WWTLDR*: Went on a trip to London with a side trip to Bath and hauled back a boatload of books. Scroll through to look at pictures of said books.
*Way way too long, didn’t read.
After our visit to London in June earlier this year, my mother suggested the idea of us visiting once more, possibly sometime in November (for reasons irrelevant to explain). We made no solid plans for it, but I knew it was a possibility, so I mentally blocked out November as a time during which I might be travelling.
Over the late summer and early autumn months, as I was diligently scouring local and online used bookstores to find as many of my preferred edition of Penguin Classics as I could, I had learned at some point that many of the classics I was looking for were in fact readily available in the UK. So I started thinking, why not actually go on that trip to London after all? And since I’d just read Jane Austen’s work, and it’s her 250th birthday anniversary this year, perhaps go to Bath as well!
I asked my sister if she’d like to accompany me on this trip, the main purpose of which, as far as I was concerned, was to buy as many books as I could haul back to Canada. She gladly agreed and, never one to let an opportunity to stretch for a pun pass her by, started calling this our “Book Voyaahge”…and I loved it. Our mother said she’d join us for a few days partway through the trip, and our travel plans came together quickly after that.
Two weeks later, we were on our way…
Travel Day No. 1 | Thursday: Arriving in London
We arrived in London early in the morning and I needed to rest for a bit as I rarely get much sleep during flights. Later, we went on a walk to Hyde Park, on the way to which we accidentally and happily found a church, because my sister likes to explore random churches, where someone (whom we later found out is named Masako Kamikawa) was giving a piano recital a little while later and we sat down for some time listening to her warming up prior to her event…which sounded no different to me than if it were the real performance. We looked at the church’s bulletin board before leaving and noted another recital taking place the following week and set the intention to attend it.
We made it to Hyde Park where we sat and had a snack, then walked around a bit and did our grocery shopping for the day before heading back home.
Day No. 1 Books Purchased: 0 | Total Book Count: 0
Travel Day No. 2 | Friday: Braving the Rain for Jane
It was a rainy day, but I had gotten us tickets to Jane Austen’s House in Chawton and we weren’t going to let the weather get in our way. We took the train from London to Alton, and because we arrived early enough, decided to walk our way to the house rather than wait for the bus (which only takes you halfway there anyway…there is also a bus that drops you off right at the house, but it runs less frequently).
As we left the station and turned onto the main road, we unexpectedly came upon Alton Secondhand Books. Naturally, I had to walk in but couldn’t stay long as we had a timed entrance to the museum. We took a quick look around and I left with a like-new copy of Charles Dickens’ The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
We then continued on, following the walking directions found on the museum’s website, though it also helped to frequently check mobile maps as we made our way, until we arrived at Jane Austen’s house perfectly on time!
Jane Austen lived in this house the last eight years of her life, and it was in this house that she either wrote or revised and had published all six of her novels. We had a lot of fun playing a can-you-find-such-and-such-item bingo game they had at the house and learned a lot about Jane and her family members and the history of the place. We also learned about her daily life and writing habits. The museum’s tickets are valid for an entire year, so if we make it back to the UK again sometime in 2026, I’d love to go again when it’s not so wet and freezing out. Also, the bingo game has an equivalent for the garden, so we’ll simply have to go back to play it!
Unfortunately, I didn’t think ahead at the time regarding taking photos that could be used for this post, and the lighting and protective glass around items makes it hard to take decent photos anyway, but their website has great resources and a large collection of items that can be viewed online.
The day ended with an unfortunate incident at the Waitrose by the train station in Alton. I suggested to my sister that we go in there to shop for dinner while waiting for the train so that we could just go straight home once arriving in London. There, someone stole my Dolly Parton tote bag!
I usually carry an empty bag in my backpack for extra purchases, and my sister was holding onto my Dolly bag while we were walking around the store. Because it was empty and she had on a heavy rain jacket, it must have slipped off her arm without her noticing or feeling it…it happens, it’s certainly happened to me once or twice. It’s okay. But she felt so awful about losing this beloved item of mine! I kept reassuring her that even though I loved that bag, I didn’t love it enough to warrant her feeling guilty about losing it, which was accidental, and if that’s the worst thing we lose on this trip (it wasn’t), we’re golden. It’s just a bag…easy to replace. It’s okay. She wasn’t at fault.
