Bloomsbury
I spent one day in the Bloomsbury section of London beginning the British Museum, which is known for its glorious atrium (shown above), but it also has an historical reading room that is no longer is used but has been preserved. Included in this list of visitors is George Orwell. Was I becoming obsessed with the British essayist?
The text is edited from the signs in the room.
Within walking distance from the British Museum is the London Review Bookshop, a smaller, younger bookshop than Blackwell or Daunt (founded in 2003) but still chocked full of interesting titles. In keeping with my standards of supporting bookshops that I like, I picked up the pocket-sized The Storyteller Essays by Walter Benjamin, originally published in 1932. It contains a relevant essay for this trip about the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, which destroyed much of the city (more Portugal history).
The highlight of that day was visiting the massive British Library which was free and open to the public. It is within walking distance too, but by then I had to focus on putting one sore foot in front of the other. In the pano you can see the spires of St. Pancras tube which is the station where you can catch the Eurostar to Paris.
Inside the library a large room displays major historical manuscripts including The Magna Carta, a Gutenberg Bible and a Beatles lyric songbook.
Hatchard’s
Bookshopping in London ended with the grandaddy of them all at Hatchard’s in Picadilly, which has been selling books since 1797. I was feeling very bold that day, so I wore my Destination: Books shirt in hopes of starting a conversation with one of the booksellers.
A lanky young man (Hatchard’s is lucky to have a guy with the length who can stock books on its towering shelfs) rang up for me a copy of Books v. Cigarettes, a series of seven George Orwell essays, part of the Penguin Great Ideas.
Since there was no line, I pointed to my shirt and mentioned that I was a bookseller as well, albeit of the popup (bouquinistes ) variety. Instead of just shrugging, he smiled briefly and said, “Good. We need more booksellers.”
What a better note to end this bookselling trip and I must thank my lifelong, book loving partner Denise for planning this trip. But make no mistake about it, she purchased as many books as I did.
On to Portugal for Part 3, but first a brief reminder…
I will be bringing many of the books I wrote about in the London Book Shopping posts.
murraybrowne.org 
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