Round Up

I'm having a good couple of weeks. There's a lot going on, which I always love and I'm being busy and useful. This is unusual but lots of fun!

Firstly I sold my flat. I think most people know this already but it is now gone, I am no longer attached to London - which means I am really looking forward to visiting it again and trying to re-learn how to love a city that became a nightmarish reminder of estate agents and household problems!

This weekend Exlineal have organised a signing in Leicester this Saturday. Author Mark Chadbourn will be signing in the Highgate Waterstones from 12.30 until 2.30. This is a rather rare signing/sighting so definitely worth heading along to. There is even going to be cake, seriously - cake! And if Exlineal's charming company, cake and being in a bookstore isn't enough incentive, I've read the books and I can certainly recommend them. If you can't make it then I am honestly sorry you'll be missing out, but you can of course still get the books from the magical internet at least!

In other book-ish news the ever so lovely Zoë Marriott's books were storming up the Amazon charts last week. Much excitement meant that I decided to dig them out of the shelves and have a re-read. If you've not checked them out have a look. Also, she has a fab blog.  And a shout-out to Kaz Mahoney who's just had her first foreign cover through - completely fab news. I was introduced (over the internet, but it still counts) to Kaz and Zoë at the same time so it makes sense to me to talk about them together!

In Etsy news I have finally completed my mini-challenge to myself and my shop now has 100 items in it. The next step is to get as many items as possible up to 100 views. Then of course the next step will be getting 100 sales. I might be a litle way away from that still! My new range of cards seems to be popular and I've had some lovely comments about it so far.

Sticking with Etsy for a minute there have also been so many changes happening recently that I have been spending a lot of time catching up and making sure that I know what is going on and understand it fully. For those of you using Etsy occasionally there is a new way of organising searches on the site so that you will hopefully get more useful results. This is great news, in my opinion, for both sellers and buyers as well. I've certainly been seeing the benefits already. Well done, Etsy!

I have also opened my shop on Folksy. I'm not sure how to define it yet but I wanted to get a couple of my favourite pieces there to make sure my presence in the UK wasn't fading as I am doing fewer craft fairs now and focusing online which is largely US based still.

The other day I was very kindly featured in a blogpost over on Katy's site Far Flung Cards. She did a piece on me and my artwork and I am very flattered and deeply honoured, she's a wonderful person and I really appreciate having her in my crafting life.

I have a couple of exciting things possibly happening as well which I shall update about as and when they happen. I hope that everyone else is having a wonderful time,

Vick.

Travelled Stories...

A while ago I posted about the awesome group Traveling Stories. After that blog I got chatting to Emily (the big cheese) and she was lovely enough to send me my very own Traveling Stories t-shirt.

back of the t-shirt

It got a *little* bit out of hand when said t-shirt arrived. There was squealing and I must say I love it and have been wearing it a lot. People can attest to this.

front of t-shirt

As promised, here are pictures of the awesome shirt itself (with reluctant model). A huge thank-you to Emily for sending it my way - it is very much appreciated!

Once again, check out Traveling Stories, they are utterly fab and deserve your love.

Vick.

Traveling Stories

Traveling Stories is a non-profit organisation started by Emily Moberly.They provide books to children who have none and try to get kids enthused about reading. Fantastic - right?

The benefits of books for children and teenagers has been everywhere recently. Books shaped my personality, they define who I am and I read more than I do almost anything else. This is a wonderful charity and I wanted to do a little something to raise awareness of it.



The other day Zoë Marriott wrote about how books have impacted on her and who she is as a person, I couldn't put it better so here's what she says about it.

I remember the books that changed who I am. Many of the books that I read as a child have become a part of my consciousness; The Wind in the Willows, Tales of the Early World and Lend Me Your Wings especially (I just realised all of these are animals-that-talk books, no wonder I am so loosely attached to reality).



I was very fortunate as a child to have bibliophiles for parents and so read the classics pretty young, I can't imagine not having access to literature but so many children don't. I completely love what Traveling Stories is doing and hope they continue to grow and do well.