The really difficult thing to accept was that someone would just help themselves to it. We felt the violation of it. The time between her recalling having it on her shoulder and her noticing that it was gone was only a few minutes. We retraced our steps, went up and down every aisle several times over, even spoke to staff (who asked amongst themselves if anyone had come across it), but it was nowhere to be found. We can only assume that someone saw it on the floor, and instead of putting it up on a shelf or handing it in to staff, chose to walk out the store with it as their own.
But by the time we were home she was feeling better, and we both thought of it as an unlucky experience. It was just one of those things…
Day No. 2 Books Purchased: 1 | Total Book Count: 1
Travel Day No. 3 | Saturday: To Middle-Earth and Back
The following morning, we took a train out to Rochester to visit Baggins Book Bazaar, “The Largest Secondhand Bookshop in England”. It was indeed a massive shop with much to offer across several floors…yet, to my very real disappointment, I didn’t find anything here of the books I was searching for. But before leaving, I impulsively purchased two study guides and one quiz book that I knew I’d only flip through and end up donating to our public library.
- Brodie’s Notes: A Passage to India
- York Notes: A Passage to India
- The Jane Austen Quiz Book by Helen Barton
We headed back to London after that and, as it was still early in the day, visited a few more bookshops. Gay’s the Word on Marchmont Street was first, then around the corner to Skoob Books. We then took a break to have lunch at Shoryu (love their vegan ramen) in Covent Garden, and had just enough time to visit the Oxfam Bookshop on Bloomsbury before it closed.
I had no luck at any of these bookshops either.
Day No. 3 Books Purchased: 3 | Total Book Count: 4
Travel Day No. 4 | Sunday: Greeting a Plane, Departing by Train
We went to Heathrow in the morning to greet and welcome my mother upon her arrival, and returned home together. After spending a couple of hours with her as she settled in, my sister and I were on our way to the next phase of our adventure. It felt strange to leave my mother on her own after she’d only just gotten there, but she had planned her arrival that way and was aware of our departure…and we were only going to be away for three nights. So, we bid our farewells and headed to Paddington Station to catch our train to Bath (Spa)!
It wasn’t long before we were settled into our hotel room. It was dark out already, and cold (so cold), but feeling hungry, we decided to walk and explore a bit and get something to eat. We ended up at Banana Tree for dinner, a fusion-style Southeast Asian restaurant, an easy choice after seeing online that it had plenty of vegan options.
Day No. 4 Books Purchased: 0 | Total Book Count: 4
Travel Day No. 5 | Monday: From Ms A’s Books to Mr B’s
The real book buying begins!
We started the day at The Pump Room, not only because it was featured significantly in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, but also because Jane herself had frequented the venue 200+ years ago…and I thought it would be exciting to do something “fancy”.
Accompanied by the melodies of a live piano performance, we each enjoyed the “Morning Bakery”, the most economical option on their menu, which included a pot of lovely tea (I ordered the Pump Room’s House Blend, my sister the Single Origin Darjeeling Orange Pekoe) and a slice of cake (I got the chocolate cake with a rich Belgian sauce, my sister the carrot cake with sticky walnut toffee sauce). We had only just had breakfast and weren’t hungry, but it was a scrumptious treat nonetheless. We also took a sip from the spa fountain, whose mineral-rich waters come from the natural spring that Bath is so famously known for (more on that later).
We then went to the Jane Austen Centre where we had a lot of fun dressing up, exploring the centre, and conversing with the delightful Elinor Dashwood and detestable George Wickham (the centre’s guides are characters from Austen’s books).
We then walked up to the Circus, continued on to the larger Royal Crescent, and made our way round Royal Victoria Park, including a stroll through the botanical gardens, before circling back down toward our next and exciting destination: Persephone Books!
