The best independent/second-hand bookshops in Brighton & Book Haul

so before the video starts i just quickly wanted to say that i filmed this at the start of october so i didn't know about the new lockdown but i wanted to upload this anyway because i feel like even in knockdown we should still be supporting independent bookshops as much as we can because obviously that's not always possible but as much as we can so i've left some links in the description of where to find the books that i bought on websites such as hive.co.uk or bookshop.org who both support independent bookshops quite a lot other online alternatives to amazon that i really like are blackwell's and wordary who also ship internationally so they will be linked down below as well but obviously as i said i've realized that sometimes you have to buy from amazon but let's avoid that as much as we can even on lockdown and if the pandemic ever gets a little better you might actually be able to go to these bookshops in person someday hopefully and then you can just look back at this video and then you'll know where to go so let's start the video hello everyone my name is mia and welcome back to brim full of books so i just filmed a whole video and i realized that i didn't even film the intro so we're doing that now yay so i live in one of my favorite places in the world the one the only the most hipster town in the whole world brighton that's an actual thing apparently brighton was determined to be the most hipster city in the whole world which is based on the hipster index which is calculated using the number of vegan eateries coffee shops tattoo studios vintage boutiques and record stores per 100 000 residents we do have a lot of those but what we also have is bookstores so we have quite a few independent and second-hand bookstores here in brighton i think we all know by now that we shouldn't be supporting amazon anymore because they're not a very good company and instead we should make sure to buy locally more often according to this article in the independent which was published on my birthday by the way so i'm expecting you to make a note of that and then give me presents next year thank you um so this article said that the independent bookstores especially have taken a big hit during the pandemic and locked our measures obviously all businesses have taken a hit but i think it's for us book lovers it's especially important to support our local businesses support our local bookstores and yeah that's what this video is all about because the article i just mentioned does give quite a few suggestions for independent bookstores all over i think the uk and ireland however they don't give a single suggestion for brighton bookshops so obviously i was very very offended and i've taken matters into my own hands and i'm going to take you around brighton today and show you all my favorite independent and secondhand bookshops and i bought a book at every single one of these so i'm going to be showing you them later so come along to my room full of books buys books in best brighton bookshops tour try saying that five times fast grimlock box strikes but rainfall of books tries brim brief love books buys books in brighton's brim fluff books room full of books buys books in best brighton bookshops talk room full of books by books okay i'm just going to give up anyway um i hope you enjoy the video okay so the first bookshelf we went to is my absolute favorite it's city books i used to live really close to this one and i've spent so much time and so much money there it has two floors and a really good selection of books i could spend hours and hours just here just exploring they've got like every genre from fiction to non-fiction classics poetry y.a science feminist books just literally everything especially books about brighton or like by brighton authors which i think is really cool look who knew pomegranates don't actually have to look absolutely disgusting on book covers here's just me explaining why i think the phrase books are my bag is just really stupid because if books are your back where are you going to put your books and what do you do if it rains huh explain that no shade to the actual books on my back campaign though because i think that's actually great here's a book about why germans do it better and obviously i totally agree and i am living proof of that next up this one was so good the feminist bookshop i've walked past this so many times but it's always closed every single time i've walk past it's only open from 12 to like five and only on thursdays fridays and saturdays so i've never been able to go in there and i'm so excited to go in there because obviously they've got lots of feminist books i mean probably just feminist books and they also do like little events they've got music they've got lots of really cool stuff and i'm so excited to go in there now it felt a bit awkward filming in there because it's quite small but oh my god i loved it so so much the front of the store is a little plant-based cafe with a few tables so you can basically just go in there browse all the feminist books and then sit there get a coffee and just read um excuse me um am i in heaven this is the event space in the basement where they do like readings and book signings and it was just so cute [Music] from there it's a bit of a longer walk down to the lanes to the oxfam bookshop as you might have guessed by the name this is a charity bookshop so all the books are second hand according to the oxfam website they grow vegetables fill classrooms drill wells empower women and fight poverty so yeah i will judge you pretty hard if you come to brighton and don't buy a book here so i'm just saying [Music] they had a really good selection of classics a fantasy fiction non-fiction pretty much every genre and they also had lots of vinyls and cds and dvds as well as some food stuff so basically you can get your books and films and snacks all in the same place so how convenient now it's only a few minutes walk down to dave's comics this is basically the comic and manga haven for all you massive weebs out there they have just an amazing selection of graphic novels in the front of the store [Music] they have lots of pop vinyl figures to decorate your bookshelves with and they have marvel and dc comics in the back and also upstairs and a really good selection of manga in the back as well [Music] the next shop is just down the road from there and it's another charity shop so it's books for amnesty and this one is so cool as you can see they had lots of stuff about black history month up in the window and in general they just seem super welcoming