Most of the books that I have read as an adult have affected my ideas as well. For example, Les Miserables changed how I view religion and redemption. I realised the impact Don Foster's Author Unknown had had on me while talking to fellow book-fans at a book launch event the other day. It's something I read while I was in high-school and it changed the way that I write as well as what I read. Foster shows how everything we read and consume becomes a part of our consciousness and how this impacts on writing. He uses this to trace anonymous writings back to their authors. I'm not blindly advocating post hoc ergo propter hoc but I do think that we absorb more of literature than we are really aware. I have ordered a spare copy of his book to lend out to people because I can't bear to part with mine!

The Once and Future King by T.H. White is in my top five favourite books (the exact order moved around depending on my mood). Something that Merlin says to Arthur strikes very true with the case of Traveling Stories:

"The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow,  "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn."

There's so much we can learn from reading and Traveling Stories is a fantastic way of taking this great experience to as many people as possible.

Have a look at their website, it's a pretty amazing thing.

Vick.

Thinking Deep Thoughts

Not so long ago Kate Elliot wrote this great article about women in SFF and highlighted something that I completely relate to:

"Even now, when I announce that I am an avid fantasy reader, I often find myself on the receiving end of comments from my non-genre counterparts along the lines of, ‘oh, like elves and stuff?’ and the explanation of why this is a ridiculous way of understanding the genre usually takes more time than we have ."

This is very close to a conversation/argument which I have had several times in the past few weeks. One particular comment was especially annoying and went along the lines of 'but I always thought you read really deep, important books not these fluffy entertaining genre things.' Yeah, I'm making that sound worse than the original comment but it was the gist of it.

I am currently compiling a list of quotations/sections of books that I can point at to prove my point. My point? That genre books can in fact be intellectually stimulating. Fantasy can be a wonderful lens through which we can more accuately see reality. There has been a lot of talk of genre and genre-bashing recently and I'm not getting into it. One simple reason for that, I don't know enough. If you want a genre argument, google it, there's plenty by people who know much more than I do. I read the classics of children's fantasy when I was a kid but I only really got into it four or five years ago. All I am trying to do here is undo a little of the snobbery because it shocked me that people really couldn't see how amazing all literature is.

So I have a request for all of my genre-based friends, if you have any especially good examples of philosophical, deep or just plain amazing sections of genre books please let me know - either in the comments section here or by email (vclinde@gmail.com). For my non-genre friends hopefully I'll soon have a list of things for you to pore over and decide where you're going to start reading.

I used to use quotes from literature to open my essays in University. Partly because I really was an English student trapped in the body of a Politics student and partly because I thought it would put my tutors in a good mood before reading (and more to the point, marking) my essay. They were always relevant and quite often from genre novels. My favourite was an essay on democracy in the Middle East where I used this quote from Witches Abroad by Sir Terry Pratchett:

"You can't go around building a better world for people. Only people can build a better world for people. Otherwise it's just a cage. "

And now I'm off to start making a list to prove that I am right, because some people still aren't clued in to the fact that I'm right most of the time.

Vick.
www.vclinde.co.uk

Lenses

Apologies in advance, this has turned out to be a rather odd blog post but then it's been a rather odd weekend.

I went into Nottingham this morning to pick up some books from Waterstones. Well that was only one reason, but listing my entire shopping list is a bit much even for me, and really who's all that interested in which colour nail varnish I bought?

The top book, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry was a World Book Night book that the lovely folks at Nottingham Waterstones kept aside for me because I was stuck on a train that night and couldn't make it in. The other three are all books that I'm quite ashamed that I didn't own already, that's remedied now.

While we were parking a man walked along the street with a thin gauze bandage around the top of his head, soaked in blood. His white t-shirt also had large patches of thick dark red blood on both front and back and his face & arms were splattered with it. I think the thing that shook me was that his face had streaked and splattered dried blood almost all over it. I didn't register why he caught my attention from a long way away but the few seconds eye-contact as our car passed him walking on the street stayed with me all day. I don't mind sounding like a bit of a wimp, it really got to me.



