There’s not much one can say about bookstores, other than that they’re a great place to find out more about, well, books. For me, personally, I use bookstores as a place to discover other books and authors. There’s something to be said about being able to walk around book stacks and shelves and seeing how a book you’ve read or are interested in reading is connected to all these other books you wouldn’t have come across if you hadn’t entered the shop. Of course, this process of discovery only works if the bookshop is organised in such a way that it encourages browsing. And, for that, I’m pleased to say that this particular branch of Waterstones does do that, and does it very well indeed. Staff were also nice and friendly, doing their best to help out hapless shoppers as well as those of us who knew exactly what it was we wanted.
Laura N.
Tu valoración: 4 San Francisco, CA
Big name bookstores are big name bookstores are big name bookstores, right? Well, kinda… yes. Lots of books, cookie cutter layouts, accept all forms of payment, the usual. But as far as big name bookstores go, this one ticks all the boxes. Judge me if you will, but sometimes it’s nice to walk into an air-conditioned store, know exactly where you’re going, get precisely what you’re looking for, get asked if you need assistance, pay with the credit card of your choice and walk out with a big plastic waterproof bag. I just love a good waterproof bag full of brand new books.
Chris R.
Tu valoración: 2 London, United Kingdom
I have had some pretty good experiences at other Waterstones in London, but this one was not one of them. First of all, I couldn’t find the book that I was looking for, the Nick Hornby should be pretty readily available, especially with him living just up the road. However it wasn’t. No sweat, there were several backups I was also looking for. Nope, none of those either. How do you have only one copy of one book by Hunter S. Thompson? I mean, this is a two story book store, yet the selections were kind of dismal. Although they had like a thousand copies of the Lost Symbol. My other complaint is that they had stacks of books all over the place, and not in a way that makes them browsable. It look as if they were doing inventory. There were books in boxes, books on temporary shelves in no order, it was a mess. I ended up leaving after my several failed attempts to find a book of choice and ended up going to a competitor down the street.