Being gifted some book tokens for my birthday, I naturally went to the nearest bookshop to grab some good books. Sadly said shop was WH Smiths and despite a smattering of other genres, it largely focuses on bestseller ficton, which on the whole are usually a disappointing bunch.
The next day I found myself up at the High Peak Bookshop (and Café) which had a much better range of stock in, and I plumped for a number of genres I haven’t explored in a while, and endured lots of annoying people passing through my browsing eyeline.
Sci-fi is something rare for me to venture into although when I have dabbled, there have been some corkers namely Solaris and 2001: A Space Odyssey and its sequels. A story from titan H.G. Wells will surely live up to such names. The Elegant Universe was another choice to continue a ‘science’ theme. There is something fascinating about the universe, it’s a majestic mystery and well worth the time to explore.
P. T. Barnum promises an entertaining read, and a good place to jump back into autobiographies. I expect a lot of showmanship to be had, and not all to be believed. Contrasting that, an exploration of Proust’s ideas and thoughts will be a more grounded and calming choice to read.
All in all a good and quite free haul of reading material that will set me up for the new year.
Book to the Future 
There’s no better way to celebrate ones birthday than with a good book haul. Happy reading, Ste J!
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Very true, I made sure I scoured the shelves so I didn’t miss anything. It was great to shop again and not worry about spending money. I was lucky that I didn’t find too many books, as I hate having to choose, leaving behind a good book can be harrowing sometimes.
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I hope those books are all good. 📚✌
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I think they will be but if not then at least it will make an entertaining review, at the very least.
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🌝
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If you want to read a weird book, dip into “The Bone Clocks.” I am halfway through the book, and still don’t even know what the title means. The book is really, really weird. It’s set in Britain, so I think you should be able to get it there. I’m not sure, but I think the author’s name is David Mitchell. Strange book.
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I’m familiar with the author but not read any of his books yet. I shall look out for it when I am back in the shops.
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Happy reading! Merry Christmas to you and your beautiful family!
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Always happy when reading. A merry Christmas backatcha!
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Some nice books there. See if you can get to the second hand bookshop in New Mills – they’ve got some super stuff there. If you see the woman owner, tell her I sent you!
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We didn’t know there was a bookshop there! And our family loves book shops in Derbyshire. I sense a road trip coming up soon! I shall go, seek the owner, maybe you can get a discount next time you go for referring customers!
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Tokens – yay! WHSmith – boo! My husband can relate – he is scarred for life after getting tokens as a teenager and trying to spend them in WHSmith. Not much changes in 45 years. 😫 Glad you managed to grab a good haul in the end.
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I spent half an hour looking, then I went back through every section taking my time in case I missed something. In the end I had to leave with a sulky face. It was worth the wait though in the end.
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H.G Wells-classic
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I’m looking forward to reading it, I do love a good classic, and some solid sci-fi with subtext is always rewarding.
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Enjoy your books, Ste J! The Smiths in my hometown used to be quite good when I was a girl many decades ago, but nowadays all they appear to stock are best sellers, as you say. When we lived in Somerset for 18 months 2004 – 2006 the Smiths in Wellington was surprisingly good and I managed to buy a number of interesting books. Perhaps it depends on the manager or whoever decides on the stock for each store.
I enjoyed the visit I made to the High Peak Bookstore a few years ago. I assume that’s the one at Brierlow?
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That is indeed the one, it was called the Book Barn originally on account of it being a converted farm barn. Increasingly those wanting interesting books tend to be pushed out to the independent bookshops which is good, although the internet is eating into that business. I try and avoid the internet as uch as possible for books unless its something I’ve been hunting in shops for years.
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