The Bookshop We Deserve: from the archive, 24 October 1924

A bookshop in the old days seemed a kind of antechamber to Fairyland. Not so today, when books are done up like gaudy confectionery and treated like merchandiseTo stand in a certain kind of modern bookshop is to feel like Walpoles learned blockhead, whose only merit was that he had read more foolish books than other folks; or to emulate Lambs friend who left off reading altogether, to the great improvement of his originality.Yet it is not really very long since a shop devoted to the selling of books still retained an air of dignity, and still conveyed the impression of containing books, real books that one wanted to buy and keep. A bookshop in those days seemed a kind of antechamber to Fairyland. No one could conceivably feel like that about the average bookshop of to-day. It is crowded with books, of course - far more crowded than any bookshop ever used to be. But the impression it conveys is not of books but of merchandise, even of confectionery, done up like sweetmeats in pretty coloured paper. It is an emporium, a store, a bazaar, anything you like to call it. But it is no longer the bookshop of our fancy; and the dreamer who still thinks to step from its threshold on to enchanted ground is qualifying for a rude awakening. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2014-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]

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