So, it's Thursday the 6th of October and that can mean only one thing: Books Are My
Bag. In fact actually means more than one thing because today is also National
Poetry Day, so amidst our Books Are My Bag celebrations, in this video are going
to be a few sneaky poetry tidbits. If you don't know what it is, Books Are My Bag
is a time in the year when people from across the bookish world - including you! -
get together and spend a little extra time in those physical book shops. The
campaign kicks off today and in collaboration with Books Are My Bag, lots
of physical bookstores will be having celebrations going on this weekend,
not to mention that throughout the month Books Are My Bag are running a literary award.
The short lists of which feature a few Pan Macmillan titles
But thanks to Pan Macmillan, I am now a resident of London town, which means I
have never been surrounded by so many physical book shops in my life.
So in honor of Books Are My Bag, for this week's Book Break episode I thought I
would take you around some of the biggest and best book shops in London. I can only
get to a few in this video, so this is by no means an exhaustive list, so if you
have any favorite book shops in London and outside please do let me know in the
comments down below. So, first up, I visited Hatchard's in Piccadilly Circus
because why privilege age or beauty when you can have both? This book shop is over
200 years old and is absolutely stunning inside.
Not only does it make for a beautiful building but it is filled to the brim
with nooks and crannies naturally full of books including a good selection of
poetry.
But if beautiful bookshops are your thing then you have to make sure you
visited Daunt Books in Marylebone. This is a beautiful piece of architecture
outside and in and actually features gorgeous balconies, full of even more
titles! Not to mention an interesting setup where books are divided by countries and
continents, from travel books all the way to fiction sets in these places. But I
really couldn't do a tour of London book shops without taking a visit to the
massive Foyle's flagship store in Charing Cross.
If Hatchard's and Daunt's demonstrate the elegance and beauty of tradition then
Foyles features everything that's right about modern design. Not to mention the
size. If there's one place you're probably going to find the book you're
looking for in London, then it's Foyles.
The staircases, which always feature a beautiful display of books, made me
think maybe they've been watching Book Break as well. But to finish off any
bookshop see in London I would suggest a little trip to Waterstones in Tottenham
Court Road. Not quite as big as the other book shops on this list, but this is the
end of the day now and you've done a lot of book shopping and one thing they do
have is a bar and what goes better with books than beer? Now like I mentioned
it's also a National Poetry Day, so I decided to pile my Books Are My Bag
tote bag, full of some of my favorite poets. If you saw my first video for Pan
Macmillan you already know how big of a Kate Tempest fan I am and luckily for me
her new book actually comes out today as well to coincide with her album release.
So, if you haven't already read them there's Brand New Ancients and Hold Your
Own but to go alongside those we now also have Let Them Eat Chaos. But I know
poetry can be a strange genre to enter into if you're not familiar with it, so I
thought I'd put this out there now that if you would like me to do a poetry
video right here on Book Break and have any questions around poetry or
recommendations for what you'd like that video to be then please do let me know
down below and I will get to it. I think that's plenty for you to be getting
along with for now so please do give this video a thumbs up if you liked it
and I hope you get some time to spend in a physical book shop this weekend. So I
think in our lifetime most of us have been intimidated by one classic or
another. They cover a wealth of literature from hundreds and thousands
of years from across the genres. Because of this I'm pretty certain that no
matter what your contemporary tastes are there's a classic out there for you too
so these are my classic recommendations for the modern reader...