I had learned about Persephone Books only recently and was excited to see their books in person. They’re a small independent publisher who specialize in printing lesser known or forgotten works from the mid-twentieth century, mainly by female writers. I had already done my research and known in advance the titles I wanted to buy, and promised myself that I’d limit my purchases to three books from my list for myself plus one more for a friend (which I won’t count towards my book haul total), because I knew I’d be tempted—since I was already there and I might as well—to buy more. It’s a small shop, so I didn’t need long to look around and only waited to have that book for my friend to be gift wrapped.
I’m happy to say that I stuck to my promise. I did debate over whether or not to purchase a tote bag (to make up for one recently lost perhaps?), but they were more costly than I was prepared to spend.
- Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski
- Reuben Sachs by Amy Levy
- They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple
Our last stop for the day was Mr B’s Emporium! A charming bookshop with a bathtub in the middle of it (full of books) and bookshelves lining every bit of wall space and going round every corner. I wish I’d taken photos of the bookshop’s interior, but I always forget to do such things when the excitement of looking over every shelf awaits!
The books I purchased that evening at Mr B’s:
- Jill by Amy Dillwyn
- We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
- Tokyo Express by Seichō Matsumoto
- Armadale by Wilkie Collins
- Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
- Where Angels Fear to Tread by E. M. Forster
- Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu
This was not our last visit to the shop, though, as we returned two days later for additional books.
It was then starting to get dark, which for me signals that it’s time to wind things down. We again went to Banana Tree for dinner, to try additional menu items, before heading back to the hotel for the night.
Day No. 5 Books Purchased: 10 | Total Book Count: 14
Travel Day No. 6 | Tuesday: An Excavated Wonder and a Spending Ponder
On this second full day we had in town, we visited the Roman Baths in the morning, which happened to be right next door to the Pump Room where we had been the previous day.
I didn’t know anything about the baths, but a friend had told me that it was worth a try and I’d seen folks online say that it was a must-see attraction for anyone visiting Bath…and they weren’t wrong! It was fascinating to learn all about the history of the baths, how and why they were built (and how they were rediscovered and excavated), and the ingenuity of Roman engineering that helped them harness the power of the natural spring below for all types of activities, and where the water is then directed out into the river Avon that runs nearby through the city. Such an interesting place!
Visitors are provided with an audio guide device upon arrival, and all we had to do, as we made our way through the baths, was press the numbers displayed in the different exhibit areas into the device, and the corresponding audio recordings explained everything. I don’t remember going through a museum/attraction this way before and enjoyed this kind of guided experience that provides so much information without any effort on the visitors’ part…that is to say, there was no time or opportunity for me to get bored.
Before leaving, we spent some time in the gift shop where I did end up buying a tote bag after all, one that I’m very happy with!
We left the Roman Baths and walked a short distance south to Oxfam Bookshop, where I purchased nothing, then we walked a much longer distance north to Bath Old Books from which I purchased two items:
- Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi
- The Koran Interpreted by Arthur Arberry
I got El Saadawi’s book because I was curious about it, and The Koran Interpreted also because I was curious about it…and let me just say that, after flipping through it, it isn’t good…I’m an Arabic speaker and the interpreter takes some pretty wild liberties…too wild, I think.
We then went to the Guildhall Market, where we purchased a couple of souvenirs (a bookmark and a keychain) and visited Skoobs, a small secondhand books stall, not in any way affiliated with the Skoob in London, and while it was much smaller, it was more fruitful.
- A Rogue’s Life by Wilkie Collins
- The Evil Genius by Wilkie Collins
- The Warden by Anthony Trollope
Other than his most popular two or three books, Wilkie Collins’ novels are not easy to find, so when I saw these two books, I didn’t hesitate. I loved reading The Moonstone and am curious about his other works, though I’ve heard that they’re somewhat hit-or-miss…and by that I mean that Katie, of Books & Things on Youtube, has mentioned this on occasion.
As for the third book, I’ve been wanting to get Trollope’s Chronicles of Barsetshire, a series of six books, the first of which is The Warden. The problem is that I only ever find the books one or two at a time in different editions, and I hold back on buying any of them because I can’t guarantee I’ll find the others in that same edition as well, and I really insist on having a matching set. But for £3.50, I thought I’d take the risk.
