BUYING A BOOK AT EVERY INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE IN LONDON ✨ independent bookshop crawl + book haul

interesting excuse me hello so today as you can probably tell by the title we are going to London and I'm gonna try and make it to as many kind of independent bookstores in London as I can I mean I realized that it really has been years since I've shopped in a lot of independent bookstores I tend to shop in secondhand independent bookstores but not full-price independent bookstores and I just felt like if we can't afford to do it monetarily wish it stops buying our books on Amazon and just go some independent bookstores this is my Christmas present from Tom and we're gonna be going to two of my favorite restaurants as well oh my god I'm so excited I'm gonna take you along with me and I'm gonna try and buy a book every independent shop we go to but like I'm only gonna get one if I want one I'm not gonna just like spend money if there's no book that I'm like super desperate for so we're gonna try and find a book I want at every independent book shall we go to and we're gonna try and get around to as many as we can without further ado let's just get into the video because I sure we don't care about this one on London let's go to London okay bye [Music] is the word is our first bookstore and this was the first ever and still only LGBT bookstore in the UK and when I lost on Twitter which independent bookstores in London I should go to it this is the one that everyone says so gays the world was filled with so many amazing books and it has such great variety it had young adult more literary fiction poetry graphic novels and so much more there was so many books from my wish list in there that it was really really tough to choose which one to buy so I picked up the prints on the dressmaker which is a graphic novel I've heard so many people talk about this and I may be doing a graphic novel video soon in the new year so yeah I was really happy that I found this cuz I was worried I wouldn't find books like this I wanted so I'm very happy so next we're at Scoob books which is this go to the sign over there yet lovely what this is Oh books that's why it's called Scoob it's books cut the cameras better that's intelligent I just thought it's cool for scooby-doo this point which is the second hand books or so we're gonna see if we can get any steals Scoob books had literally every genre and type of book you could possibly think of history philosophy politics spirituality travel and then just normal fiction as well it had literally everything they have these great penguin classics with the original orange covers I just want to take the whole bookshelf home but alas I couldn't it just felt like a complete treasure trove of books that you could just spend hours getting lost em so if you're in the area it's just by around the corner from days the word then I would definitely check it out so we just went in there and I got down and out in Paris in London by George Orwell which is kind of an account of him being really poor in Paris in London also like the experiences of other people he witnessed there I've been wanting to read more George Orwell for like forever I've only read Animal Farm and 1984 so I thought that another one of his I should pick up and then Tom picked up a book trying to tell them about it a history of anglo-soviet relations that took me a second it's boring it's just for uni stuff like how about trade deals and negotiating and going from enemies in the Russian Civil War to being friends well friends okay I don't know where we're going next so go decide okay [Music] oh what up I'm gonna zoom for the squad Wow now your face is enormous [Music] [Music] so now we're at the Persephone book shop which reprints neglected fiction and nonfiction from 20th century women authors so that we can read books which we otherwise would have been able to read so hopefully I will find a hidden gem Persephone books was probably my favorite store I visited just because the atmosphere in there was so lovely and cozy I loved with the matching editions and it just felt like such a welcoming environment they had some really great and helpful descriptions underneath each book so you could just quickly tell what they were about and I just loved the idea of what they're doing there that was wasn't that your favorite woman fit in so far would you agree Thomas it was pretty cool yeah I really like I'll show you one of their covers so that most of them are like this so this one I got I think is about a woman who's in prison during the Suffragette movement right I'm pretty sure and it sounds really interesting so they have women's prison okay and so then most of the additions like this square on the outside and then they all have like a printed inside like this tada cool and then come back up to me and then the other one I got was miss pettigrew lives for a day which Tom picked out really you wanted to get one but it sounds super interesting and I think it's basically about how her life is really similar right until like this one day which the book is the whole day I wish you know more so she lives it up she goes in one day she starts to live it up okay cool so there were my choices for that I think if you're in London you should definitely pop into this one because I think it's really like a really unique bookshop I thing so we've just stopped to film in front of this which looks so pretty is that is it like an advent calendar type of thing and looks so cute well we were next door oh we were next door at hat charts which is the oldest book shop in London so I was so excited to go to wear and then you walk in and it's basically just a waterstones because they're owned by war designs now and so it kind of felt a bit disappointing it felt like the whole point this was to go to independent bookstores that are a bit different and it just felt like the same old same old other than the floors being a bit old so yeah I didn't buy anything in there and we were kind of a little bit disappointed but now we're gonna go oh but now we're gonna go to gosh comics so hopefully that'll be more successful so we'll see you there so now we're at gosh comics where they do graphic novels manga scenes and as evidenced by my earlier purchase I want to get more into graphic novels so hopefully I can find a really good one here I already have one in mind I almost bought at the first shop so we shall see so in gosh comics there was literally everything you could possibly imagine would be there it was really really incredible and it gave me so many ideas for things I want to get in the future there's so many things I want to add to my wish list now because of it [Music] and look at these Naruto editions any like 20 episodes in but yeah they stood really cool me look after list how in me still wants them yeah but it was really really an amazing shop and so unique okay I picked up Laura Jane she's breaking up with me which I almost got against the word by thought I reckon gosh will have its alway so yeah I've heard really great things about this physically from area over set who read it during the reading Russian said she really enjoyed it and I really like the like art design in it so one thing I really like about this is the use of just pink black and