Oxfam Bookshops

If there's one thing I love, it's a good book. If there's one thing I hate, it's the cost of books these days. Luckily, I have a Kindle which is so handy for buying something instantly and it's much cheaper but I do like having a physical book in my hand.

Plus, how bare will a bookshelf look with one little Kindle sitting on it!

However bare the bookshelf will be, these days when I want a good read, I head to Amazon and hit the eBook aisle. It's so much more practical.

Except for on the rare occasion I stumble across these gems: The Oxfam Bookshop.

I had a meeting in Marylebone a few weeks ago and on the walk back to Baker Street tube, I stumbled across an Oxfam bookshop on the high street. I love browsing them, so in I went.

The place was absolutely massive, the largest I've been in. It was more like a library than a shop. There were aisles dedicated to every single genre. The religion section was larger and had books on every single religion and every single topic. It was about triple the size of the religion aisle in WHSmith. Not that I'm religious or anything, I always like to have a look and see are there any interesting reads on Judaism since my BF is Jewish. I have yet to make a purchase, but still!

The cookery section had about 6 or 7 rows of all different books. From high end chefs to M&S own cooking books. I love Rachael Ray, so when I saw her 30 minute meal book, I had to buy it. It was about £4 which is excellent. The book is in mint condition. I have yet to cook anything from it, but I'll get around to it.

Their fiction aisle was really impressive too, I picked up three novels, one by Marian Keyes who I had never read but now I'm so glad I've discovered! She's amazing. And then two others which were impulse purchases and I haven't really looked at yet.

There were also tons of sections dedicated to every other genre.

So yesterday, I had no plans and I didn't want to spend my day indoors so I took the overground to Highbury and Islington with the intention of hitting their OBS. I got there, walked for ages looking and then once I finally found it, it had been shut down! Thanks for not updating your website!

Undeterred, I hopped on the Northern Line at Angel and made my way to Kentish Town since I needed to make my way to Edgware for dinner.

Finally I got there and whoppeeeeee, they had Marian Keyes! I'm hooked on her. So I got Sushi For Beginners plus a Celia Ahern book as I've never read her novels and Gone Girl (which I was going to download on Kindle anyway, but it was only 99p here). I had to buy another book since my  transaction was under £5. I picked the Clean and Lean Cookbook since it was only £2.49 and I had toyed with the idea of buying it a few weeks ago.

I doubt I'll make much use of it but hey ho, it'll look good in my kitchen.

Can't recommend these gem shops enough if you're a fan of reading.