I've been coming to Pete's Bookshop in Sheringham for probably 40 years. Coming here was an objective of many of our holidays in Norfolk, and it was a regular weekend stop when I was living in the town.
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| Peter thoughtfully provides a ladder to reach that shelf over the cupboard. |
Many of my bookshelves have been filled with goodies from this shop, especially the sci-fi/fantasy and militaria sections. I've rarely seen a book here for more than £5, most are in the region of £1-1.50 and as you can see from the photographs, the range is truly staggering.
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| Yes, I did walk through that doorway without flinching. |
Most of my Robert E Howard Conan books came from this shop, EE Doc Smith's Lensman series, Asimovs Foundation trilogy. Some more modern books too, such as Timothy Zahn's Cobra and Blackcollar novels - 1980's was modern when I got them in the early 1990's!
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| Bookb, books, more books... |
I discovered many new authors here, often old pulp novelists I read about in other places. I always knew that Pete's Bookshop would usually had one or two of their books tucked away somewhere.
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| He has a LOT of books. |
As you squeeze round corners, past the leaning shelves and vast drifts of books, the bookshop seems to go on and on, seemingly much farther than the row of houses onto which it backs. It seems entierly plausible that it is an entry-point into L-Space, as described by Terry Pratchett.
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| I can see daylight over there! |
We took the kids in here today, the first time either of them will have been old enough to remember it. We lost one of them in the 5 or so paces between the till (hidden behind mounds of books near the front window) and the front door. He was located between floor to ceiling shelves in a nearby room, having somehow eluded all 3 of the rest of us by weaving through the maze of literature,
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| Finding what you want can take a little while. |
I haven't been in here for a few years, since moving away. The piles of books are a bit larger, the shelves a little more crooked, but it's still a wonderful shop. We came away with a collection of books for the youngsters - an Enid Blyton mystery adventure, Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped, 2 or 3 others.
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| Gently subsiding shelves... |
I hope that our children develop the same love of books that we both have, and treasure visits to shops like this when they have the opportunity...
Good thing there is an ocean between me and that place, pretty sure I'd go broke in a bout 5 minutes, if I could drive there.
ReplyDeleteI have to try and ration my visits now because I've spent far too much money in there in the past, especially in the sci-fi section...
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