Wednesday's walk in: Whitcoulls

The news of Borders demise over the last few weeks has hit little old New Zealand hard. The country’s number one bookshop, Whitcoulls, is part of the Borders family and as such is suffering the same fate.

There isn’t anything special about Whitcoulls... apart from the fact that it’s always been there. Much like a trusted old friend, Whitcoulls can be counted on to stock all the bestsellers, the classics, the must-reads, and the old favourites. It has travel books, children’s books, short stories and poetry. Its magazine stands are always overflowing, its range of birthday, thank you and wedding anniversary cards will always ensure you find the right message, its the place you go to buy next year’s diary, wrapping paper for the birthday party you’re running late too, and a DVD to add to your favourites collection.

But the best part about Whitcoulls is that it has its own reading challenge. Every few years it comes out with the Whitcoulls top 100 – the top 100 books to be read by everyone, as voted by Whitcoulls customers themselves. From The Time Traveller’s Wife to The Life of Pi, Harry Potter to Jamie Oliver’s cookbooks, the top 100 includes must-reads by Jodi Picoult and Marian Keyes, Dan Brown and Bryce Courtenay as well as those old faithfuls Clan of the Cave Bear, Gone with the Wind, and The PoisonWood Bible.

If you’re looking for inspiration check out Whitcoulls Top 100. There’s also a top 50 for kids as well.

The chain’s catch phrase is “A little bit wonderful every day”. As cheesy as it may sound, I hope somebody comes to the rescue of New Zealand’s Whitcoulls stores, because books do make life that little bit wonderful.

Wednesday's walk in: Hay Book Festival

As a ten-year-old, I was taken across the other side of the world, to a new town, a new house, a new neighbourhood and a new school. It was part of the adventure initiated by my father who’d organised a teaching exchange. We swapped houses, cars, and jobs with another family and for nine months enjoyed exploring the UK, while they in turn explored NZ!

Our home for that year was Hereford, nestled close to the Welsh border, a small town known for its cider, black and white houses and the Mappa Mundi. I’ve since returned to this town to visit an old school friend - yes we have stayed in touch over two decades, and as correspondence has evolved from snail mail to Facebook, so too has our friendship. 

During our four years in the UK, Hereford and my dear friend, have very much become our English family. Twice a year we’d go for weekends –once in the springtime and once at Christmas... for our English Christmas celebrations (think turkey and cranberry sauce, brussel sprouts, potatoes roasted in goosefat, trifle, Christmas pud, and mince pies).

Our Springtime visits always coincided with the Hay Book Festival. Just a 45minute drive from Hereford is the tiny little village of Hay-on-Wye, renowned for its bookstores (but that’s another post). Twenty-three years ago, this book festival began in the local school. Today, it has its own designated site just outside of the town, buses transport tourists from the festival to Hay, B&Bs are booked out months in advance, and farmers turn their paddocks into parking lots as this little village on the banks of the river Wye finds itself overrun by literature lovers.

The Hay Book Festival quickly became an annual event in our calendar. We’d download the brochure as soon as it was available, scour through the programme to see which authors, TV commentators, political figures or academics we most wanted to listen to – and as springtime arrived, so too did our anticipation.

We would pack a picnic lunch, pay the farmer his parking money, collect our free Guardian newspaper and book bag and enter the world of literary delights. Gumboots were occasionally needed but it was a more civilised festival than the likes of Glastonbury – and as we lazed in the sunshine, book in hand, sipping Pimms and lemonade and soaking up an atmosphere filled with thoughts, words, conversations and ideas, we decided this was definitely our kind of festival.

Wednesday's walk in: St Andrews Library

At present, home is Canada – but home originally, is New Zeland. Yes, that small, far away country known for hobbits, Lord of the Rings, bungy jumping, and lately, natural disasters. Our second largest city, Christchurch, is still coming to terms with the devastating effects of an earthquake last week, as our capital city Wellington sits on tenterhooks, experiencing a few aftershocks of its own.

As beautiful and idyllic as parts of NZ can be, we are still a long, long way from elsewhere in the world. This makes it expensive to travel abroad – but that doesn’t stop us Kiwis from doing so. Unfortunately, it makes buying books a VERY expensive exercise.

Growing up in NZ, our shelves were always laden with books – the price of having two academics as parents perhaps? But I didn’t experience the thrill of buying books in great quantities until I arrived in London. (Three books for £1 is much more affordable than one paperback for $30!) However, my source of books was always the library. I’d walk down to Glenview Library on a Saturday morning to stock up on Jackie Collins, or stop by on late night Thursday to search for a new author to read.

Libraries can be a daunting place – there’s a need for quiet, strangers are lurking in corners absorbed in their own world of books, and if a child exclaims excitedly over completing a library puzzle or finding a new book to take home, they’re hushed by an embarrassed parent.

As a 17-year-old in need of some extra pocket money (my parents and I had an agreement – they would pay my educational costs, I had to pay my lifestyle costs!), I turned to a library for part-time work. Every Friday evening and Saturday morning, I’d be issuing and returning books, repairing old dust jackets, and welcoming new members to St Andrews Library. The regulars would come in to stock up on books for the week ahead, reluctant sons would drop books off for their mothers on their way to a sports game, and caregivers would bring the elderly and disabled in search for new audio books.

