Three Bookstores and a Record Shop
in two different countries
One of my great joys when traveling is discovering new book and record shops. Glasgow, Skye, and London did not disappoint!
In Bath, the Topping & Co. shop was in a beautiful old Friends Meeting House, multiple stories inside and open to the early summer air, which made it a lovely place to browse. I picked up Between Two Rivers by Dr Moudy Al-Rashid—a history of Mesopotamia—and Whale Fall by Elizabeth O’Connor.
I enjoyed walking the old city of Bath, even though it was loaded with fellow tourists. Bookstores are a welcome respite from the gift shops, bad pizza, and fake “Irish” pubs found most everywhere. It’s an irony that tourists want to visit places unsoiled by their presence. Bath wasn’t too bad as such cities go; we had high tea at the Jane Austen house, and walked around the city, and visited the eponymous Roman baths. At night we ate at a chippy and chatted with an Englishman on holiday. The next morning, we went up Solsbury Hill, which shouldn’t be missed when visiting Bath.
The next bookshop I found was on the Isle of Skye, Carmina Gadelica in Portree (or Port Righ, in Gaelic.) This was my second time to the largest town on Skye, and my first to the bookstore. We had a few more days in town this time, and walked down from our room up on the hill to explore. It’s a small shop and does focus on local authors, but has a nicely curated selection. I was able to find an omnibus edition of Gavin Maxwell’s books about living on Skye with pet otters; Ring of Bright Water; Raven, Seek Thy Brother; and The Rocks Remain. The shop owner exhibited stereotypical Scottish frugality when he apologized that he only had the omnibus, because I said I already had the first book. I was happy to find them at all!
Glasgow has many bookshops, but we didn’t visit any. I think because we liked the city so much that we are sure to return, and we spent more time walking through markets and visiting friends and eating great food. It’s a surprisingly excellent food city, with a great variety of restaurants. We didn’t have a bad meal, and even the Italian joint that our friend Fiona took us to was great, on par with the best family-style southern Italian fare I’ve had outside of Italy itself.
I’m a fan of The Proclaimers and Mogwai, but most recently I became somewhat obsessed with the electronic music Kosmischer Läufer, or “Cosmic Runner,” which purports to be written to improve the performance of the East German Olympic team in the ‘80s. If you like electronic Kraut rock from that era, they’ll tickle that nostalgia and bring you back to an imaginary time in your memories. This is one of my favorites:
Their record label is in Edinburgh, so I reached out to ask what shops in Scotland carry their records. Monorail Music is one of them, and the shop was a short walk from our hotel in Trongate. They have a cafe and bar attached, and often host live music. As promised, they had several albums by Kosmischer Läufer and I picked up a few special editions on color vinyl, as well as a store-specific printing of Mogwai’s latest, and a limited pressing of a favorite album: Back in Your Life, by Jonathan Richman.
I had a lovely conversation with the woman behind the counter, who told me Mogwai was playing that very evening! And where I might find tickets. We then talked about seeing Jonathan Richman play live. I’d seen him twenty years ago at the long-gone Court Tavern in New Brunswick, New Jersey, a basement club with no stage and a banner behind the band that read, “The Court Tavern: Cruel But Fair.” I stood maybe five feet from him as he sang.
When he played Glasgow, his band was on a boat rolling down the River Clyde, and the city has never forgotten. That certainly sounds unforgettable to me! It was refreshing to talk to someone at a record store who liked all the same bands I do, and wasn’t snarky about them.
London has many famous bookshops, including one on a boat in the Thames, but I only visited the London Review bookshop in Convent Garden. I can’t remember why I was in the neighborhood, I didn’t visit the British Museum nearby. I may have wandered to it after visiting the Regent’s Park, looking for a loo. No matter, it’s a lovely shop where I found Barrowbeck by Andrew Michael Hurley, a favorite writer of folk horror. His first two books, The Loney and Devil’s Day, both had American printings, but this one has not, so I was glad to find it.
It helps to have favorite authors and musicians to look for when traveling. Apart from Hurley and Maxwell, a there are a few authors that I endeavor to read everything they’ve written. Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia E. Butler, Oliver Sacks, Loren Eiseley, Peter S. Beagle, David Graeber, Willa Cather, Umberto Eco, Edward Gorey, Sjón, Akwaeke Emezi, and Louise Erdrich off the top of my head. That gived me plenty to look for in bookshops across the world.
As for music, as Billy Joel sang, “you can’t get the sound from the story in a magazine,” and the same holds true for an album cover. But I’ve heard music in record shops and then bought the album. One example is Slomosa, who bill themselves as “tundra rock,” and another is the Budos Band, a horn-centric desert rock band who play like the soundtrack to a Peckinpah script animated by Ralph Bakshi. I’m going to see them open for the Alabama Shakes next week, and I can’t wait to see them play.
Who are authors you look for in bookstores wherever you go? Do you look for foreign editions or pressings of records if you travel?
It all sounds wonderful, but I'm especially jealous about your going to Bath .
I've never been there but it figured prominently in several of the novels I was obliged to read as an undergrad. Did you drink the water?
Thanks for the memories. I lived and worked in Bath for many years and often visted Toppings.