This morning's meeting called for Queen of Winter intellectual rigour. Ended up doing 'too eager to please' Queen of Summer with a dash of babbling fool for good measure. No excuses I drew this card before I left and didn't heed the message.
What was wintry today was the temperature in Liverpool. Officially 6 degrees celsius but felt more like zero with the Mersey chill factor. After the meeting I popped into Reid's books which is the only surviving Georgian purpose built retail premises in the city dating back to 1785. It's stuffed floor to ceiling with ageing books in no particular order with prices hand written in fading pencil.
At the heart is an old working coal fireplace (very welcome today) and rickety table where the owner and friends discuss matters of some importance. Todays topics were the present location of the ruby slippers made for the Wizard of Oz (prompted by my red shoes), the chances of visitors mistaking Hull on the east coast with the port of Liverpool in the west, William Wilberforce, what business managers can learn from Aristotle and the sad demise of scholarships in the liberal arts. You don't get that with Amazon...I came away with Huizinger's classic The Waning of the Middle Ages. Some history posts coming up...I wanted to take a picture of the shop but I thought my down to earth Scouse hosts might think that was a bit weird...here is a link to the city's independent bookstores. Reid's is the second on the list
http://independent-liverpool.co.uk/blog/6-bookshops-in-liverpool-you-need-to-visit/
A bell jingled overhead. The mild, spicy smell of old books hit him, and the smell was somehow like coming home.
Stephen King, 1947-
I think your Queen of Winter would love for you to pull up a stool and read to her for a bit. That might help take the edge off her frostiness. I clicked on you link and looked over the bookstores. Something about bookstores, kept willy nilly, with bits of this and that stuffed on shelves with the books. On my days off I could see me spending the day in such a shop and be suprised to look up and see the Sun had left the day behind.
ReplyDeleteAn hour in there passed in a heartbeat. Maybe where authors get the idea of a portal? I reckon those guys were retired and bookselling for a hobby. I'll try reading to the q of s...
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh... that bookstore sounds magical. They'd have to pry me out of there with a crowbar at closing time! :)
ReplyDeleteIt was a real treat I only left because I had some appointments elsewhere :)
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