Well if you can't tell from the seagulls, Book Break is in Brighton today.
It's a little bit wet and rainier than I had in mind for my trip to the seaside, but I
guess that's pretty typical of any time an English person tries to go to the beach.
So we are here today, I'm going to be joined by a very special guest YouTuber, who is giving
me a tour of all of the best indie bookshops in Brighton.
And I absolutely love this city so I'm so excited to get the bookish inside tour.
So this is Harriet!
Hey
This is Harriet Rosie, who is a Brighton based booktuber herself, and has very kindly agreed
to show me around, so I'm so excited.
It is so nice here, I am so jealous that you get to live here.
I know.
We are starting here at The Book Nook, which looks adorable, so can you tell me about this
place?
Yeah, so it's an independent children's bookseller in Hove. It's won children's bookseller of
the year three times, and it's a really nice place because they do a lot of events, like
parents bringing their kids in here.
They do readings and events and, and yeah, it's just like a nice little place to be.
It feels like a lot more than just a bookshop.
Yeah, lovely, it looks so cute and I love the name Book Nook as well, so perfect for
it.
Let's go have a look inside!
We've just left Book Nook.
That was so cute in there I loved it!
What a lovely shop, so colourful, I just could have spent hours in there in the cafe.
So where are we off to next?
Now we're going to City Books, it's only like a five minute walk this way.
Fantastic.
And that's it, it's an adult bookstore.
There are literally stacks of books here, I could be here all day.
I can see why this bookshop is so famous, it is amazing, I literally want to move in
and live here.
Yeah, you can spend hours here.
Yeah, it's just like piles of books.
And they're doing this really amazing thing, they just gave me this poster, for independent
bookshop week, where they're going to have their recommended summer reads up, and if
you buy one of those books, they give you a really cute little postcard, and then if
you send them a review of the book they'll put it up on the shelf.
So we are going to go over lunch and write our own postcards for books that we've chosen.
So I've picked to review A Thousand Ships, because I absolutely loved this one.
This one has already been mentioned on Book Break, and I will link to that video, but
it is a Greek myth retelling that retells the story of the Trojan War from the perspectives
of all of the women, and it's so much fun, so that's going to be my review.
And I'm going to be recommended It's Not About the Burqa by Mariam Khan, which is a nonfiction
essay collection, Mariam Khan is the editor.
And they're all about what it's like to be a Muslim woman, living in England today.
And it's amazing.
It really is, it's so good.
So we're going to go have lunch now and write our postcards.
So that was an amazing bookshop.
Yeah.
And it's won loads of awards, including I think last year it won Best Book in Sussex,
and you can see why.
Oh yeah, absolutely.
All that browsing made me hungry, so where are we going to go for lunch?
We're going to go to The Trading Post, further into Brighton.
So, we're at The Trading Post cafe, and we're going to write our postcards with our recommendations
to send to City Books.
OK, it has finally started raining, so we're now sheltering inside, so what is this bookshop?
So we're in Books for Amnesty, which, like it says on the tin, the money goes to Amnesty,
they sell new books and second hand books, and the money goes to charity.
Amazing, so we're actually like doing a good deed by being here.
Yeah, sure.
It's really nice in here, they've got such a good selection!
We've already both found something that we wanted to buy.
And it's just got such a nice welcoming vibe I really like, the signs everywhere saying
I Welcome Refugees, it's just really really nice shop.
Yeah.
Great choice! OK, onto the next.
OK, so where are we now?
We're at Dave's Comics, which is an independent comic store.
They do all kinds of comics, weekly issues, and they also do like kids books, and they
do, they do such a nice range, they do like nonfiction graphic novels, they do everything
here.
I'm a complete graphic novel beginner, so I feel like you're going to have to show me
around on this one.
Oh yeah, I used to come here all the time, I really miss it.
I love these comics so much.
Graphic novel shops are very colourful, I love that! Really fun bright places to be.
Yeah!
And I didn't realise there are so many graphic novels about like interesting social justice
topics and stuff, that's really cool.
Loads of nonfiction and memoir type graphic novels, loads of stuff.
Yeah, that's awesome. Really cool shop.
So we're at the Open Market, which is a big open but covered area which is good when it's
raining like today.
So we're going to go and find UBU Books and The Smallest Bookshop in Brighton.
Yep.
Let's go.
That was UBU Books and The Smallest Bookshop in Brighton kind of combined, they share a
space.
Yeah.
Honestly, for such a tiny space, they have so many books. It's quite amazing.
They go really high up the wall.
Yeah, you literally had to like squeeze your way between the shelves.
OK, final stop, where are we now?
So we're at the Kemptown Bookshop. They have their own press, called the Bookroom Art Press.
OK, amazing.
And they have, they specialise in doing fine art from Brighton artists, and they sell them
up and print books, and share Brighton art.
Thank you for showing me all of those bookshops.
You're welcome.
I have loved all of them, it's been really nice, Brighton is so lovely!
I feel like I have, like each of the bookshops were a favourite for different reasons.
Yeah, they're all so different.
Book Nook was like the most fun and lively. Yeah.
And then City Books was the most like I could just be lost in there for literal hours.
Yeah and they have stacks of books that you can just search through.
So much stuff. Yeah.
Books for Amnesty felt the most like warm, it made me feel really happy, it was this
really nice welcoming environment.
And the people behind the counter wanted to talk to you about the books.
Yeah, so that was really nice.
Dave's Comics was just like a really new experience for me which was really cool, and like the
most -
The most different things.
Yeah. Really nice unique stuff in there.
Smallest Bookshop in Brighton, the most like, most amount of books I've ever seen in such
a small space. That was cool.
Yeah.
And then this one, Kemptown Bookshop, is definitely the prettiest.
Yeah, and it has such a calm atmosphere.
Oh yeah, you could like sit here and read I think for a long time.
Yeah.
Feel very relaxed, very relaxed.
So yeah, they've all been absolutely lovely, such a nice selection of bookshops.
So thanks for coming along on this bookish tour of Brighton.
Do give this video a thumbs up and leave a comment below if you have a favourite Brighton
bookshop of your own.
And of course, do hit that subscribe button for new videos every Thursday.
Coming up next week, we have got your summer packing sorted, with a list of all of the
best books to bring in your holiday suitcase this year.
And while you're waiting for that you can always go and follow us over on Instagram
@bookbreakuk.
See you next time!