and lovely not only do they sell secondhand books but they also sell new books but at secondhand prices yes please i have no idea how but i just i love it again they have a really good selection of classics fiction horror fantasy nonfiction way just basically everything and then also quite old and rare books in the back as well as really heavy art books [Music] the woman at the tool said that she loved the little life and i was like yeah i'm so excited to cry and then she just kind of looked at me a bit weirdly and i walked away but she was really lovely all the staff was just really lovely and really helpful [Music] and then just around the corner is raining books so this is a secondhand bookstore that i've never actually been to so i'm excited to see what we can find in there and it looks very much like your typical secondhand bookstore that is like completely unorganized where you really have to dig to find the good stuff it was exactly like that as you can see the spines weren't facing you so you basically just have to go and turn all the books around to see what they are and that was just so much fun the guy in the store was really really lovely and he said that the books are actually not quite as disorganized as they may seem they are loosely split into genres so upstairs there was mainly fiction and fantasy and classics and downstairs there was children's science fiction horror thriller travel and politics i think you can probably just spend a whole day in there just exploring every single book just looking at everything and you can probably find a lot of really really cool books in there but i had to pee so i didn't want to spend too much time in there the last shop is a bit further away so if you're lazy and unfit like me then you probably want to take a bus to the chemtown bookshop the seven goes there for example so this is probably the most exciting one on my list because i haven't actually been there it's the cameratown bookshop and according to the website it was established 50 years ago and it's one of the coolest independent bookshops in brighton and it's got three floors and it's got stationery and books and art prints and i'm really excited to go in there this one was just absolutely beautiful i think it's the most aesthetically pleasing on the list and it has also won quite a few awards they had a really good selection of fiction downstairs and i also really loved the art prints that were upstairs and all the stationery as well it was so cool and all the artists also by a brighton-based artist so it's really cool that they just showcase that a little bit more and downstairs they had children's books and toys and luckily somewhere for me to sit after this whole day of walking so much so those were all my favorite book shops in brighton the staff and all of them was just so so lovely and i feel like all these shops are really unique and they serve very different purposes so i feel like it's definitely worth checking them out i'll leave the links to all of them down in the description below and now on to my book haul so when i got home from my big bookshop tour i was quite tired so i didn't want to film a wrap up then so it's quite a few days later now and let's talk about all the books i got as you saw i bought quite a lot of books in these bookstores it was surprisingly cheap because obviously quite a few of them were second hand so i got them very cheap so it's not that bad but still i feel like i might have overdone it a little bit i just yeah i don't know but let's go through all the books i bought first of all the book i bought in city books which was rebecca by daphne du maurier so i've been reading to read this book for so long it's kind of this gothic novel from the 1930s about this woman who marries this rich widower dude and then she moves into his country estate i think it's in england yeah i think it's cornwall i could be wrong but she moves into his country estate and then she kind of i guess is haunted by his ex-wife i'm not sure if that's like an actual haunting i don't know if there's an actual ghost in the story it could just be her obsessing about this dude's ex-wife and i just think it sounds really atmospheric and dark and creepy and i'm so excited to read this i've been meaning to read this for so long because obviously the netflix show was just released and i really want to watch that but i want to read the book before i watch the show so i really need to get to this quite soon next we've got woman in black by susan hill which i bought in a feminist bookshop and yeah this is a book i've also been quite excited about i also got a little bookmark from them which i think is really cute it just says independent bookshop and plant-based cafe then has their little logo at the top as well the feminist bookshop and i think it's just really cute and i'm going to be using that for this book so this is a kind of horror book about a young solicitor who goes to the funeral of a mrs dablo drablo something like drablo jablo and she is the sole inhabitant of this creepy house at the end of the causeway raised in fog and mystery so that sounds pretty cool and at the funeral he sees this woman dressed in all black who gives him this like creepy feeling of unease and like nobody in town really wants to talk about her and yeah i think i don't know if she's the ghost i guess she's a ghost and then she starts haunting him i guess that's what i'm assuming i don't really know that much about it but it just sounds so creepy and atmospheric and spooky and i just i'm so excited to read this i think i'm going to be saying that about every single book oh i'm so excited to read it and then it's going to take me like a year to read them but anyway next i bought the hunting party by lucy foley in the oxfam charity shop bookshop and i've been hearing so many good things about this and the guest list which is her other book and i've been meaning to read this for so long and again i feel like i've been saying this the whole time this is very atmospheric dark creepy so this is like an agatha christie kind of murder mystery novel kind of thing it's about a group of friends who go to this hunting lodge for new year's and then they all get snowed in and one of them gets murdered obviously one of them killed someone and i think it just sounds super super interesting i'm so excited to read this i've heard so many good things about it and yeah it sounds great and i got this for two pounds at the charity shop and i think that's just amazing i love charity shops so much you can find so many really cool really cheap books there and i just love that so much next up we have the book