Ridgeway XIX: To the bookstores!

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We saw Kim off at the Tube station after a breakfast at Pret a Manger.  We'd decided to have a booky kind of day.  First, though, we decided to explore the Waitrose shopping complex we'd discovered the day before (because it houses Skoob Books, so we'd scoped it out on the way home).  Waitrose is awesome and we bought a lot of chocolate to take home, and a couple of croissants to make breakfast more exciting.  We went back to the hotel room to dump the chocolate and set out again, off to the British Library, which we thought opened at ten.  It's not far at all and we had a nice walk up to St Pancras station and the Library.  The doors were already open and we went in, but it turned out that the exhibits of library treasures didn't open until after lunch.  So we said hello to the King's Library, and went into the shop and bought more books than we intended to.  This turned out to be a theme of the day....


Will look familiar to Blake fans

The heart of the British Library:
the King's Library

You can use these, you just have to become a reader

Mom wanted to take the books back to the hotel, so she did that but I peeled off near the end and just went right to Skoob, a large used bookstore. That was pretty glorious, though to my library-booksale-contaminated mind, the prices were kind of high.  British used bookstores now have special sections for different colors of old Penguins, since everyone wants to collect those now.  I saw Penguins in horrible condition going for 2 or 3 pounds.  Nice ones are over 5.




After dropping THOSE books off at the hotel, we walked back to the British Library and saw the exhibit.  Lots of lovely treasures, Chaucer and Shakespeare Folios and the manuscript for the Monty Python 'trouble at t'mill/Spanish Inquisition' sketch.  A whole section of scriptures from various religious traditions.  And a case for the Ukrainian poet Shevchenko, to remind us that Ukraine needs support.  

Shevchenko exhibit

The free paper you see on the Tube has some great news stories

Spotted another labyrinth tile!

After that, we got pizza at a place across the street and went over to the V&A to see the Martha Edlin casket, some opus anglicanum, a screen showing the Apocalypse that Mom likes because of the cheerful little Agnus Dei, not to mention the dragons, and so on.  We dropped in at a needlework shop but it was all about hand-painted needlepoint patterns.  I would have gotten a needleminder but they were 18.50, a lunatic amount.

Martha was only 11 or 12 when she embroidered this casket.
She was an extremely accomplished needlewoman!

Opus Anglicanum, a medieval embroidery
technique using silk thread and split stitch

A cheerful little Agnus Dei

We got back on the Tube and went to Leicester Square, and walked up Charing Cross Road to find Foyles.  Oh man.  That place is enormous, and amazing.  I consider that we showed great restraint in taking lots of photos and only buying 3 books each.  Then we stopped in at a used bookstore (beautiful first editions and rarities) and another one (ordinary, nice but nothing we wanted), and went home and got some dinner at Nando's -- super yummy.  And then it was back to our hotel for our last night and an early trip home!


Any bookstore with a pseudo-archaeology section is a friend of mine

Comments

  1. LoryAugust 4, 2024 at 10:48 AM

    The pilgrimage to the British Library was a highlight of my own trip years ago! Hope you could lug all those books home without undue trouble.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JeanAugust 6, 2024 at 6:28 PM

      We had a trick up our sleeve. We were only allowed to have one suitcase for the hiking part, but a friend of mine loaned me a duffel bag that folded down into a little pocket. When it was time to go home, we filled it full of stuff and used it as a carry-on.Ta-daa! Extra room for books!

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