When something upsets me my brain deals with it in the only way I know how - creatively. The more I thought about the less I thought of myself seeing this poor young chap and the more it became an abstract narration. I love trying to understand how my brain works, I don't think I'll ever truly comprehend how amazing it really is that we all (more or less) function.

Last night I took my much more prosaic lens attached to my camera out to look at the moon. The pictures were pretty rubbish as you can see but the view from the binoculars was pretty awesome and the photos are a nice memory-aid.



I should get back to sorting clothes out, I'm packing for two holidays at once. This is a bit much for a girl who normally packs two weeks in advance for a weekend away!

Hope everyone is looking forward to a new week.

Vick.

p.s. Rather than listing all my interweb-ness as normal I'm going to link to my www.vclinde.co.uk website as it should now re-direct to my Flavors.me page...

Do As I Say

In my little world Thursdays are library days. Every Thursday I go to my local library (Thursday and Friday are the days they get orders in from other libraries in the county) and it’s never very busy. Even when I go in on Saturdays it’s never exactly packed out.

There has been so much talk of libraries lately that I have been thinking about what people are generally saying and it seems to largely be a case of 'do as I say not as I do'. I really believe that most people do not go to libraries, and it's why they are under threat.

I love libraries, I spend hours in them and whenever I travel my first draw is to the library. I've been going to my village library since I was about 4 years old and have spent a huge amount of time there. When I was much younger I almost lived there for two summers while they had a summer reading scheme that I was doing. Admittedly my library is a small local one and it's not open all of the time but they have a pretty good selection and are amazing at helping people out.

My village has about 3,500 people in it and it costs £1.10 to get the library to order a book/DVD/CD etc. Surely if people were using these services more, funding would be less of a problem. Perhaps I am being naïve but rather than spending one Saturday at the library to show how angry one is at funding cuts would it not be better to go every month or two and actually use the library for its real purpose. I wonder if the fees these days put people off going or if the fees are so expensive now because people are rarely there and so the libraries need the money more.
 
I don’t tend to talk about topical issues online because 1.) I get dragged into debates easily and am rubbish at knowing when to shut up and 2.) the internet has a long memory and I know that I contradict myself and there are a lot of things I’ve not decided yet. However, libraries I have always and hopefully will always love.

My first stop in about 90% of the places that I visit is to the library. I have five library cards in the UK from using libraries when I’ve been on holiday. I have also visited libraries in Philadelphia, Nashville, Venice, Washington D.C., Rome, Seattle, Munich, Chicago, Sydney, New York City, Melbourne, Baltimore, Little Rock, Portland and Adelaide. The pictures in here are from the Philly public library.

There's really only two points here (not being very concise today). One is that libraries are amazing. Two is that if you ever want a favour then ask me on a Thursday.

Vick.

vclinde@gmail.com
www.vclinde.co.uk

http://www.etsy.com/shop/vclinde
@vclinde

This Reader

If we've never met I will excuse you for not knowing that I love books above everything else in this world. If we have met then there is not much chance of you not already knowing this about me.
There aren't many things that I don't read. I'm not a big fan of modern crime. Horror has to have great reviews for me to buy it, though I will often grab them from the library. I'm not a D.H. Lawrence fan. I don't like Philip Pullman's books generally. I point blank refuse to read the so called tragic-life-stories and it still pains me to see a full wall of them in their own little section in the bookshop. Other than that - give me a book and I'm happy.

Some of my books currently in exile in my parents attic while I am in-between houses

Quite often I will have re-reading weeks. This past week was one, I re-read Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper, Spellwright by Blake Charlton, The Painted Man/The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett and part of The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy (Oddly enough, he's not got a webpage I can link to). As much as I love finding new books it still gives me a lot of pleasure to go back to books that I know I will enjoy. It takes me less time to re-read books because I already know what is happening. The second time I read a good book is usually my favourite. You know the end result and can therefore spot the hints and clues that the author has left behind but you missed the first time around. Golly, I do like clever authors who can put in something that seem innocuous the first time around but jumps out and screams at you when you can see the relevance later on.



