Book Temple #5: Read it-Swap it

It’s been a while since I’ve done a Book Temple post – I still love the idea, but unfortunately I think I went through most of my regular book buying haunts already! However, I recently discovered a new place to get books and wanted to share with you all.

So what do you do with books you’ve read? Do you keep them all? Sell them? Pass them on to someone else? I keep books that I love and series that I’m collecting and usually hand out bags of books to friends and family at various times of the year – as long as I think they will like the books. But there are usually some books that I don’t think anyone know will like. In the last month I discovered a website that solves my problem of what to do with those books – I can swap them for book I actually want to read!

Read it-Swap it is a UK based book swap site (sorry for those in other countries) where you can register books you don’t want any more and search for books you do. If the person who has the book you want likes the look of one of yours they agree to swap and all it costs you is the price of postage and packaging of the book. So far I’ve managed to swap 5 books and (as yet!) haven’t had a bad experience. Obviously, the books are all second hand but some I’ve received have been in great condition!

So if you live in the UK and want to exchange your read books for some new stories, have a look around and see if you want to join! J

Book Temple #4: Local Library

This a monthly feature for Mel’s Random Reviews where I wax lyrical about a place dedicated to books or reading. It can be a shop, market, website or even a place to curl up and read in. There’s no sponsorship  involved and as such is subject to reversal, mood changes and general inaccuracies - I just want to share my favourite book places! I’m afraid it will be focused on London as it’s where I live and the place I do most of reading – but feel free to join in! If you have your favourite Book Temple you would like to share through a guest blog, please contact me – my email is on the right!

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The book temple I want to focus on this month is my local library. I have to admit I don’t go there any more as I tend to buy my books now – I love owning them and putting them on display! But it was at the local library that I discovered my love of books and enabled me as a child and then as a teenager to explore imaginary worlds. I visited the Magic Faraway Tree and discovered the Famous Five. I learnt about My Best Fiend and Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret. The variety of books and authors enabled me to explore and stretch my reading habit – I could chart my formative years by which area of the library I visited. So how did it all start?

My Mum is a big reader and so is my Gran. (It seems to run in the female genes of my family!). When I was young my Mum used to go to the local library every Saturday to pick up a selection of books for me. I remember going with her and sitting in front of one of those wooden boxes filled with picture books and flipping through the books until I came to one which I liked the look off. We would then pick four books (which was the maximum in those days) to take home and read for the rest of the week. As time passed I progressed from the picture books to banana books – small hardback books with pictures and writing telling a simple story. I then moved up to Enid Blyton and from there to more modern classics such as Judy Blume and Margaret Mahey. Before long I was into Sweet Valley High and then onto Point Horror and Christopher Pike.

The great thing about the library was that it’s a relaxed place – they didn’t mind if I took ages to choose a book and were helpful with giving me ideas on what to read next. I remember being so excited when the maximum books increased to eight – but even I had trouble reading eight books a week! It was a place where my Mum would disappear into the adult section and I would browse the children’s and then teenage shelves for whatever took my fancy. The best thing about libraries is that you can take a risk on books – if you don’t like them just return them and no harm done.

Libraries should be encouraged as not everyone can afford to buy new books every week. I loved my local library so much I spent two years there as a Saturday assistant with extra time during the school holidays.  As I got older I drifted away from the library and started purchasing them more and more – I love the feel of a brand new book under my fingers, an unbroken spine! And while I currently dream of owning a room which I can create my own library in I don’t forget the place where my first love of books came from – the local library, my first book temple.

Are you a library member? Where did you get into reading? Do you get your books from a library? What to you like about your local library? Let me know!

Book Temple #3: Skoob and second-hand book stores

This a new monthly feature for Mel’s Random reviews where I wax lyrical about a place dedicated to books or reading. It can be a shop, market, website or even a place to curl up and read in. There’s no sponsorship  involved and as such is subject to reversal, mood changes and general inaccuracies - I just want to share my favourite book places! I’m afraid it will be focused on London as it’s where I live and the place I do most of reading – but feel free to join in! If you have your favourite Book Temple you would like to share through a guest blog, please contact me – my email is on the right!

This month I’m celebrating second-hand books! I love getting a bargain – don’t we all? And one of the best places to try an author you’re not sure about without a large investment is picking up a couple of their books at a second hand book store. Most high streets have at least one charity store where you can find some bargains – if you’re lucky! Last week my local shopping centre had a book sale with all paperbacks 10p! Couldn’t resist picking up a couple at that price. It’s always worth checking them out periodically as different books get donated regularly – and if there are book you don’t want any more try donating them and making someone else happy with a bargain!

