My favourite bookshops.

Like just about everyone these days I buy most of my books online - the internet is amazing resource, I've stumbled across books that I might never have found otherwise and tracked down stuff from thousands of miles away, but there's something to be said for actually going to a bookshop and thumbing through the volumes - especially secondhand bookshops, where you get that musty smell of old paper that I've always found a little intoxicating. Sad, but true.

I started thinking about my favourite bookshops after reading about Shakespeare and Company, the legendary bookshop in Paris. The owner, George Whitman, has played host to 50,000 writers since he opened the shop in the 1950s, and the bookshop, which has 'Be not inhospitable to strangers lest they be angels in disguise' as its motto, is more famed for its hospitality perhaps than it's choice of books.

At home (which is Brighton by the way) my favourite has to be the Amnesty bookshop on Sydney Street - I'm always amazed by the things I find in there. The layout and the way the shelves are organised makes browsing a pleasure - plus there's the added bonus of knowing the money you spend goes to a good cause.

Away, it has to be Idiom Books in Cochin in India. I had been in India for a while and had run out of things to read when I found this fantastic little shop - lovely service, a great choice of books from both within India and outside - book heaven as far as I was concerned.