So I had a little wander through the snazzy Brunswick Centre today. Mainly to go to the bank, but i thought I would sniff around. And I thought I would reacquaint myself with Skoob. Skoob being a rambling old second hand bookstore belov’d of old in the manky, pre-re-fit Brunswick Centre. Whilst their new Aladdin’s Cave of second hand stock is not in such a prime place as the old one, I am glad that it was deemed to be an important part of the The Brunswick (as the Centre now calls itself). It is possible that it is due to long leases as well, but I would liek to think that in any snazzy mall there is a space for a down at heel second hand store.
And Skoob is still nicely down at heel. Second hand stores should be. The new iteration is smaller than the old one (which kind of went on forever) but still pretty big. The shelves are groaning with stock and the staff are distracted chatting about their holidays. And the floor is uneven. And moving. And in moving seems to wobble the shelves a bit.
Step one in making your anodyne basement shop as idiosyncratic as the old bookshop? Fit laminate flooring in which doesn’t fit! It concertinas slightly up on itself and hence moves slightly when you walk on it. And sometime wobbles the shelves. Excellent work Skoob! I bought a few books for my holiday anyway, including a Roderick Thorp to celebrate the release of Die Hard 4.0.
After Skoob I walked through Waitrose and went to the Halifax. I noted that there seemed to be a collection box for the WRVS, a great cause and potentialy quite topical in the weeks of ridiculous floods. That said the box was decorated with pictures of Superted, who must be a wee bit out of the currency of the kids these days. Getting a free tin Superted badge, or indeed one of Spotty Man seems unlike to tempt people into donations.