Book Shops

Books over there, books over here.

Advantages: A quiet haven on a busy high street. Its a bookshop.
Disadvantages: Don't always have what I want in stock. Not the cheapest books.

Ottakar's began in 1987 when its current Managing Director, James Heneage, realised that there might be an opportunity to establish a chain of bookshops offering high levels of range and service across the market towns of England. A big fan of Hergé's Tintin books, the name Ottakar's came from the book James was reading at the time - King Ottokar's Sceptre. Ottakar's is a haven, a sanctuary from the noise and bustle of the high street. When it all ...
...and relax. The shop is clean and has an enchanting aroma of new books and with its well-organised shelving books are easy to find. The staff are cheerful and friendly, smart and competent. I shopped there before Christmas and came away with a good selection of pressies and a couple of books for myself. I pop in at least once a fortnight for books for my little boy, they have a very good childrens section. They are not as cheap as Amazon (well who ...

carbraxas 10.02.2006 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Ottakers (Shop)

WHSmith a great place to shop?

Advantages: All the bases you expect covered here for that stationary emergency and great prices
Disadvantages: Sometimes busy in the smaller shops leading to queues

For many years I have been using WH Smith as something of my 'go to shop' Smiths has always had a great range of products from books to stationery and even DVD's. The size of the WH Smith shop you walk into very much governs what you will find within those book and stationary clad aisles. Should you find your self entering one of the small sized shops then you will always find the basic range of everything you expect to be there, if you want stationary ...
...often something comforting about spotting a WH Smiths as you know that envelope, pen or book you need for that birthday present will be there. As I've said the smaller shops do tend to contain just the basic range of everything so should you require a book to read your choice will be the book charts at this moment and often a few other off the chart sections to chose from but not the wider range we may expect in a store only carrying books. All ...

taish23 22.11.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of WHSmith High Street (Shop)

An excellent bookshop

Advantages: Excellent range of popular books at very cheap prices
Disadvantages: Hardly any academic or specialist books

Sussex Stationers has a large number of stores around the South East, offering large discounts on a wide variety of books. It is almost definitely the cheapest bookshop on the high street (other than discounted shops). If you want a book that is widely available, but at a very competitive price, than find your nearest Sussex Stationers. However, here is the rub. If you are after academic books, then you will be pushed to find what you are looking ...
...problem is not unique to Sussex Stationers. Most high street bookshop chains have a very poor selection of academic books. Even Borders does not have that good a selection. But if you are looking for popular books, this is the place. On another point, Sussex Stationers also sells a good selection of stationery, again at competitive prices. Most of these are at reduced cost compared to other stores. Overall, this is the place I go to first of all ...

steve_surrey 23.02.2005 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Sussex Stationers (Shop)

Never miss a visit to Waterstone's

Advantages: Simply fun: lovely to visit, great place to shop at.
Disadvantages: I wish it were open longer during weekends.

Every time we visit Colchester we just have to go to Waterstone's, where all the latest (and other quality) books are available and easy to find, and where our children can find other sources of entertainment, such as card games. Waterstone's has been serving us faithfully through the children's growing-up years, and we can enjoy just being there and looking through the wonderful array of books, though we never fail to leave with more than we intended ...

talkin 02.09.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of Waterstones.com

Books for free!

Advantages: see review
Disadvantages: see review

...presents. So when I discovered The book people a few months ago I was very happy indeed! The book people. ************** The Book people are a company selling discounted books. They are not a club so there is no minimum number of books to purchase or any other catches. They simply sell books at hugely discounted prices. There is no shop to browse but you can either order from their web site at www.thebookpeople.co.uk or you can request a catalogue ...
...will receive regular catalogues through the post. The web site. *********** The first thing to say is that the web site is nothing fancy but it is not full of annoying adverts! It is easy to navigate with all the books on offer divided into appropriate sections. I tend to visit the site on a regular basis and therefore usually go to the what's new section first. New titles are added regularly and often include best sellers. At the moment you can ...

anwar 24.10.2008 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of The Book People (Shop)