Some Bookshops I Have Known, a lovely post on The Guardian Books Blog by Alistair Harper:
Rationally, I should not get falsely romantic about the idea of the bookshop. As Orwell wrote in Bookshop Memories, they can be deeply depressing places attracting the needy and unhinged. Also, it’s not as if the internet has stopped individuals, as opposed to corporations, selling books. I like to imagine that a modern version of Helen Hanff’s 84 Charing Cross Road is happening over email right now thanks to some purchases over Abe books.
But I can’t help the false romance. It’s through different bookshops I’ve frequented that I can mark out the different moments of my upbringing.