The best bookstore in London (1 Viewer)

Interesting thread this, would it be possible to extend the scope a bit and ask for any recommendations, either new or second-hand stores? I've been to Foyles many times, it was a strange place but I agree with all that's written here. As it has modernised a lot of the marginal stock has gone, leaving little more than a standard, if comparatively large, bookstore. John, when was Foyles in its heyday? I've been going since the mid-90s and it was certainly better then but I don't know if I ever saw it at its best.

There's quite a good shop in Bakewell in Derbyshire too, but it's not particularly big although it does specialise in natural history. By far the best range of stock I find though is at the British Bird Fair when all the big suppliers, plus the small second-hand suppliers, bring a good supply of titles.

I'd love to know if there's a really good second-hand bird book supplier anywhere though!

Just had the opportunity to pop into Foyles again and got "The sound approach to birding" - because they had an inspection copy I could browse through as well as three or four cellophane wrapped copies (the wrapping does make sense in this case, because you get two CDs with it - one is playing as I type; a variety of bird sounds but no commentary (that is in the text of the book)). I just dived in to see if they had that one book, but I think there are at least three or four full size bookcases of bird books. I saw Foyles first in the early 80s when they were proclaiming themselves to be the world's biggest bookshop, but I think they were still going strong in the 90s. To be fair to them, the amount of shelf space used hasn't changed, but I think the variety of books available has increased. I do regret the decline of their maths/physics area, which used to be more comprehensive than all but the best University libraries (and presided over by a slightly forbidding woman with a ?German? accent, which gave it a touch of character).

I'd go here. They have a lot of bird books. http://www.dauntbooks.co.uk/

Arbu said:

I'd go here. They have a lot of bird books. http://www.dauntbooks.co.uk/

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I can't remember seeing any, but maybe I was just underwhelmed... A very pretty shop though, and plenty of maps etc. to be worth a visit.

I'd love to know if there's a really good second-hand bird book supplier anywhere though![/QUOTE]

I really can recommend "Wildside Books" for antiquarian and out-of-print bird books: http://www.wildsidebooks.co.uk They also have a great collection of bird art.