white and like gray I think it's really unique so I think it's a really beautiful graphic novel so I'm really excited to give it a read so that was our pick for gosh conics hey so now we're at daunt books which may be the last one of the night I don't know if we're gonna fit anymore in but I've always wanted to come here I've seen so many of the events they've done like on Twitter and stuff and I've always thought ah I wish I was there but now I am so I'm excited to go in I've heard someone told me on Twitter that their books are like arranged by location like destination like you know I mean like where the book is set they're arranged in that way and part of the room so I'm excited going explore that and yeah let's go over look [Music] although I didn't end up buying anything in don't backs just because there was nothing really that grabs my attention it felt like such a magical place particularly in that big hole as you enter to the right it was really really just amazing and I don't think camera really captured it as well as as it came across in person it was just amazing so it's definitely one of the most atmospheric bookstores that I've been in recently so if that's what we're looking for I would really go check it out and then we just wanders around London for a little bit and finished night off at my favorite restaurant Nobu and I haven't been there for like five years so it was really great to visit again hello so I'm sitting here to try it out there's like my bed isn't made yeah I thought I would just recap really quickly why I picked up so at gaze the word I picked up the prince and the dressmaker which is a graphic novel so I think this is essentially about a prince on a dress I do I'm not speaking from experience it was only hearsay but yes doesn't he want to wear dresses isn't it the Prince wants to wear dresses am i right I think I'm right so the artwork in it looks so cute do you think I just can't wait to read it I'm really really excited to give this a read and I saw it in now sigh yeah okay we're getting that so Nexus scooped books I got down and out in Paris and London by George Orwell uh I just I always want to read more George Orwell as I said I think in the clip and yeah I just look like I read enough of his stuff so when I saw this I just like pick it up it's nice and short and like it was a secondhand bookstore and still in very good condition so Goodreads says this unusual fictional memoir in good part to biographical narrates without self-pity and often with humor The Adventures of a penniless British writer among the down-and-outs of two great cities it's essentially about going in like living in lodging houses and and seeing the people who live on the streets while you're really poor and I think it's just like a look at poverty it's the one I've heard people talk about loads so I'm excited to pick it up and see what I make of it and it's short so I think it's quite accessible so then next we went into Persephone books which I have to say I think was my favorite bookstore out of all of them I really really loved it in there I thought just the vibes and there they had music playing like in the sense on and I just love the design of all of their books and I shot the idea of it so if you are in London I would really and you're going to go to one book store I think that this is a really unique bookstore you're not really gonna find anything like it wherever you're from so I really really recommend going to this one so I got to here because I kind of felt like other bookstores I can just get those books another time but these books I like so unique to this location so I thought I'd get to me first when I got was the one that's like typically in their style this kind of grey cover and there is no surrender by constant Mord all the Goodreads tells me is that no surrender describes mine aristocrats and mill girls as they struggle together as part of the suffrage movement which is really interesting it's only got 126 ratings on Goodreads so like barely anyone has read this so I don't know I'm just super excited to pick it up it sounds super super interesting the blurb they've got sounds so interesting I love how before other books they all have these like different designs on the inside and you can buy like sorry I've got two bookmarks here you can buy the bookmark that much is that so I think that's just a nice touch they've got going on and then the next one I picked up was miss Pettigrew lives for a day by Winifred Watson good recess this one miss Pettigrew and approaching middle age governess was accustomed to a household of unruly this children when her employment agency sins had to the wrong address her life takes an unexpected turn the alluring nightclub singer Lisa Lafosse becomes her new employer and miss pettigrew encounters a kind of Gummer she'd only met before at the movies over the course of a single day both women are changed forever now this is one that Tom really wanted me to get he was like I think it sounds so interesting you know how it only happens over one day I think I mean gonna be such a fun yeah such a fun idea so I mean you've got this because he realized the sound of it and he was being so supportive I was like okay he's buying them for me anyway so yeah it's really sure I think it's only just over it's like two hundred thirty pages but it has got some illustrations not loads but it's just got some pages where there's like these little line drawing illustrations and then the last book I got was Laura Dean keeps breaking up with me which is another graphic novel again oh my god I love the artwork of this one how it's all just black gray white and like the like peachy pink salmon color I just love it I just love the design of this one so this is I believe about a girl who is dating Laura Dean and Laura Dean is kind of like a really really bad girlfriend quite manipulative and it's just a really bad relationship I think so yeah I just I'm excited to read it and it just it's everyone I've heard has given it a really really great review so I just felt like it was something that I had to pick up so yeah if you had told me when I went out that I'd only be buying classics oh I don't even classics and graphic novels are not believed you because I've never had a graphic novel and I barely read classics so I thought I'd become with a fantasy you know but I ended up getting kind of books which I wouldn't otherwise have got if that makes sense which for me is really great you know like the books that you're gonna get you're gonna get and I feel like with something like this it's fun to kind of go and discover some other books so I'm very happy with my haul yeah I hope you enjoyed the video it's a really really great day I had a lot of fun and yeah it was really really great to go to all of these stores and the ones of course I didn't buy stuff that was still really great to visit so yeah I hope you enjoyed the video I hope you've all had a wonderful wonderful Christmas and you're having a brilliant rest of your holiday season wherever you are tell me how it's going down below because like I said before I know the holidays can be both a brilliant time and a difficult time for people so let me know how it's going for you and I will see you very soon with another video bye [Music] you [Music]