slow down & visit a bookshop

I recently nipped up to Cromford to meet friends and visit Scarthin Books. It’s a delightful bookshop with multiple floors, cosy rooms, books crammed into every corner, and one magnificent cat.

It was, naturally, impossible to walk out of the bookshop without purchasing one or two or, possibly, three volumes. Which I did. Who am I but a leaf, drifting on the rivers of fate?

In my day to day life, I try to resist the lure of consumerism, however, when it comes to books I find myself:

• buying second-hand
• using the library
• listening to audiobooks
• and buying new

When they give you options for book gathering, I simply say ‘yes’. It is my curse.

Who am I but a leaf, drifting on the rivers of fate?

Down the hill and round the winding road with zooming motorcyclists and mounds of cars, the canal waits with its little cafe and old stone buildings. The ducks are very curious and will try and approach you if you sit and read a book.

I’ve been reading The Hidden Life of Trees which made me feel rather emotional and swear off wooden furniture. Utterly impractical, odd, and a rather knee-jerk reaction, but what can I do? See the above mention of the leaf and fate. (I have settled on ‘attempt to buy second-hand‘.)

I chatted with the book seller about the wonder of Ursula K. Le Guin. When I first found her The Left Hand of Darkness, I sat down and read the whole thing, cover-to-cover, in one afternoon. I was seized by it. Utterly captured.

This isn’t the first time a stranger and I have connected over her. Books connect you with people, everyone knows it’s part of their magic.

On the recommendation of a friend, I’ve also decided to try some Sarah J. Maas and let go of any preconceived notions. It’s a new thing of mine: letting go of any book-related prejudice. I am casting off book snobbishness. Life is simply too short. I’ve read Fourth Wing, the book about a dragon school that took the book reading community by storm, and I had a blast.

After a thoroughly enjoyable lunch with my friends, a roast and a rosé that I panicked and agreed to (the waitress gave me options), I trooped back over the bridge towards the train station where I promptly did a photoshoot with The Unreal & The Real: Volume One.

(I should not be allowed to do book photoshoots. I am embarrassed by the urge. I’ve learned nothing and continue to do it.)

My life isn’t as visibly hectic as last year, but it has been a leeeetle packed for very nice reasons. Did I learn my lesson about moderation? No. No, I did not. But I am trying.

However, a trip to a bookshop is always a refreshing time. A tonic that I will always recommend.

It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.

– Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness

WordPress has this function where you can use AI to create a featured image for your post. What, I ask you, is this:

happy reading! / do you have a favourite bookshop?