It was while I was looking through the books at Skoobs that my poor sister once more experienced distress due to another lost item. She noticed that a beloved (more than my tote was to me) keychain of hers was missing from her backpack. My sister’s backpack is covered in pins, and she has numerous Kipling gorilla keychains hanging off the side and others still used as zipper pulls. Her bag has her personality and character all over it, and this particular keychain was pretty special to her. What was stranger still was that it appeared to have been removed, not accidentally pulled or broken off. But her bag is always with her…when would someone have had the opportunity to remove it? She was (temporarily) devastated.
Following our stop at Guildhall Market, we looked out over and crossed Pulteney Bridge, walked up to and around Henrietta Park, which was beautiful, then circled back to visit the Teahouse Emporium. Then we finally made it to Topping & Company, which I’d been looking forward to all day!
Please excuse the crappy photo, but the interior of this shop is lined with shelves full of books from top to bottom and feels both massive and cozy at the same time. I could have spent half a day here easily! However, they were closing a couple of hours early that day for a book event and the staff were setting up for it when we arrived in the later afternoon, so we only spent a couple of hours here and planned to come back the following day.
With elation and eager anticipation I scanned the shelves, and with little bursts of inward triumph I pulled down book after book! But…
Truth be told, I had hoped, and perhaps somewhat naively expected that I’d find many books on this trip secondhand…and it began to dawn on me, as I was walking around Topping with that growing stack of brand new books I wanted to buy cradled in my arms, that that wasn’t going to happen. I started to feel a bit guilty, suddenly conscious of all the money I was spending on the books I’d purchased so far in Bath, knowing that I had these to add to them and more books still to buy ahead. Of course, I didn’t want to purchase anything while feeling “bad” about it…I wanted to be excited to be getting these books.
I took a deep breath and decided to sleep on things, to give myself time to do some thinking (and feeling), so that I could reach surety in giving myself permission to splurge. I put the books on hold for the next morning.
Then, instead of going to Banana Tree for a third night in a row, we went to Charm Thai, which we’d walked past earlier that day, for a more culturally authentic culinary experience. It was very good!
Later on, back at the hotel, an all-consuming turmoil of inner conflict ensued…okay, not really. But I did do my processing, voicing things out loud while my sister patiently listened, and came to this: Firstly, most of these editions aren’t even available in Canada to purchase, and I have already scoured the bookstores in and around Toronto and exhausted my efforts to find many of them secondhand. Secondly, I planned and made this trip specifically to procure these books, which I do plan on actually reading. And thirdly, I’m not buying high-priced premium hardcover special editions here, these are normally-priced everyday paperbacks, and the cost is perfectly reasonable, especially when considering it stretched out over months and years of reading and re-reading pleasure. This is merely sticker shock, brought on by the compounding of purchasing so many books in so little time.
I felt better after that. With my doubts mollified and my spirits lifted, I would forge ahead, ready and resolute, to keep buying ALL THE BOOKS!
Day No. 6 Books Purchased: 5 | Total Book Count: 19
Travel Day No. 7 | Wednesday: The Trove Is (Almost) Doubled
Our last day in Bath was spent doing a variety of activities. We had breakfast at the hotel as usual, then went back to Mr B’s Emporium to buy a couple of books that I wasn’t sure about previously but decided to go ahead and get:
- The Iliad by Homer
- Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
I knew I had something by Homer back at home, but couldn’t remember if it was The Odyssey or The Iliad. After checking and seeing it was The Odyssey that I owned, I purchased The Iliad as well. I did already have a copy of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit that I’d read earlier in the year, but it was a used copy that wasn’t in good shape and that I suspected might even be a bit mouldy, so I decided to replace it.
Then we went to Waterstones. I wanted to prioritize purchasing from independent bookshops and avoid shopping at Waterstones unless I couldn’t find what I wanted elsewhere, so I left it to the very end. Unfortunately, about half the books I ended up buying on this entire trip were ones that I could only find at Waterstones branches, whether in Bath or London—that is, off the shelf and not as a special order (which I would have done if we were going to be in London long enough to wait for their arrival, but that wasn’t an option).