One of the nicest things about this week was receiving an amazing parcel from Chloe Healy over at Tor, UK A little while back I won a great raffle prize at the Other Worlds Alt.Fiction event for a year's supply of Tor books. There was quite literally squealing when the postie arrived with said parcel. (I'm not sure he'll deliver here again) Much fun to be had here and I cannot wait to get reading them.
A very big thanks to Chloe and the Tor team as well as everyone at Alt.Fiction for such a fab prize. You made one very happy reader over here.

In other book related things (and because I had to link to Etsy in here somewhere) I made an Etsy treasury for bibliophiles all about typewriters. I have a Corona, it's beautiful but needs new ribbon at the moment.

I also had a very lovely surprise yesterday when going to pick up some books I ordered from the library they had twice as many as I was expecting. Happy days. So I now have eight books sitting looking lovingly at me (yes they do, yes of course they can).

The un-avatar-ed version

Oh, and my profile picture has now changed to a head-shot so that I can use the same picture across all of my net wanderings. I obviously didn't take it because a) it's a much better photo than I take and b) I'm frigging in it and I'm certainly not that good with a timer. My super-talented cousin took the photo on Christmas Day and THIS is his website. Have a look, he does science things to save the world and there's lots of pretty pictures as well.

Vick.

vclinde@gmail.com
www.vclinde.co.uk

http://www.etsy.com/shop/vclinde
@vclinde

This Week

This week I have mostly been eating:

Triple chocolate death cookies. Adapted from a Nigella recipe, with more chocolate added, different flour and varied cooking times.




Homemade bread. I enjoy using my parents' bread machine when I am at 'home' but I don't like the way that it cooks the bread so I make the dough in the machine and then hand shape it before baking it in the oven.


Salted butter caramel which was a complete disaster. Well, maybe not complete. It tastes great but there is an awful lot of it and it refuses to set so I have no idea what to do with it. I am going to try making some chocolates with caramel in, otherwise I'll be eating it all with a spoon. Healthy, right? I've also finally tried making a ribollita which was gorgeous and I will certainly be making that again. There's no picture - I ate it before I remembered to take one. Because of the cold weather I've been at home quite a bit which has allowed for lots of slow cooking, mainly roasting. Luckily walking around everywhere has burnt a fair bit of all this naughty food away.  

This week I've been working on:

Making Etsy treasuries. I've never done this before but they are addictive and I'll be making more very soon I feel.






Adding a page on Facebook. It's not that I didn't think of using Facebook before, but up until recently they allowed you to have an Etsy tab within your profile, so now that this has gone away I've made a page for the business.

I've also been joining groups, adding people to circles and favourite as well as just generally trying to improve my profile online. This was spurred by the snow-blockade of last weekend when I was stuck and couldn't get to my favourite craft show of the year so I decided to make the most of the extra time.





This week I've been interneting here:

The very lovely Adele and her super-hero team have put up the first edition of Un:Bound Video Editions which manages to be both informative and fun at the same time. Go and check it out, there's no 'or else...' but you will be missing out!


I've forgotten which of my friends popped this online but it's brilliant. (Possibly Emma Jane who has a real knack for finding amazing things on the web so I usually assume she found all the best links.) It reminds me of being on the beach when I was very young and went on holiday with my cousins. While we didn't manage anything like this, my genius of a cousin (not exaggerating - he's the smartest person I know) used to build sandcastles that had foundations and were structurally sound. I added the shells.

St. Kilda Football Club Luckily for me, and unfortunately for everyone who talks to me, things are kicking off over in the AFL again. This means I will be getting excited about drafts, rookies, games, analysis and how amazing these guys are. Again. Apologies.