My year as a librarian was a wonderful experience, yet sadly, I haven’t really stepped back into such an establishment. University libraries don’t count when you’re searching for reference books to complete an assignment at the last minute! But tomorrow, I’m going to join the library and will report back on what I’ve found.

PS: It's Wednesday so don't forget to check out my WWWs!

Wednesday's walk in: Southbank, London

I’d be hard pressed to tell you what my favourite part of London is. After almost four years living in one of the greatest cities in the world, I fast came to calling it home. How could I not as I walked through Hampstead Heath, covered in snow in winter, reds & golds in the fall and daffodils in the springtime. Then there were the summer days, drinking rose atop Primrose Hill – in the exact same spot as Bridget Jones skips over in The Edge of Reason , into Colin Firth’s arms. Don’t get me started on the Christmas lights along Oxford and Regent Streets in December, or the colour and characters seen in Nottinghill Markets on Portobello Road.

But right up there with these favourite places is Southbank. The stretch along the Thames that is home to the London Eye, the Tate Modern, and buskers on a Saturday afternoon. It’s also home to a book market – tables and tables of old and new, tattered and pre-loved, dust covered and sparkling novels, literature, non-fiction and stories. It is a place you can mingle in for hours, tucked under Waterloo Bridge. You’d soon forget about all the tourists walking past, or the noise of the trains rattling overhead. In the heart of London, with all the noise and chaos that is part of its magic, you can find a little patch of serenity – and it’s right here in the bookmarket of Southbank.

What’s more, this is the same place you can find the Southbank German Christmas markets in December. Warming gluhwein, steaming dumplings, bratwurst, Christmas gingerbreads and quaint little log huts housing gifts, decorations and more.

(Oh and don't forget to check out my WWW Wednesday today!)

Wednesday's walk in: Chapters, Victoria, BC

Moving to a new place can be daunting – particularly a place where you don’t know a soul! But at the same time it’s exciting – there are so many new things to explore. New foods to taste, new supermarkets to shop in, new shoes to purchase and of course, new bookshops to lose yourself in.

That’s exactly what happened when I stepped through the door of “Chapters” bookshop on Douglas St, here in Victoria, BC. I immediately knew this shop was going to be my downfall. An artfully arranged gift display – Valentine’s Day in theme of course at this time of year! – greeted me. Beautiful books, delicious looking chocolates, funky presents and what husband may call clutter, but I find irresistible – lots of little knickknacks that help to make a home.

Past the gift display were the sale shelves – hold me back now!!! More gifts for mums, babies, girlfriends, and myself! But I hear you asking – isn’t “Chapters” a bookstore? It surely is – filled with magazines, children’s books, guidebooks and maps. There are shelves of fiction, nonfiction, bestsellers and classics. And I had yet to venture upstairs – or down!!!

I then stumbled across the discounted books table – books for just $2, new, unread – oh this really is going to be the end of me. If not me, then certainly my wallet! Prying myself away from the sales tables I stepped on the escalator to be slowly taken up to the top floor – where I am greeted by a Starbucks coffee shop, complete with delicious oatmeal cookies, reading chairs and... wait for it... roaring fires! (OK, roaring gas fireplaces, but fireplaces all the same!)

Well, “Chapters” is certainly my positive for today, and it’s just put a whole new light on my move to Vancouver Island. I am, quite honestly, in heaven!

Wednesday's walk in: Belsize Park

As much as I love a bookshop with bestsellers all laid out on the table, the latest biographies displayed in the window and the feel of crisp new covers as you pick up a book to read the description on the back cover, the bookshop I frequented the most in London was a little Marie Curie charity shop in Belsize Park.

Belsize Park is situated in one of the best parts of London (ok, I may be slightly biased, but here’s why). It is just up the hill from Camden – got to love those markets, the Goths, and Bar 55 (two for one cocktail happy hours!) – and just down the hill from Hampstead (one of the literary hotspots of London – and has been for centuries!). Yet the best part of this location is that, my little bookshop as it came to be known, seemed to received all the cast offs from the Hampstead elite – those with enough money to churn through books and send them to the charity shop before best selling hardcovers had even made it into paperbacks!

This meant I had the choice of Zadie Smith, Alexander McCall Smith, Charles Dickens, Marian Keyes, John Le Carre and Harry Potter on the shelves – all for just £1! Yes – my little bookshop sold paperbacks for just £1, and when they had a sale on (which was frequently), I’d be able to nab a bargain – three books for £1!

A visit to my little bookshop fast became my Sunday morning ritual. Husband would head out to Belsize Village to stock up on freshly baked Belsize Bagels. These would then be consumed with homemade blackberry jam (the blackberries themselves picked from Hampstead by husband’s hands) and topped with cream cheese. Delicious, delectable and thoroughly indulgent.

So what better way to finish off the morning than a trip to the bookshop! I certainly burned off a few calories carrying my purchases home!