Great Bookstore in London

Worth Crossing the Pond for

First, I’d like to take a moment to say a huge thank you to everyone who has linked to Kim’s brilliant independent bookstore challenge or written us to say what a great idea it is.  I’m with you: I think it’s a great idea and I’m so glad others are onboard.   Kim gets all the credit although I can take pride in the fact that I didn’t stand in her way.  (Well, I did say I was scared of the challenge, so maybe I did stand in her way a little bit, but it takes more than that to deter Kim).  Anyway, yay for Kim!  And yay for everyone who’s enthusiastic about the challenge.

Now on to our friend Laura Sanderson Healy’s review of her favorite bookstore in London.  Laura actually lived in London for many years, so she knows what she’s talking about.   Laura is a former London Bureau correspondent for Time Inc. Magazines’ PEOPLE WEEKLY and its Australian sister publication WHO WEEKLY, and now that she lives in Los Angeles, she’s become a dear, personal friend of both Kim’s and mine.  Here’s her review, posted quite coincidentally on her birthday!  Happy birthday, Laura, and thanks–

On a recent trip to London I took the 14 bus from Piccadilly to Fulham to revisit Nomad Books near Parsons Green. There I pondered many titles unknown in the U.S. and purchased ME CHEETA, the “autobiography” of Tarzan’s co-star, tongue-in-cheek recollections illustrated by modern artwork of the world’s most famous chimpanzee which Sir Peter Blake curated to show alongside his own Pop Art at London’s National Gallery a few years back.

Nomad is a quaint and comfortable port of call for booklovers. Behind its cream-painted Victorian shopfront in Fulham Road is a haven of peace for West Londoners who love its collection of nooks and c ozy corners on various levels. Its tiny, integrated café serves sandwiches, desserts, and hot or cold beverages; you can sip lattes in Penguin Book mugs decorated with titles of novels and their authors’ names and mull over a potential purchase.

Buses blast by outside in the pouring rain as strollers meet wheelchairs on the clogged sidewalk, but inside one can stow an umbrella, wash your hands in the homey-style loo (the size of a bedroom), check if a book has arrived, and sit down on the café side to have a pain au chocolate and a read.

I’ve been going to Nomad for at least a decade for myself and my husband who loves the downstairs reading room dedicated to faraway places that has a fine map table on which to spread out future destinations. It has also been a godsend for helping us keep up with the ever-changing reading habits of our bookworm daughter, now 12, who has meandered from the pastel meadows of Beatrix Potter’s countryside and Ludwig Bemelmans’s Paris to the netherworlds of Stephenie Meye r’s vampires .

Their eclectic selections are legendary throughout Fulham and it is a popular stopping off point; I always run into people I know there, and at times have had the staff give me delicious gossip about publishing. I’ve only just deciphered the curling M.B.S. painted over one hallway where greeting cards line a wall: it stands for Mind Body Spirit. I remember getting the hardback of Anthony Kiedis’ autobiography Scar Tissue there after a staffer raved about it (it made me love the Chili Pepper quite a bit less, even though I learned the topography of Los Angeles and a few quirky celebrity connections) as well as a beautifully bound volume of favorite hymns to cheer my inner Protestant. The front desk by the main entry door is lined with gift books and novelty titles and staffed with knowledgeable and helpful souls who will help you in your hunt for specifics or locate a copy for the next day’s delivery.

The children’s section is housed at the very back of the store in the largest space, and on my visit I ran into an old friend from my daughter’s nursery school who was shopping for a younger child. It’s a place that feels comfortable and never rushed, and that’s what you cannot find in the facelessness of the larger stores, where you don’t feel welcome to curl up and dig in to a book.

Nomad hosts readings by authors and has on occasion writing groups and book clubs. There is no website but they do have a mailing list.

HERE IS THE ADDRESS AND A PHOTO FROM:

http://www.allinlondon.co.uk/directory/1278/3011.php

Nomad Books

781 Fulham Road, Fulham
London, SW6 5HA ENGLAND
T: 020 7736 4000