From Waterstones in Bath:
- Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne
- Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins
- Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope
- Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
- Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
I had taken the chance and bought The Warden the day before, and with these two new Trollope books, I now had three of the six books in his Barsetshire series…three more to go for a complete and matching set.
We left Waterstones and went to the post office for me to send postcards to a couple of friends. While waiting in line, I had a lovely conversation with an elderly couple after I indicated for them to go ahead of me when I saw that the gentleman was using a mobility aid and getting visibly tired. Thankfully, there was also a seat nearby that he could sit in while his wife, in her lavender winter coat, and I chatted for a bit. She told me about their grandson and his partner and their plans to marry this coming spring and the Advent calendar she was sending them for Christmas (her reason for being at the post office that morning), and that they, the elderly couple, had visited Canada decades ago and very much liked it…it was a sweet interaction.
Then we went into a Superdrug store because my sister was looking for cheap nail polish in a specific colour, emphasis on cheap…but no luck. We tried Boots next, also no luck. Then it was Poundland for the win! With cheap nail polish in hand, we went back to Topping for one last visit.
We spent another hour and a half or so at the store this time. I explored their fantasy/crime/mystery section on the main floor then descended to the lower level where the non-fiction books are kept, and where my sister was doing her browsing. We eventually made our way back up, and while I didn’t really want to leave, we had a hotel room to vacate and a train to catch. Approaching the check-out counter, the anxieties I’d felt the evening before now mercifully evaporated, I retrieved the books I’d placed on hold and added a few more to the pile. This was my biggest book haul yet:
- The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
- Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
- The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas
- Uncle Silas by Sheridan Le Fanu
- The Longest Journey by E. M. Forster
- The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
- He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope
- The Last Chronicles of Barset by Anthony Trollope
- Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope
For some reason, many of the titles in the Penguin English Library series (top two books pictured above) are not available in Canada. It’s really puzzling, and I wonder if it has to do with jurisdictional publishing rights. The same thing applies for Penguin Modern Classics too. We have some of the titles in Canada, but most of them are not available here. I’ll be buying more of them from the UK as time goes by, particularly for books whose covers I’m not a fan of in other editions printed in North America.
If you’ve kept up with my Penguin Classics saga, you know that I’ve been looking for them in the older design with the thin banner and orange penguin logo, so I jumped on these. The Hardy and Le Fanu books technically show as available to order through my local bookstore’s website in Canada, but I’ve ordered through them before books that appear to have the older covers in their system, only to arrive with the new design…I didn’t want to put them back and risk that chance.
And with two additional books in Trollope’s Barsetshire series found, I had five out of the six! The hunt is now on for the very last book, The Small House at Allington, for a full matching set! (As I now write this post two months in the future, I will add that this book has proven challenging to find in that Penguin Classics edition, but the quest for it continues.)
We went back to the hotel, packed, checked out, and made our way to the train station, with my sister leading the way and me dragging my book-laden luggage behind. We purchased our tickets back to London and had half an hour to spare…or so I thought. A couple of minutes later, I looked up to glance at the schedule screens and saw that our train had been cancelled. Thankfully, though, we’d gotten there just early enough to catch the one about to leave so we rushed up to the platform to meet it. Phew.
And that’s it for a memorable first visit to the city of Bath!
Day No. 7 Books Purchased: 16 | Total Book Count: 35
Travel Day No. 8 | Thursday: “Alarming” Books
I’m not sure how I wasn’t utterly exhausted from the previous week’s adventures, but I must have slept and rested well that night, because the next day I had it in me to go for a bit more book-shopping. After having breakfast and a relaxing morning together, my mother and sister and I discussed what we could do for the day. I needed to head to a Waterstones in Hampstead to pick up a specific book available there, so I suggested we visit Camden as it was “on the way” and an area they hadn’t been to before. We could check out Camden Market and the surrounding area, I thought, and while there, I could stop by a couple of bookshops I’d visited back in June. So, we did that.
