h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I love bookshops. I often spend my lunch hour browsing their shelves.

If I walk for 10 minutes in one direction, I'm in Bloomsbury, where there are a couple of second-hand shops, including the Aladdin's cave that is Skoob:

http://www.skoob.com/

If I walk in the other direction, there are high street stores like WH Smith:

http://www.whsmith.co.uk/

I can also take a short bus ride and visit London's finest book store: Foyles on the Charing Cross Road:

http://www.foyles.co.uk/bookshop-charing-cross

When browsing, I'm rarely looking for anything in particular; I just let one catch my eye, then ease it out, read the front and back cover, then flick through a couple of chapters.

I'll take an interest in most sections. Travel guides and travel writing help ease the pain that I rarely get to visit any of these wonderful places. The Reference section has a wonderful eclectic mix of subjects which don't appear to fit anywhere else. Popular Science is where I spend most time, enjoying both the new sciences and the new ways of describing the old ones.

I spend less time in fiction, as that's all alphabetically sorted and seems to change very little. I will check out the bestsellers stand, though. I'm particularly interested in the covers that stand out, and what is it about them that makes them do so.

Finally, I'm a sucker for the bargain shelf, although I did resist picking up a Polish Berlitz for £1 today.

* * *

One thing I noticed today is that they store all the astronomy books together, usually close to the Popular Science shelf. More than that, their covers are all very similar. Maths and Science books tend to have a mix of end covers - different colours, styles and fonts, all vying for your attention. Astronomy books, however, are almost identical. Their covers invariably have inky-dark colours and white text, clearly mirroring the features of the night sky. It must be more important for customers to recognise an astronomy book from a distance, than for it to stand out among its peers.

Alternatively, have astronomers, through so much stargazing, acquired a night vision that gives them a preference for white-on-ink? Or to put it another way, are the h2g2 astronomers all Goo fans?

Here's one astronomy fan who can't read goo.

There are some wonderfully coloured and shaded images of nebulae, but stars themselves have a pretty limited range of appearance ...

I was browsing in a bookshop at lunchtime too...

<BB<

"have astronomers, through so much stargazing, acquired a night vision that gives them a preference for white-on-ink? Or to put it another way, are the h2g2 astronomers all Goo fans?" [Icy North]

Does h2g2 have many astronomers?

I don't know from astronomers, but the two IDEs I'm using offer a variety of themes and most of them are white ink on gray or dark backgrounds.

And in my 3D applications it's the same. I've taken to designing against a black bg; it's more restful on the eyes.

[Amy P]

I would have thought that light colours on black would be more restful, but studies have shown that black on white is the best for most people. That's why the computer industry switched over in about 1990. When I started, computers used white, green or amber on black.

.. on 13" screens.

Aaaagghhhh!

I used to own a bookshop (with my ex). We had regular browsers in their lunchtimes. Some seemed to come, find the page they were reading the day before and carry on from where they left off. We had some well-thumbed books which eventually were too worn to sell. They were either reduced in price or I took them home for my own bookshelves.

Bloomsbury is probably my favourite place in all of London - Russell Square, the British Library and the British Museum are excellent enough, but I know there are some great bookshops there, too, although I haven't had chance to visit them yet...

I went past the bookshop that was looted in the riots, but I was with my dad so he ran past rather than helping me up the step into the shop, but I hadn't noticed skoob before - that sounds like a superb place to browse

I don't believe Skoob is wheelchair friendly (unless there's a lift somewhere I didn't see).

The website says there's a lift (although it doesn't give any specific details about where the lift is) so it sounds ok I'll plan to visit with a companion, though, so I can get help if necessary, and I'll choose someone who can help me with the other bookshop too

Ahhh bookshops. Hullo Icy! I'm on a tour of all the NaJo entries. Great to wind up in a bookshop.

My brother used to own a bookshop, a quaint olde shoppe in Suffolk, he sold new and second hand books, it was great. And haunted. . (or not, but ...). Just an abstract presence, nothing scary. A mild mannered literary gent, perhaps.

I love to wander into bookshops to browse, also, see what jumps out. I usually begin in the music section, then drift to graphic novels, and end up buying a dodo pad, a pencil case, and a plastic dinosaur. Well, that's Waterstones, they've branched out into plastic dinosaurs.

Foyles! Haven't been there for years. My parents used to take us on the train from Eastbourne to London, every school holidays, and we'd visit Foyles every time. Magic.

Hi cactuscafe

Foyles have a couple of smaller branches now - they're in the Westfield shopping centres in White City to the west and Stratford to the east of London, but neither are anything like the size of the one in Charing Cross Road.

They also have a presence in a couple of railway stations - I browse the one at Waterloo from time to time, but it doesn't take very long.

I like Warterstones the seem more help than most I do like the smaller stores best My favourite branches are Lymington and Stafford.

Foyles has smaller branches? I didn't know that, I'm really out of touch, oh no! Does the main Charing Cross road one have a coffee shop in it these days?

I'm secretly in love with coffee shops in bookshops. Costa in Waterstones, and Borders used to have a Starbucks. I know, I know, not very PC, but .....

I love Waterstones, also. There's two here in Exeter. One has two entrances. You go in the High Street entrance, walk right through the store, browsing as you go, to the exit that takes you out onto cathedral green. Or the other way round. The test is to see if you can exit without having spent the entire week's grocery money. .

What was that cult fictional story which featured these characters who were in secret tunnels in Waterstones? Or maybe it wasn't secret tunnels, but they were definitely in Waterstones, in the middle of the night. Am I crazy? Yes! . No, but there was a book, damn, I must find out.

Yes, The Foyles cafe is on the 5th floor.

Not sure about the secret tunnels story, though.

There's a cafe in Foyles? This is good news.

I remembered the story!! It's The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall. These two characters enter unspace via hidden tunnels in Waterstones. Welcome to unspace!

Strange book, I didn't understand a word, but it had a hold over me.

Anyway, phew, glad I remembered, that was really going to bug me.