on.
I asked about finding copies of books by a particular author – in this instance Cass Sunstein. I also wanted to spend my money in London secondhand bookshops. Rather than with Amazon or its subsidiary AbeBooks.
The good news is that recommendations made by HoL members worked!
Judd Books (82 Marchmont Street) is an Aladdin’s cave of books I’d love to have time to read. They had several cheaply discounted copies of Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. I had this already, but other people may be searching for a copy
The shop I mentioned in my original post was Primrose Hill Books which isn’t a second-hand bookshop as such but has an online search facility for secondhand stuff. They fetched a hardback copy of Republic.com from the basement and kept it for me to collect.
Top honours go to Skoob Books at the Brunswick Centre, Bloomsbury (near Marchmont Street). They were very helpful and I bought several books there. My first visit to Skoob was unsuccessful, but I left my email address and they later got me two of the Sunstein books I wanted. Skoob have an online partner PsychoBabel Books. Although I couldn’t find what I wanted using Skoob search page, Vanessa from PsychoBabel emailed me soon afterwards. I collected another third book from Skoob. (Going with Zena who had a browse and also bought stuff.)
So thanks to Pam Isherwood, James Walsh, Jonathan Elphick, Nick Wright and Kake Pugh.
With a sincere apology to Kake for forgetting about her London Bookshop Map. Which of course has links to the Randomness Guide to London – both labours of love which everyone should know about.
+ + + +
P.S. Though Cass Sunstein is unlikely to have seen HoL, his ideas explain the shortcomings of some discussion threads here.
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Thanks for the update, Alan, and glad to hear you had success! (And thanks for your kind words on my projects.)
I read this article earlier today, which I thought you might like: http://www.booksourcemagazine.com/story.php?sid=119
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An interesting article, thanks Kake. It made me smile.
And reflect, particularly on whether enough people will continue to prefer old-fashioned books and "slow bookshops". (With the nice analogy of "slow food".) It raised too, broader questions about some of the claims made for the benefits of the online "world".
Then, it also made me think of the implications for public libraries and the changed role of librarians. A couple of people have told me about a rumour that Haringey's Libraries are to have a "root-and-branch review" by the same people who are currently making such a success of our parks.
As a mere "backbencher" I wouldn't know. Anyone got wind of this?
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