Death of the Bookshop

(Warning : the following post may contain violence, Classics and scenes of a sexual nature)

Today, I made a jaunt into Leeds in order to spend some hard earned book vouchers I've had knocking about for a few months. I was quite irritated that had to travel all the way to Leeds to find a decent bookshop anyway. Ever since the demise of Borders and the closure of the one at Junction 27, there are no good bookshops nearby anymore.

My ire was further raised when I arrived in Leeds, and found that said bookshops contained very few actual books. They were far too full of posters, CD's, DVD's and stationary to contain much more than 2 Mill's and Boon's and an old copy of Wuthering Heights (both of which I dislike, by the way).

Now, correct me if I'm incorrect, but surely the primary purpose of a bookshop is the sale of books to the general public. I don't have a problem with coffee shops in bookshops, because they give you a good place to go and discuss your purchases with the other losers who spend their time in such places. But if I wanted to buy a set of stationary featuring Roundabouts of Great Britain or the latest (and probably rather terrible) Steven Segal DVD, then I'll go to a stationary shop or a DVD shop. So don't put them in Waterstones, please. Cheers. Rant (or furor) over.

In case you can't tell, they didn't have the book I wanted.

Peace and love