This week I've been reading:
*The Library of the Dead - Glenn Cooper. I'm not sure who recommended this to me but it's not one I would pass on. Stock characters and too many different time zones that jumped around a lot. It's a shame because the basic idea was original, clever and gripping.
*Hush, Hush - Becca Fitzpatrick. Another one I wouldn't pass one. This time the idea was unoriginal, unconvincing and dull.
*Selected Poems - Lawrence Durrell. I've lost count of how many times I've read this but it never gets any less perfect.
*The Summoning & The Awakening - Kelley Armstrong. Enjoyed this one but an awful lot of it feels like set-ups for the next book. I love the idea and the plot keeps getting better. My main niggle with it was that the main character, who wants to be a film director, keeps stating how she would film the events if she was making a movie. Very irritating but easy enough to skim over.
*Succubus Blues - Richelle Mead. A good mix of characters and some interesting twists (you could see most of them coming but they were still intriguing and well worked out). Definitely going to keep going with the series.
I'm not putting links for the books because these aren't real reviews - I've not written this week's batch yet!

And now the snow has finally started melting so hopefully a warmer, more mobile week to come. Happy weekends to all.


Vick.

vclinde@gmail.com
www.vclinde.co.uk
@vclinde

Stopping by Words on a Snowy Evening

I read the wonderful Blake Charlton’s blog yesterday and it reminded me of something I wrote back in 2003. Mr. Charlton wrote a poem entitled ‘The Second Book’ as homage (in his words "mash up") to W.B. Yeats’ poem ‘The Second Coming’.

Below is something similar that I wrote when I was sixteen-ish. A friend and I were emailing each other at some ungodly hour of the morning and rather than revising as we should have been we exchanged homage/parodies of well-known poems. My friend began with Poe’s ‘The Raven’ and I countered with my version of ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ by Robert Frost.

Amazingly this piece has managed to survive each computer change since 2003 and the parody method has been a staple of my writing/playing-with-words ever since.

Whose words these are, I think I know. His ideas sourced from others though; He does not sense my writing here To follow phrases he did show.

My little laptop thinks it's queer To stop mid sentence, oops, oh dear Between the comma and full stop A truly awful pause, I fear.

She gives her Windows' bells a shake To ask if I am still awake. The only other sound's the noise That nearby aeroplanes must make.

My bed looks lovely, I need sleep. But I have homework to complete, And much to do before it's light, And much to do before it's light.

And the other one I wrote that night was a very odd version of ‘Weathers’ by Thomas Hardy!

Vick. vclinde@gmail.com www.vclinde.co.uk @vclinde

due north

I have a strange affection for service stations – they are places where you are allowed to buy chocolate and coffee and all in the name of ‘travelling’ rather than ‘gorging’. The food however is less than appealing and so after two hours on the M1/A1(M)/A1 we pulled off the road and drove about ten minutes out of our way to Ripon.

I’d wanted to see Ripon for a long time because I love visiting Cathedrals. I looked up the route, planned places to park and eat in advance and was thoroughly excited. It was a complete let down.

The Cathedral had no atmosphere, and didn’t feel at all like a place of worship or faith (marking another one against organised religion). The windows were pretty but not breath-taking or even very symbolic. On the whole it felt, and was largely treated, like a tourist attraction rather than a Church. They have a crypt which is interesting and quite different. Otherwise, not very impressive. We ate at a café called ‘Dish’s’ which had been recommended and had huge meals, nothing fancy but well-cooked and tasty. It seemed popular and the staff were lovely.

Onwards and upwards to Northumberland. I have been three, or perhaps four, times before and it is one of my favourite places to spend time. The walking is lovely, people are kind and generous (to generalise of course) and the scenery some of the best you will find. Usually I spend most of my time near the coast but this time I was keen to explore inland a bit more. I arrived quite late and spent the first evening happily reading and writing whilst looking out at the lovely view from the Bed & Breakfast.

Day One consisted of heading into Alnwick for a wander-around and morning tea at Grannies Café (on Narrowgate, if you’re interested) and then a drive out to an outdoor shop which had a cracking café attached to it and off to Holy Island to look out on the Causeway. Had a brief walk around the island but not far because the weather was miserable!