Award winning Skoob

One of my favourite second-hand book places isn’t a charity story but a proper book store near Russell Square in London – Skoob (Books backwards!). Down an alley that have no distinushing features - not even a dead end. It’s more like a little cellar with the entrance mostly just a door to some stair where you descend into a small and crowded cellar filled with book everywhere”! Not just fiction but non-fiction resides here and while the books are shelved in a rough order it’s worth checking out areas you wouldn’t normal stop at – for example I found the Dresden books in the crime & thriller section (which does make a perfect kind of sense...)

While I admit to being a bit of a snob and preferring my book spines to be un-creased, I’ve been amazed at some of the great condition these second-hand books have been – a few look like they’ve never been read! In addition I can usually find one or two books that have only just been released. 

I’ve been feeling a little conflicted about letting other people know about my genius little find – I kinda want to keep it all to myself! If you want to know more check out their website here -  or just drop by when you’re in town!

So what’s your favourite second-hand book place?

Book Temple #2: Forbidden Planet Megastore

This a new monthly feature for Mel’s Random reviews where I wax lyrical about a place dedicated to books or reading. It can be a shop, market, website or even a place to curl up and read in. There’s no sponsorship  involved and as such is subject to reversal, mood changes and general inaccuracies - I just want to share my favourite book places! I’m afraid it will be focused on London as it’s where I live and the place I do most of reading – but feel free to join in! If you have your favourite Book Temple you would like to share through a guest blog, please contact me – my email in on the right!



Forbidden Planet Megastore Entrance



For this months ‘Book Temple’ I want to focus on a store that is probably well know to most of the genre readers in the UK – Forbidden Planet. I’m focusing on the Forbidden Planet Megastore on Shaftesbury Avenue in central London as it’s their Mega store and one which I make the point of visiting regularly. Forbidden offers loads of items for the cult fans but I always head straight for the basement and turn left where their book department is. And what a collection of books!



At the north end of Shaftesbury Avenue, close to New Oxford Street

Anything with a speculative fiction nature is include – from urban fantasy and paranormal romance to high fantasy and science fiction to conspiracy thrillers and mysteries to horror to YA and film/TV tie ins. If it is a fiction book with a ‘what if’ idea, then you can probably find here. It is a huge collection with lots of imports from the US and elsewhere (I can usually my Aussie authors here as well!) an I’ve been able to start a lot of series that regular book don’t stock because of the collection. There is a big area dedicated to new releases from both sides of the pond and around the corner is the A-Z of genre fiction books. I can and have spent hours exploring, discovering new titles, completing collections and rediscovering old favourites here. It’s the best collection of speculative fiction I’ve ever seen and there’s something comforting that everyone else there likes the same type of books as you.

There’s a bonus at Forbidden planet as well as they frequently hold signings with loads of different authors. This means you can meet and talk to some of the best writers around – check out the website for who’s coming by next.

If you want to explore book temples in London then I recommend the Forbidden Planet Megastore in London – but be warned you might spend more time and money there than you were expecting!





Book Temple #1: South Bank Book Market

Book Temple
This a new feature for Mel’s Random reviews where I wax lyrical about a place dedicated to books or reading. It can be a shop, market, website or even a place to curl up and read in. I’m afraid it will be focused on London as it’s where I live and the place I do most of reading – but feel free to discuss your own Book Temple!
There is no sponsorship involved - this is all my own opinion and as such is subject to reversal, mood changes and general inaccuracies.

The South Bank Book Market is located directly under Waterloo Bridge

Rows of Second Hand books at South Bank book market

First stop on Book Temples is South Bank Book Market. Located by the Thames in London, under Waterloo Bridge, it is an outdoor market which come rain or shine has a wide selection of second hand books for sale. I love to wander along the South Bank with the tourists for the spectacular view of London – the London Eye and houses of Parliament in the West, past the Tate Modern and Oxo tower to St Pauls and the Globe theatre and this collection of tables covered in books always surprises and delights me. I don’t buy as many books there as I probably should, but I can spend an easy hour wandering up and down the trestle tables, looking at well read books, first print copies and even flicking through the selection of maps and prints on offer. No-one hassles you but there is an expert to ask if you have any questions. Tourists mix with locals and there are time when you can discover absolute gems – my best find was a copy of book I read while travelling in Australia and didn’t keep. I hadn’t been able to find it over here at all but there it was sitting on one of the stands and in good condition.

One of the stands on the South Bank

If you have some time to spare, I urge you to visit the South Bank Book Market – it is a book temple and I worship there.

Where do you worship?