But it was another utterly freezing day—you’d think, us living in Canada, we’d be able to withstand the cold, but we’re used to a dry cold, and London’s and Bath’s were a wet cold that, even with numerous layers of clothing on, I was wholly unprepared for—so we didn’t do much at the Market and decided to part ways soon after arriving there. My mother and sister stayed together and did their own thing, and I set off for my bookshops.
I walked into Walden Books with a light backpack and walked out with a slightly heavier one. To my unexpected delight, I found a Persephone book that I had come close to but refrained from purchasing when in Bath, one of their best-known, and two pocket-sized Trollope novels that aren’t readily available in stores. I don’t usually like buying vintage or older books, but these appeared to be in good shape and I loved the blues!
- Miss Mackenzie by Anthony Trollope
- Ayala’s Angel by Anthony Trollope
- Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day by Winifred Watson
Side Story: As my sister and I were flying back to Canada, my carry-on bag was stopped for inspection by airport security. The officer rummaged through the bag for a bit, and I eventually asked him what it was he was looking for specifically that I might help him find it. He said it was a small book he was digging for. I had placed the two small Trollope books at the very bottom of the suitcase, in the ditch between the two bars of the telescoping handle. He found the book, swiped it for testing, and let us go a minute later. It did get me wondering though, and I wish I’d asked him what it could have been that set off their alarms…what kind of organic materials might they have detected (that weren’t, of course, illegal substances). This is why I don’t usually buy vintage books, for fear that they may be harbouring mold, or worse things, that I can’t identifiably see.
Anyway, I left Walden Books and stopped briefly at Camden Town Bookshop (which I’d been to back in June), just for the joy of walking in and taking a look around, before walking up to Chalk Farm Station and taking the underground to Hampstead, to Waterstones, where I got:
- Hester by Margaret Oliphant
- The Secret of Hartwood Hall by Katie Lumsden
According to the Waterstones website, this was the only in-stock copy of Hester in all their branches in London (that was readily available on the shelf and I didn’t have to request), so I went there specifically for it. I mentioned Katie, of “Books and Things”, earlier…she had spoken very highly of this book, so I was looking for it solely based on her recommendation. As for The Secrets of Hartwood Hall, which is not a classic but a modern work of historical fiction…well, Katie also happens to be a published author. I love her channel and wanted to read her first novel, but I hadn’t found her books in any bookshop previously visited on this trip, so I got it here.
My mother and sister had gotten home shortly before I did. We settled down for dinner and started our binge of “The Gilded Age”. You see, a few years ago, when the show first came out, I watched the first season and told my mother about it thinking she might enjoy it as well, which she did. She was in Canada at the time and was able to access it. But since then two more seasons had come out that my mother had no way of watching, and I’d held off on watching them too, thinking that it would be nice to watch the show together when the opportunity presented itself. This was that opportunity.
Day No. 8 Books Purchased: 5 | Total Book Count: 40
Travel Day No. 9 | Friday: Errands and Another Recital
My mother and I spent the morning running an errand together, and in the afternoon the three of us attended the piano recital at the church that my sister and I happened upon on our first day in London.
We then returned home to chill and continue watching The Gilded Age.
Day No. 9 Books Purchased: 0 | Total Book Count: 40
Travel Day No. 10 | Saturday: One Last Book Outing
I still had a few books to get, and with only a handful of days remaining before flying home, I didn’t want to leave buying them to the last minute. So, I left my mother and sister to their own plans for the day and went out on my own.
My first stop was Schott Music near Oxford Circus.
Back in Toronto, my fantabulous piano teacher, knowing that I was going on this book voyaahge, reminded me that I now have access to a whole new language of expression and story-telling at my fingertips (literally and figuratively) to explore! Why yes, I thought, I do indeed! As such, she suggested that I expand my book search to include print music, as publications in the UK are likely to have different catalogues than ours in Canada.
So over to Schott I went and a very lovely assistant gathered a whole bunch of books for me to look through when I very vaguely explained what I was looking for (because I didn’t really know myself). As I am still a beginner, much of what was presented to me was beyond my play grade, but it was still fun to flip through the books, look up pieces online to hear them, and to slip into reveries of being able to play such beautiful melodies in years to come.