I decided on the Coastal route to get back down towards Alnwick, because it’s beautiful even in the pouring rain. I got out of the car at Boulmer, rugged up, and went for a walk on the beach. Lots and lots of very slimy seaweed but also gorgeous views. The weather finally cleared up on the way back and I got to see the hills in the light of the almost-setting sun.

Day Two was so completely different weather the landscape was barely recognisable. The sun was out and so straight after breakfast I walked around Lordenshaws, an ancient site with cup and ring markings. I didn’t spend too long here because I took advantage of the weather and had a good long walk around the local hills. Three hours, lots of mud, marshes, wrong turns and climbing later I returned to the bed and breakfast, exhausted but happy.

Not up for much walking afterwards I had lunch at Wallington which was one of the best meals I have eaten in a very long time. The house was less than impressive. Nothing to report, really, the library and reading room were nice but not very special. Bit of a let down and the weather was starting to close in again soI didn't go around the gardens and instead headed to Otterburn with the promise of Afternoon Tea calling me. I had hoped to go to a hotel there which looked beautiful but we were told, firmly, that as we were not residents we could have a coffee in the bar but not afternoon tea. Grump. So we left, after taking a couple of pictures.

On the way there we had seen a sign for a strange cafe called Goats on the Roof and we headed back there to try our luck. It was getting pretty late when we arrived but we made it in time for a welcome cup of tea with a stonking view of the hills.

Day Three was mostly about the rain. First things first I headed to Barter Books (which I have written about here) I came home with ten books for a bargain price, very happy. Morning coffee was taken at the same cafe followed by a brief, sodden wander around Alnwick. I then had a peek at Warkworth Castle (from inside the car) and after some more driving along the Coastal route we headed back to have lunch with the goats again. I had a completely wonderful bowl of soup followed by a mug of hot-chocolate.

Afterwards it was back to the B&B to relax in the lounge and pack for the journey home.

Vick. vclinde@gmail.com www.vclinde.co.uk @vclinde

places of worship

I'm off to Northumberland next week for a few days holiday. It's a part of the country that I have loved for a very long time now and have visited many times, always exploring a new part. The main appeal used to be Alnwick, for a very specific reason, they have a fantastic bookshop there. I am drawn to places with good second-hand bookshops and will base entire holidays/trips around them. When I look back on holidays I do tend to think most fondly of bookshops that I have found. The top ten, in no real order, are as follows.

#1. Brierlow Bar just outside Buxton in Derbyshire. This is not actually a secondhand bookshop but has vastly discounted books and a great selection. There is a large fiction section but their real highlights are in the various non-fiction sections. Cookery, travel and history are all brilliant.

#2. Massolit Books in the centre of Kraków in Poland. I found this wonderful place in 2005 while travelling around Europe on a rail-pass. We were wandering towards the Castle and found this wonderful shop, sadly backpacks did not allow for many purchases but I did get a great poetry book. We were also invited to join a poetry reading that evening. The shop is cosy and welcoming with a cafe attached and a lovely fire. As a lot of the stock is English language the staff are happy to help out with non-Polish speakers. They had a huge stock and of a great variety.

#3. Barter Books on the outskirts of Alnwick in Northumberland. For a long time this was the largest and most exciting bookshop that I had ever seen and so it will always have a sentimental attachment for me. It wouldn't need that to keep me going back because the book selection is great. The layout is really user-friendly and the little train that runs around the top of the shelves is always nice to see. Again, has drinks/snacks and fire near the entrance. It is housed in the old station and the staff are brilliant, exactly the sort of people you want to meet in a bookshop - and I do mean that in the best possible way.

#4. Any Amount of Books on Charing Cross Road in London. Living in London gave me the chance to properly explore the bookshops there without worrying about having to get them home (apart from TFL weekend strikes). This is great because of the knowledge of the staff and their willingness to help in any way possible. They will keep an eye out for particular books, check their vast stock not kept on site and almost always know whether something is in the store or not. The prices are fair and their is a table set outside with £1 books and often deals on top of this. This is my favourite place to buy plays and poetry - a great selection, and often unexpected and lesser-known works. Don't neglect downstairs if you go, they have a really cracking children's section and some wonderful titles can be found in the back room which is less well organised but worth digging around.

