Every so often, I treat myself to a mini bookshop tour. Over the Christmas holidays this year, I was lucky enough to find myself in the pretty village of Castlemartyr, County Cork. On a crisp December morning, we ventured out, heading to Cork City, a short drive away, stopping first in the lively town of Midleton. More famous perhaps for its whiskey than it’s bookshops, I declined an early morning tipple and headed straight for Midleton Books. And we were off to a good start! Midleton Books is a treat; the entrance is flanked by two spacious picture windows, perfect frontage for displaying all those wonderful books. So, a quick window shop first, then a browse inside the deceptively spacious and well laid-out interior.

Next stop, Cork City and two chain bookshops: Dubray Books (owned by Eason) and a HUGE Waterstones. Dubray’s has a great interior, sort of a scandi vibe and I’m loving the green and beech shelving. In Waterstones, I had to be talked out of a pricey purchase; Toby Benjamin’s Withnail and I: From Cult to Classic, a hefty 40 euros at the time! It’s considerably reduced now, so it will happen…

Finally, we headed to Vibes & Scribes; this has been on my to-visit list for a while – bookshop tour goal tick! Vibes & Scribes has two shops: new, used and bargain books and wool, fabric and craft supplies. It is indeed a cornucopia of delights and we lost a considerable amount of the day poking about the shelves, which is the measure of a successful bookshop. This is where the bulk of the spend went; not exactly a huge book haul, given that this was just after Christmas – the TBR stack of book gifts was already toppling over.

The one thing that all of these bookshops had in common was that they were all extremely busy and buzzing with shoppers. Perhaps everyone decided to trade in their Christmas gift book tokens at the same time; nevertheless, this is very reassuring for a prospective bookseller.