Favourite (‘Top 4’) Bookshops

My ‘Top 4’ favourite bookshops are:

W&G Foyle, 113-119 Charing Cross Road, London – Probably one of the world’s largest ‘bricks and mortar’ book store, where even my idiosyncratic tastes in books were overwhelmed by the selection available. It was here I purchased Carroll and Ostlie’s wonderful Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, with which I nearly precipitated divorce proceedings by avidly reading it at every spare moment as Jo and I travelled the length and breadth of Britain.
Waterstones, 7 Dawson Street, Dublin – Not quite the size of Foyle’s, but along the same lines, with a good selection available in any category you care to mention.
Abbey’s, 131 York Street, Sydney – Smaller than Foyle’s or Waterstones, but another good-sized ‘general’ book store with a decent range of offering in all the categories I’ve ever thought to ask for. And, of course, it has one particular merit that neither Foyle’s nor Waterstones Dublin can offer: it is sufficiently close to my home that I can look forward to getting there a couple of times each year.
Barnes and Noble, somewhere near Harvard, Cambridge, Mass. – You’ll have to forgive my memory here; it’s been more than 20 years since I’ve been. All I recall with any clarity is a vast, chaotic, multi-level building with every shelf and trestle table groaning under the weight of unbelievably cheap books, like every remainder store you’ve ever seen rolled into one.

Honourable mentions go to:

Australia China Book Shop, 2/39 Goulburn Street, Sydney (for Chinese Language books)

Tel: +61 (2) 9212-3517

Fax: +61 (2) 9212-3518
Dymocks, George Street, Sydney
Old Harbour Books, Sitka, Alaska (for refinement, variety in a small space, and excellent scones)

As for the Kiwi shops I know and haunt, here they are:

Arcadia Books, 703 Great King Street, Dunedin North

Tel:	+64 (3) 477-0204

One of those marvellous, packed-full second-hand bookshops where, with luck, it is possible to find almost anything. Overall, the prices were very reasonable on my last visit, and some were very good.

Archway Books, ---, Pukerua Bay

Tel:	+64 (4) ---

Another of those packed-full second-hand places where almost anything may turn up. Alas, the prices here are nothing to write home about overall, though the occasional bargain may still be found. I finally found my rare and long-desired copy of Hooker's Handbook of the New Zealand Flora here.

Arnolds, -- Place, Christchurch

Tel: +64 (3) ---

And another. On my last visit in late 2003, the prices were very reasonable.
Arty Bees, -- Manners Street, Wellington

Tel: +64 (4) ---

...

Scorpio Books, -- -, Christchurch

Tel:	+64 (3) ---

A "regular" new-book shop; one of the best mainstream bookstores in the country (in my experience, anyway). Though it is not, as far as I am aware, a chain store, think of it like one.

University Bookshop, -- -, Dunedin

Tel:	+64 (3) ---

A permanent sale occupies the upper floor; a broad selection of university textbooks and "regular" books the ground. In my experience, the sale offered little of interest. The main floor, however, though toward the upper end of the expense range, had offers one of the best selections in the country. However, I must say that on my last visit the service left something to be desired.

Whitcoulls, Queen Street, Auckland

Tel:	+64 (9) ---

This is the largest of the Whitcoulls stores (the others are scarcely worth mentioning) occupying two-and-a-bit floors of the large old downtown building. However, the Whitcoulls chain is definitely in the business of appealing to the common denominator among its clientele; there is nothing here of much interest, and nothing you couldn’t find in any of a hundred other outlets.

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Favourite ('Top 4') Bookshops

Contact me.

Tel:	+61 (2) 9212-3517
Fax:	+61 (2) 9212-3518