posted on 10 Jan 2016

The Eastgate Bookshop, Warwick

I'm very fond of this shop in Smith Street and I've been visiting it on a regular basis for a number of years now. When I used to work in Warwick town centre I would often spend my lunch hour here and usually managed to come away with something I wanted.

I tend to think of the shop as a classic, solid second hand book store - the stock isn't likely to surprise you but equally it's well stocked in the sorts of basics you might expect. The shop has a large glass frontage that allows them to display quite a lot of stuff and it is always tidy and well kept. The books they display in the window tend to be of general interest and very keenly priced - a good tactic for bringing in casual custom I would suspect.

In terms of the books I'm interested in, there is a hardback literary fiction section on the unit in the middle of the shop and there's also quite a sound literary biography section. The children's section is not necessarily their strongest point but there's always something to look at and the social history shelves are well worth exploring. Probably the best sections are in art and design where good books are very reasonably priced.

The shop trades a lot on the internet and much of their best stock isn't always out on the shop shelves. I always ask if I can have a look in the stockroom at the back of the shop because that's where the internet stock is traded from. There's some very tasty stuff to be had if you are prepared to pay the (entirely reasonable but slightly higher) prices. I've never been refused access to the stockroom and this is a measure of how welcoming and accommodating the owners are. You never get hassled and you can spend as long as you like browsing - like I said, old fashioned bookshop values.

 

Terry Potter

January 2016