Okay, Cecil Court is absolutely one of the best streets in London for bookshops. There are at least ten on this stretch of back alley road. It's fabulous! Some of them are a bit fancier, as their business is buying and selling more expensive first editions and rare collectors' books. But, though the proprietor will eye you beadily while you're browsing around (okay, so there was just one owner who did that to me... maybe because I had my backpack on...), these shops are still really fun to browse around in, if only to look at the older books. Some of them are absolutely gorgeous!

Greening Burland Bookshop

Cecil Court!

That's okay, don't be. Here's an interesting bookstore for you. Daunt Books is an Edwardian bookshop on Marylebone High Street that is nothing short of glorious, with long oak galleries and soaring windows. Books are arranged by country, rather than alphabetically, so guides, maps, non-fiction and fiction all sit alongside one another, for a unique browsing experience. I didn't know about this jewel until after I had left London... but man, I certainly wish I had! This seriously looks like the coolest place!

Daunt Books!

Snazzy!

Located underneath Waterloo Bridge on Queen's Walk, the Southbank Book Market is one of London's best kept secrets. Just outside it's open daily, come rain or shine, and you can browse for hours through hundreds of second-hand and antique books, on any topic imaginable. I actually walked through this, but couldn't spent a lot of time there, as I was with some friends and we were running late for a play we were going to see at a nearby theatre. But, it looked amazing, and when I go back to London, I'm making more time to go there.

Huzzah!

Something for everyone, right?

Ah, there's the drum roll. The big city. A cultural capital of the world, and a city of incredible history. I love London! I love everything about it; the craggy sidewalks and gardens and the parks. They have beautiful walkways and gardens that you can literally spend hours just walking through. And of course, there are hundreds of bookshops around the city! So many, many to list! I'm going to narrow it down to ten, over the next few entries. Excited? Me too.

Foyles is one of London's most famous bookshops, and has five floors crammed with every kind of book imaginable. The store has been on Charing Cross Road since 1906 and still stocks the UK's largest range of books. I didn't get to go to this one while I was in England, but I did hear of it, and meant to try to get there.      

I love the names in England; even the street names and village names are just fabulous! Anyhow, so Max Gate! Thomas Hardy designed this house and lived here from 1885 until his death in 1928. This is where he wrote Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Jude the Obscure and The Mayor of Casterbridge, as well as much of his poetry. Thomas Hardy is not, shall we say, one of the happier authors I've ever read, but I really like his writing style. And having seen Dorset and the area that he describes in his books... well, it's beautiful and well worth potential temporary depression you might get from reading his books. Seriously, my roommate and I once watched the new BBC's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and it is tragic. We were both balling by the end; like, outright heart-crushingly sobbing. But it was really interesting learning more about his life!

Max Gate!

Just the very picture of England, right?

Thomas Hardy's Dorset.

You may be wondering... well then, where's the bookshop? It's in the house, and consists of a large tables wit a small selection of Hardy's novels and some biographies about him. Quaint, isn't it? But seriously, this area, you may just want to spend all your time outside reading than inside choosing that book to read... 

Okay, so another really neat place to go and visit while you're in England: Blenheim Palace. And of course, there is a neat little book and gift shop there in one of the wings. This palace was birthplace to Sir Winston Churchill, and is absolutely stunningly fancy. I dunno even where to begin describing now only how big it is, but also how ornate and exquisite it really is. The gardens alone are worth the flight over to the UK. You walk through the inside kind of like you would a haunted house... and guess what? There are even mannequins to greet you... well, more like wax figures of the famous families and  public figures who have lived there. And wow, you have to be pretty classy to live here! Seriously though, those wax figures are creepy. Super creepy. Like, the-Doctor-might-have-to-rescue-us-from-them creepy. But that'd be okay, because I want to go into TARDIS.

Blenheim Palace!

Fancy!

Gives you an idea of how large the estate really is!

So, the bookshop is, I must admit, very specialized. There are mostly books about the history and families of Blenheim Palace, and about Churchill. But seriously, they have a nice selection when it comes to the historical and archeological aspects of the palace. And, they have great postcards! No, but really, it's a thrill just walking around those gargantuan rooms and seeing all the beautiful decor.