I did eventually find a couple of solo piano anthologies that were right up my musical alley and included some beginner/intermediate pieces I could learn to play, but at $42 each, I decided to purchase only one of them and leave anything else for future visits.
- Night Time Piano Anthology (Faber Music)
I left the music store and walked down a very busy Regent Street to get to the Waterstones on Piccadilly, which is definitely their largest location, and certainly one of the largest bookshops in Europe. As much as I hesitate to buy from Waterstones, I cannot deny that being in this store is like being in book heaven (though my favourite of their branches is the one on Gower Street)!
I leisurely browsed through the general fiction shelves on the first floor while looking for a couple of specific books, which I found easily. All that was left then was to head to the second floor for Twenty Thousand Leagues…but the classics section was just around the corner and I couldn’t pass up taking a look-see…and I’m glad I did, because I found a book by Elizabeth Gaskell that I’d never heard of, and that, as with the rest of the books I got, isn’t available in Canada. I really did keep my classics perusal brief, though. It was then a quick visit to the sci-fi section on the floor above for Verne’s book.
It goes without saying that I wanted to purchased a few more books than what I walked out of the store with, but I was nearing the limits of what my luggage could accommodate and miraculously managed to exercise some restraint.
- Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim
- Vera by Elizabeth von Arnim
- Sylvia’s Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell
- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
And that was it! My book-buying was done and I walked out of Waterstones happy and satisfied!
Then, with all parties back at home together, we settled in for the rest of the day for more of The Gilded Age.
Day No. 10 Books Purchased: 5 | Total Book Count: 45
Travel Day No. 11 | Sunday: Nothing Much Happened Today
It was a relaxing day at home for my mother and me. My sister went out to meet up with a school friend in the afternoon, but otherwise, we spent the day hanging out together and continuing “our show”.
Day No. 11 Books Purchased: 0 | Total Book Count: 45
Travel Day No. 12 | Monday: Cool Down
My mother and I went out on an errand again together in the morning, but once back at home, it was, you guessed it, also back to The Gilded Age. I think this is when we started the third season.
Day No. 12 | Book Count: 0 | Total Book Count: 45
Travel Day No. 13 | Tuesday: Wrapping Up
This was basically a day of packing, cleaning, and making sure all the perishable food in the fridge was eaten before we left. We also had a few episodes still left to watch, and our departure was fast approaching…
Day No. 13 | Book Count: 0 | Total Book Count: 45
Travel Day No. 14 | Wednesday: The Finale
We spent the morning in a frenzy of last-minute tasks: our bags to close up, some final cleaning to do, the garbage and recycling to throw out, and travel preparations to finalize. When all was said and done, we found ourselves with some time to spare before our pre-arranged transportation to the airport was due to pick us up. We had one episode left to watch. Dressed and ready to leave at any minute, we sat down to watch the third season finale.
Only…
We ran out of time. Can you believe that? Those last thirty minutes will have to wait until we’re all together in person again…
But wait—there’s more! Before I leave you, there’s one other book-related thing to share.
Some time in early November I saw that Penguin offers book bundle deals that can only be purchased through their website. So, a couple of days before flying to London, I ordered three modern classics (for the price of two) directly from Penguin, which arrived shortly after we did. Though this purchase technically happened before the trip, I thought to include it here rather than at the beginning as a perfect conclusion to the post.
- Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
- Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
- The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
And there you have it! The 2025 Book Voyaahge (special thanks once again goes to my sister for labelling it as such) comes to a gratifying end! Did you think you’d make it to the bottom of this exceedingly long and rambling recount of yet another one of my book adventures?
I am super chuffed with my acquisitions, having found almost everything I was looking for on this trip. I honestly kept miscounting how many books the total came to until now as I went through each purchase for this post: 48 books!
Though, I tend to discount the three I got from Baggins…so to my mind, it’s 45.
Leaving London, beaming with excitement, I couldn’t wait to get home and acquaint the new books, especially the black spines, with their siblings on my classics bookcase. But first, I’d have to make room for them.
Travel Day No. -02 (14) | Book Count: 3 | Total Book Count: 48