#5. Powells in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. Possibly the best, almost certainly the biggest bookshop on my list. I was only in Portland for two days and spent five hours in here. I bought five books and gave two in for trade. The staff are knowledgeable and friendly, the till system is efficient, even at peak times. The stock is out-of-this-world awesome. Fiction and non-fiction alike. Don't expect to pick up a real treasure at rock-bottom prices but I didn't see anything overpriced either. They know what books are worth and prices follow suit. They have several bookshops but their flagship is like the mothership for book-lovers. It's worth a trip to the States, even if you see nothing else.

#6. Community Bookstore on 7th Ave. Brooklyn, NY, U.S.A. However, if you do happen to venture outside Portland and as far as New York, this is a great bookshop. I was staying just around the corner and spent a lot of time, wandering in and picking up books. The staff left me alone when they saw I just wanted to wander. The best thing about this bookshop is a bookshelf near the back of the store which holds ARC editions of books. I remember reading (although, of course I cannot remember where) several writers and readers talking about the sale and re-sale of ARC copies a while ago and I think Community Bookstore has it well organised. When they are done with a book it goes on the ARC shelf and people can come and help themselves to them and then leave a donation in a tin which is given to charity. Brilliant, right? They don't have a huge selection but they do have a warehouse and delivery options. Staff are also great at recommending titles and there is a foodie seating area at the back as well. Oh, and cats, I almost forgot the cats.

#7. Much Ado Books in Alfriston, Sussex. I stayed in a self-catering cottage with friends a few years ago and this delightful bookshop was right opposite. It was a great holiday with the only drawback being that I found this shop on our penultimate day so didn't get to take full advantage. It looks small from the outside but is huge and well stocked. Lots of surprises inside. This is a real bookish bookshop and if you want a good discussion about literature then the wonderful American ex-pat owners. We got along so well that when I left it felt like leaving friends (after only an hour or so). Worth a de-tour, or even a specific visit.

#8. River Market Books, Little Rock, AR, U.S.A. I had such a great time at this bookstore. It is just around the corner from the Little Rock public library and their stock is largely books that are donated to the Library that are unwanted/duplicates/inappropriate etc. When I went the most surprising thing is first walking downstairs which is crammed full of books. Mostly fiction and a large amount of crime, a good few sections of genre books and great classics. The prices are amazing and the whole place is very well organised.

#9. Book and Comic Exchange, Pembridge Road, Notting Hill, London. If you ever talk to me about books I promise that it won't take me long to start talking about the Book Exchange. Their ground level shop is good, but only good. Then there is a tiny little corridor near the stairs which is packed with sci-fi and fantasy (heaven!). And then downstairs...a 50p section of pure joy. It used to be 10p and 50p but last year the 10p magic was taken away. The reason I have so many books is largely due to this shop - without exaggeration I have bought at least 150 books from here. It is very close to Notting Hill tube station, perfect for staggering back home with lots and lots of books. Take a backpack.

#10. Afterwords Bookstore, E. Illnois Street, Chicago, IL, U.S.A. My trip to Chicago was a mix of huge highs and lows. I was walking around in very deep snow with a broken toe and the hostel was very noisy but I loved the city. One of my favourite places in the world. Afterwords was found at the end of a long day of walking around and I staggered in, hoping to be able to exchange my copy of Ripley's Game for a new book to keep me going on the next part of my trip. The store is a combination of new and secondhand books and some of their prices are stupidly good, especially if there is a sale on. I also have to give them credit for me falling in love with Doris Grumbach who is now pretty much my favourite author because it was her book I took away with me in the end. There is nothing usual about this bookstore, it is a one-off and magical place. You probably would not find it if you weren't looking, but if you are it's near Grand Red metro stop.

There it is, my current list. The most wonderful thing is that this is the tip of a very literate iceberg and every time I go to a new place I try to find more bookshops - because you really cannot have too many books

Vick.
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www.vclinde.co.uk
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