that i bought at dave's comics which is monstrous by majorie liu and senna takada so this also again sounds very atmospheric kind of dark creepy vibes but the art style is just amazing look at that it's so detailed and like i just think it's absolutely beautiful like look at that look at that page it's just even the cover is just it's absolutely beautiful and i'm so excited to read this so i don't really know what this is about but from the back um i can tell that it's about this teenage girl who is quite traumatized after this war between humans and archanics whatever they are and she basically has this like psychic connection with this monster that starts to awaken within her i guess or like somewhere and yeah then she gets hunted i guess for having this special power having this connection with this monster and i just think this sounds so so interesting i'm so excited i'm gonna stop saying that i'm excited about these because i feel like i should find different words to describe my feelings next up we have a very popular book that you've probably heard of it is a little live by hanya yanagihara i got this for 2 pounds 50 for this and it's in really really good condition like there's literally nothing wrong with it and i got it for 250 and yes yes that's why you should all go to secondhand bookshops they're so good and i think that's amazing i want to read this in november i've got a group of people on instagram who i'm going to be reading it with so that i don't have to read it alone because this just sounds very very heavy not only physically but also emotionally it is very heavy i think it's about this group of friends i think it's four people who like move to new york and it's just about their lives and they have experienced a lot of trauma the trigger warnings for this is basically its own book really there's abuse there's rape there's pedophilia there's self-harm suicide which is basically everything and so if you do want to read this be aware that um you should probably look up the trigger warnings if there's those sorts of things usually trigger you in books because i feel like this one just has everything um but it does sound just really interesting and it is very popular and i usually don't like reading books just because they're popular however i do feel like this one just sounds really cool and i just want to know what it's about and if it's too heavy for me if it's too emotionally draining or whatever then i just dnf it but um yeah i'm going to read this in november hopefully if i can get through this because it's very big next up we have the book that i bought in reigning books which is douma key by stephen king so i recently read pet cemetery also by stephen king and i just really really liked it and now i just need to read more of stephen king's books and i know beth i will read the institute eventually it's on my list i'm gonna get to it but anyway i bought another one that i probably will never read because apparently that's what i do with stephen king i just buy them and then i don't read them i don't actually know that much about it all i know is that it's about this guy who gets into a really bad accident and his memory sort of is messed up after that and then his marriage suddenly ends and it's like all these bad things and then he decides to move away to do maki which i think is in florida something like that it's like this beach town i guess and there he meets these people and then stuff happens and it's like creepy i think it's a horror it might be a thriller i'm not sure with stephen king i can never quite tell because you always think that every one of his books is a horror book but they're not so i don't know but it sounds really interesting and yeah lastly we have the little friend by donna tartt which i bought in the chemtown bookshop now i recently read the secret history i don't know if you can see it right there in my last reading vlog which you should watch by the way um and i absolutely loved it it was so good and i just loved donna tartt's writing so i really want to buy all of her other books and i decided to buy this one and not the goldfinch which is her other book because this one fits my copy of the secret history quite well and i thought they'd look really cute together and yeah so that's why i bought this one so this one is about this boy who was found hanging from a tree so again very very dark very dark set up for a story and then 12 years later his sister wants to find out what actually happened to him because this murder is still unsolved later on and then yeah she just gets into some weird stuff again it's atmospheric it's creepy it's dark i just think it sounds really really good that's all the books i bought on my little trip through brighton and i'm actually quite happy with this they're all as i said books that i'm really excited about they're all very sort of dark atmospheric spooky books and i think hopefully i will read them throughout october and november um maybe december but i think that's more christmasy i think christmas is more wholesome and i feel like spooky books are for like october november when it's just starting to get like dark and spooky outside so yeah i'm going to be reading these hopefully very soon so that was it i hope you enjoyed the video i hope if you ever do find yourself in brighton you can look back at this and just see some really good suggestions for some really cool bookstores to go to there aren't water stones even though the waterstones in brighton is also quite nice and i do like it but um that's not what this video is about so i hope you can take some of my suggestions and visit some of these lovely places i think the best thing about independent and secondhand bookshops is just that they're so much smaller and so much more personal i feel like these people actually talk to you and they're actually interested to find out like what you're interested in they can suggest you really cool books if you talk to them more and i think it's just it's so lovely i think i love going to these bookshops and i hope you will too so i'll see you next time i hope you enjoyed the video don't forget to like and subscribe and all that stuff and yeah i'll see you next time bye you

Channel: Brimful of Books

Views: 8,956

Rating: 4.9658117 out of 5

Keywords: booktube, bookshops, bookshops in brighton, bookshop crawl, bookstores, independent bookshops, second-hand, Rebecca, the woman in black, the hunting party, Monstress, A little life, Duma key, the little friend, book shopping, literature, brighton

Id: F6OU23eKJd4

Length: 20min 43sec (1243 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 04 2020