ig imaginary jump to the European continent now,
my friends.
Gentle reader, if you should ever find yourself in Geneva,
Switzerland
(city of international organisations, the world-famous
Jet d’Eau, and the incredibly picturesque Old Town),
do go and visit the
Bookworm in the rue Sismondi, 5,
very close to the Train
Station Cornavin. The Bookworms buys, sells and trades used
English books,
has mainly novels, travel and biographies and is generally a very
good place to hang out. Airconditioned in summer, which should not
be
frowned upon, the opening hours are Tuesday to
Saturday 10 am
to 8 pm,
and they are also open on Sundays, 10 am to 5 pm.
Books are
generally in a very good condition and so much cheaper than ‘new’
English
language books, you wouldn’t believe it. A really excellent thing,
Llydien
thinks, is that you can work long hours and can still pick up a nice
Mills &
Boons on your way back for night-time reading....
since
almost any public transportation goes past the Gare de Cornavin
anyway.
nother little antiquarian book
store in Geneva (now, sadly, extinct) lies in the suburb of
Carouge.
Take any bus in that direction, most of them go past there,
and you’ll
find the shop on a sun-drenched street sandwiched between a
grocery and a
café. The quaintest book in Llydien’s collection comes from here,
a
Dictionnaire Geographique-Portatif ou Description des Royaumes,
Provinces, Villes, Patriarchats, Évéchés, Duchés, Comtés,
Marquisats, Vielles
Imperiales et Anseatiques, Ports, Forteresses, Citadeles et
Autres
Lieux Considérables des Quatre Parties du Monde, a geographical
dictionary translated from the English and published in 1761.
It includes
lovely descriptions of virtually any city in the world and a previous
owner of
Llydien’s copy had obviously been a frequent traveller and added
his
own comments in ink, mainly along the lines of ‘good wine’ and
‘Napoleon
Bonaparte was born here’.
ashington DC
here is yet another city
that abounds in excellent Secondhand Bookstores and that is
Washington DC,
USA. Llydien’s very favourite here is Second Story
Books on
2000 P Street NW, Metro: Dupont Circle.
The amount of books
confined
within those walls is staggering, they’ve got everything, including
reasonably priced vintage movie magazines and old postcards. A
wonderful
place to spend an afternoon and not too expensive either. They are
open
daily from 10 am to 10 pm. Then there is
The Lantern Bryn Mawr
Bookshop near Wisconsin Ave in Georgetown. Managed by two
really
nice grannies Bryn Mawr’s got a great selection of everything from
first
editions to romance novels, and jazz and classical records, too.
Here
Llydien bought some of her first antiquarian books and will keep
this
shop in fond memory. For Science Fiction fans, you cannot do better
than
go to Clarendon, there is a marvellous store there which
specializes in
used Sci-Fi books. Llydien can't remember the name of the shop for the life of her but she would recognize it in a
minute if she was there......
here are scores of other bookshops in
Washington, for a complete list look in any guide book. But
whatever you
do - gentle reader - if you ever visit the American capital - go
and
see at least Second Story Books. It’s an absolute obligation.
Before
Llydien signs off, let her leave you with an oh-so-appropriate
quotation:
Now my task is smoothly done, I can fly or I can run,
Quickly to the green earth’s end,Where the bow’d welkin low doth
bend,
And, from thence, can soar as soon...To the corners of
the moon.....
eneva