Since the pandemic hit the UK, I have only been in one bookshop – a quick look around Barter Books in Alnwick, as I was there for a wedding and couldn’t miss the opportunity. Other than that, I didn’t want to risk it – knowing I could buy books online. Obviously this is very small fry in the things that people have experienced this past year, but I have really missed being in one.
And yesterday, I went to Waterstones in Oxford! I was spending a day with a friend, and decided it was time to brave it. Mostly because I have yet to see the British Library Women Writers series in a bookshop, and I was very excited to see them ‘in the flesh’ – you can probably see how delighted I was, even behind a mask:
As series consultant, I get copies of these – so I didn’t need to buy any. But I did buy a small handful of books to celebrate being back in a bookshop…
The Bear by Marian Engel
If you follow Dorian of Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau on Twitter, chances are you’ve heard about The Bear by Marian Engel. It has recently been republished by the ever-reliable Daunt Books, so I’ve decided to give it a go – despite being called ‘the most controversial novel ever published in Canada'(!) I probably won’t actually read it for a few months – because it was published in 1976, making it perfect for October’s 1976 Club.
Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver
A couple of years ago I loved Pigs in Heaven by Kingsolver so much that it made me want to read much more by her. It was actually the third of her books that I’d read, but far and away my favourite. She does tend to write enormous books, and we all know how I feel about them – but now it’s on the shelf, it’s more of a possibility.
In Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova
There is a definite irony that I can never remember the author’s name of a book called In Memory of Memory… this is a Fitzcarraldo Edition from their non-fiction series, and I cannot resist those. I’ve had a slightly mixed success with them, as some are a bit too clever for me, but at their best they are incredible. And their best is This Little Art by Kate Briggs, FYI.
There you go – a mini haul, because I tend to go bigger in secondhand bookshops where the books are cheaper. And, let’s face it, months spent surrounded by my unread books has reminded me that I don’t really need to buy more. But it felt so good to be back, supporting a bookshop and having a browse.