(Cross posted from tumblr 6th July 2014)

Yesterday I met up with Alice and embarked on an adventure round London to, as I told my mum as walked out the door, get drunk on books.

This week has been Independent Booksellers Week and, to mark the occasion, people all round the UK went on a bookshop crawl, visiting as many independent bookshops as they could.

We started our crawl in a shop we’ve both visited a number of times, The Bookseller Crow on the Hill in Crystal Palace. Here I purchased Maureen Johnson’s offering for World Book Day 2014, The Boy in the Smoke.

A short hop on the number 3 bus took us to our next stop, Dulwich Books. Despite knowing one of the booksellers here, Chloe, I’d never visited. The shop was bright and airy and the staff were welcoming. As the first bookshop crawlers of the day we were treated to goody bags including a £10 voucher to spend in the shop. Chloe flexed her book selling muscles at us and showed something you don’t get in chain bookshops: great personal customer service and stock knowledge. When asked “what are you looking for?” I helpfully replied “I never like the end of books, find me a book I’ll like the end of.” It wasn’t much to go on, but Chloe whisked me off round the shop and I soon had a stack of books to whittle down. I eventually left with The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell, which was my choice from Chloe’s selection, Shady Characters, a book on typography I’ve had my eye on for a while, and finally, Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. Chloe and Alice were so excited about the new prequel that I felt the need to get the first one.

We jumped back on the number 3 and continued onwards toward central London. Tales on Moon Lane in Herne Hill was our next stop. A small but charming children’s bookshop, packed floor to ceiling with colourful books I would have loved it as a child. We bought some bright temporary tattoos.

Herne Hill Books is a small bookshop right next to Herne Hill Station, where we boarded a train into central London. Unfortunately the shop was closed so we were unable to do anything but squint through the window at what looked like a cute little shop.

From Blackfriars we strolled down to the National Theatre to visit their bookshop, which is a personal favourite of mine. Unfortunately the theatre, including the bookshop, is currently undergoing a massive refurbishment as part of the NT Future project. I was sure there was a temporary bookshop up but the fences had extended out to where I thought it was, and the website confirmed it is closed until the summer.

After two failures, lunch was necessary. A perfectly-timed sit down, while it started once again to rain, and a refuel with delicious food, we were ready to visit more shops.

Despite having been the one who organised our route and the shops we’d be visiting, I’d managed to forget what the shops specialised in. It was to both Alice’s and my excitement as we approached Stanfords on Long Acre to see the sign proclaiming it to be ‘the world’s finest map and travel bookshop’. From the map flooring to the wall of globes, Stanfords did not disappoint and left me wondering where my next holiday would take me.

Continuing on foot we arrived at the new Foyles on Charing Cross Road. The new shop felt spacious, bright and clean and soon stomped out the pang of missing I felt for the old one. Here we spent a long time in the YA section. Alice is a school librarian so knows her stuff and taught me a lesson on judging books by their covers. I let her pick me a book and the one she selected I would never have chosen of my own accord. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks has one of the most illegible covers I’ve seen in a long time. A brown and white script on a cream background leaves you having to squint at the cover for a good few minutes before you can read half the title. That said, it is didn’t take Alice long to sell the story to me and I decided to take the risk.

Another bus ride and a little bit of getting lost later we found ourselves in The London Review Bookshop. This shop has a strong emphasis on literature, literary criticism and poetry. I bought An Essay on Typography from the extremely friendly bookseller and had a nice sit down downstairs.

Skoob was another specialist bookshop that I’d forgotten the specialism of. Skoob (books backwards as I suddenly realised as we walked through the door) sells second hand books. The shop is an underground labyrinth of floor to ceiling bookshelves after bookshelves, twisting and turning with dead ends and new corners. It would be easy to spend hours lost in there. Despite the sheer volume of books they were all organised brilliantly and I picked up a copy of Hay Fever by Noel Coward for £3.

Located round the corner from Skoob, we ended on a high in Gay’s The Word, a LGBT bookshop. They sold a mixture of new and old books where I gained a second hand copy of Fanny & Stella The Young Men Who Shocked Victorian England, another book that’s been on my wishlist for a while. As I was about to pay, the bookseller’s boyfriend asked us if we were doing the bookshop crawl. With much excitement from us all, it turned out we were their first bookshop crawlers of the day. There had been one person who had done a walk by photograph but hadn’t actually gone in: bit cheaty if you ask me. They gave us 20% off and Alice a free book along with a cheeky selfie.

The day hammered home to me how important independent bookshops are. I’ve come home with a stack of books I’m sure I’ll enjoy and the knowledge of some great new bookshops I’m bound to return to in the future. Be sure to check out the video of our day and get yourself to your local bookshop.