Oxfam. Because it's the only bookshop in this godforsaken backwater that occasionally gets some new stock.

Waterstones on Gower Street

Daunt Books in Belsize Park

Foyles
Stanfords
The foreign magazine rack at Borders
Mega City Comics
The Blackwells in Oxford

This thread reminds me that it's a long time since I was last here :

I really like that Waterstones on Gower St. I first went into roughly 20 years ago, when it was Dillons, and I loved the second-hand section. I really like the remainders section to.

QUOTE:
Is there a name for "fear of being crammed in tight spaces with lots of other people?" I get it at conferences sometimes when I get stuck in a seat in the middle and and they've packed all of the chairs tightly and they're all filled. I sometimes feel it in crowded movie theaters, which is why I often sit in the very front.

Yes, it's agoraphobia. Greek for "fear of the marketplace" (constricted space, lots of people). It's what I have, and was treated for with hypnotherapy. I wrote about it in the old place.

Waterstones in Gower Street is a remarkably good bookshop for a Waterstones, and hasn't gone too far downhill over recent years.

Stanfords, of course, but it's not, really, a bookshop, is it?

Daunt wins, though, just because of the whole topographical way the bookshop is arranged, and that lovely skylight.

That makes it sound like its an irrational fear. I don't think it's irrational to not want people up in my space.

QUOTE:
Stanfords, of course, but it's not, really, a bookshop, is it?

It's a shop that sells books.

Yeah, but you go into Stanfords to go and browse the green Austrian Alpine Club's maps, or to try and find the only 1:50,000 map of the Toubkal massif, and end up buying something by Eric Newby or William Dalrymple by chance.

Speak for yourself. I browse the travel and language books.

Oh. OK. I always assumed everyone went in there to buy obscure maps.

QUOTE:
That makes it sound like its an irrational fear. I don't think it's irrational to not want people up in my space.

Not wanting them up in your space is one thing. Having panic attacks because people are all around you is what takes it to the level of 'irrational', hence a phobia. But it's not necessarily crowds for me; it's the unescapability of the situation. Stadiums and concerts are fine, because you can easily leave if you feel uncomfortable. However, being in a small boardroom with a bunch of people and then them closing the door - that had me in a world of panic.


The wiki has a good quote: "Agoraphobia is a condition where the sufferer becomes anxious in environments that are unfamiliar or where he or she perceives that they have little control. Triggers for this anxiety may include crowds, wide open spaces or traveling, even short distances. This anxiety is often compounded by a fear of social embarrassment, as the agoraphobic fears the onset of a panic attack and appearing distraught in public."

Chubby, your place has the best picture so far. Where is it, exactly?

There's a link to Chubby's in Crusoe's post.

It's in Belsize Park, London.

The one in Belsize Park is just a small branch, actually. The main one (with that lovely atrium-thing) is on Marylebone High Street.

There are some normal books at the front, but the rest of it is arranged "topographically", so that all the books from, and about, a particular region are together. That means you get novels from authors of, travel writing about, maps, and guide books to, say, Argentina, all together; and they're next to Brazil and Chile.