S is for …

Published on by Margaret

… Secondhand books

Yesterday I went to Barter Books in Alnwick, a superb secondhand bookshop where you can not only buy books but exchange books. I took a pile along and came back with some more and am still in credit for more books for my next visit. It’s a great way to recycle books.

I have written about Barter Books before, but not posted any photos of what it’s like inside. It is in a huge old railway station, built in 1887 and closed to passengers in 1968.

(Click on the photos to see more detail)

There is a cafe in what used to be the station waiting room where we refreshed ourselves with coffee and toasted teacakes in front of a roaring fire. The painting on the wall above the fireplace shows the station as it was in 1908 when the future King George V and Queen Mary visited Alnwick.

We then browsed the shelves. There are all sorts of books, fiction, non fiction, first editions, valuable antiquarian books, signed copies, maps, dvds, pamphlets and so on.

In one section there is a miniature overhead railway line with trains passing every few minutes.

It’s a very special bookshop.

This is an an entry in ABC Wednesday for the letter S.

17 thoughts on “S is for …”

  3. Oh gosh… that looks like a place that’s so wonderful you could spend a long weekend there! And brilliant that you can take your own books to exchange. From the owner’s pov I suspect it keeps the selection fresh. And what a lovely use of an old railway station.

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  8. Now this is my idea of heaven! Too bad I don’t live nearby; I think traveling from Pennsylvania with an armload of books would be a bit much, don’t you?

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  14. Wow–the place is huge! I would love to visit and love old train stations. A local train station in my town has been converted to a museum. When I lived in Austria I frequented a used bookstore where you could swap out books–it was great–though nowhere near the size as this one!

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