These figures are based as usual on my count of reports to The Book Guide, the volunteer-run online guide to second-hand bookshops. This covers the full range of places selling a decent stock of second-hand books, including privately-owned businesses, full size charity bookshops or book rooms, units or rooms in antiques centres, a few market stalls, and a few private premises open by appointment. Not all are general bookshops: some specialise, eg in railways, children’s books, crime fiction. All these types have always been included in similar totals in the past. I estimate that the number of bookshops other than those run by charities has remained broadly constant at about 900 for around 40 years.
Some well-loved traditional bookshops were amongst those that disappeared, including Peak Dragon Books of Matlock, Derbyshire: The Bookshop of Wirksworth, also Derbyshire; Grove Rare Books of Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire, Last Century Books, Innerleithen (in business for over 30 years) and Oxford Street Books of Whitstable, Kent, which was on Platform 1 of the town’s railway station. About a quarter of those that closed were charity bookshops, and a few more were somewhat marginal gift or curio shops with books. The main reasons for closure included retirement, lease breaks, change of career, changeover to new books only, and a few fairly recently opened shops. The number of closures quoted includes a spring-clean of out-of-date entries: the Guide relies on reports from readers.
But doughty spirits continue to open new second-hand bookshops. Cooper Hay of Glasgow added an Edinburgh bookshop to celebrate their 40th anniversary; Cover2Cover was opened in Nantwich, Cheshire; Bastion Books of Berwick are military and exploration specialists; The Book Cabin set up shop in Newbury; Ironbridge Books in Shropshire opened another but separate bookshop next door; a new Chichester Bookshop was launched in Sussex; Addyman’s Books of Hay-on-Wye added Christie & Doyle, a second crime fiction shop next door to their first; Volta Books of Wellingborough is a welcome addition in Northamptonshire; and The Book Warren, Auchengruith is to be found in a remote location in South West Scotland. In an unusual move, an online bookseller whose main stock is in a warehouse has now also opened a town centre bookshop, in Great Yarmouth. These are just a few of the newly opened, second-hand bookshops this year. Good fortune to them all!
In addition, assiduous bookshop detectives among The Book Guide’s volunteers have uncovered previously unrecorded places, such as Reader’s Good Books of Petworth, West Sussex: ‘This rather good shop has been open for years,’ noted super-sleuth Booker T, ‘but its small-town location and limited online presence have resulted in a distinctly low profile. The shop, which is quite small, specialises in "old and interesting" books for both the general reader and the collector’. Even the most comprehensive and well-informed guide is sure to miss some examples, and it is always worth asking around or simply exploring the byways. It all adds zest to the quest.
As noted before, another development is the spread of a small selection of second-hand books in a variety of places. For example, almost every historic church visited on a book-hunting holiday this year had second-hand books for sale, usually several hundred each. There were also several curio shops with up to a dozen bookcases of miscellaneous stock. None of these of course count as ‘second-hand bookshops’ and they are not included in The Book Guide’s listings or my numbers, but the keen collector will keep alert to them. They add to a picture in which there are a wider range and number of opportunities to buy second-hand books in Britain than ever before, as my own shelves, and indeed floors and attic, will readily attest.
Other posts this year have celebrated 'The Golden Age of Second-Hand Bookshops' (now); asked 'Do Charity Bookshops Drive Out Other Bookshops?' (no); enjoyed 'Exploring Shrewsbury's Second-Hand Bookshops'; and drawn attention to a post at the Spitalfields Life blog on 'The Bookshops of Old London'.
Note
The Book Guide lists: ‘Any business with a significant stock of secondhand or collectable books, that welcomes visitors at advertised times or by prior appointment. This includes permanent units in antique markets, private bookrooms and weekly market stalls. Stock can be small if good or specialised, but books should be the only or main holdings. Thus, a charity bookshop should be included, but a general charity shop should not, unless it has a room's-worth of books.’
(Mark Valentine)
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