Mornington Secondhand Bookshops Visit

Last week I visited Books By The Bay on the Esplanade in Mornington.  Over time I've discovered that this store always has James Bond novels on the shelves and the stock seems to change often.  Today there were nine Ian Fleming titles and six of those were published by Pan Books in the 1960's.  Sure, not pristine copies, but still how could you really complain when they're over 50 years old !  There were also several continuation author titles too so this place is definitely worth a visit if you're a Bond bibiophile.  

There aren't many towns with two second hand book stores nowadays, but Mornington is the exception.  Located on Barkly Street just off the main strip, Chapter House Books sells modern second hand books, many from the U.S..  Unusually there were no Bond novels on the shelves today but I'll be sure to visit again soon.

Finally, while not a second hand book store, I also visited Farrell's Bookshop located on Main Street.  This excellent store sells quality books across a wide range of categories.  I always find an interesting book calling my name on the shelves.

European Vacation - Ireland - Dublin (again)

After visiting Galway for a couple of nights we then returned to Dublin.  Here I was able to visit several book stores I'd previously missed.

The first was Chapters on Parnell Street.  This book store is huge.  The ground floor sells new books...

... while on the first floor there are literally thousands of second hand books for sale.  This store is very impressive and has to be visited when in Dublin.

I also managed to visit this small second hand book store at the other end of Parnell Street.  But after I asked the owner if he had any James Bond novels he explained that Ian Fleming's books are "too old to stock them".  His accent was so strong I actually thought he said he had "two on his shelf" and stood there like an idiot waiting for him to point them out to me before I realised what he'd said.

Every Saturday at Temple Bar Square there's a book market.  However as we arrived late from Galway they were just packing up and only one stall remained.

And finally, here's some more photos from our trip:

Trinity College including the fantastic Long Room containing thousands of old books.  This building was used as an inspiration for the Jedi Archives in Star Wars.  We also saw the Book of Kells which was amazing considering it was written around the year 800

Another building in Trinity College

And some photos of the ancient tomb in Newgrange between Dublin and Belfast  The centre chamber is approx. 6 metres tall, covered in tonnes of rock.  Although no photos are allowed in the tomb it is possible to take photos of the entrance and the giant engraved stone. The tomb was built prior to Stone Henge and the pyramids of Giza