What a boast! MOST enjoyable? MOST BOASTFUL perhaps! The earlier motto was:
And this remains accurate. What we SPECIALISE IN is SURVIVING, and we can only survive in this beautiful but congested and hidden place because we offer the Compleat Bookshop Experience and a service both Quirky and Competent, during these hours: 9-6 Monday-Saturday, 12 - 6 Sundays. The cafe opens at 10am on weekdays, last orders daily at 5.15pm
Despite the fact that, according to an old friend, Brian MacDonald
For a below-decks view of Scarthin Books, click on the Ballad of Scarthin Books, on Scandal in Court, or on our authoratitive article The Ecology of Books. To check that we're still alive, click on our NEWS page.
OR you could ask the opinion of GUARDIAN UNLIMITED for which we extend our appreciation of being included in such a short-list, or The Independent. Interchanging the Guardian's Ten for The Independent's Fifty would get you nearer our OFBOOK Self-Assessment. For other appreciated/appreciative links, see Christine Poulson's Blog the Exclusively Independent website and on the Derbyshire interest site FABULOUS PLACES which includes, unsolicited, a poetical description and some very sweet reviews. Our thanks to the reviewers.For other Derbyshire locations you can click on shops, galleries and cafes etc.
So, welcome to the BAFFLING website of Scarthin Books, a sort of One Stop Bookshop, notorious for being also a Long Stop Bookshop. We have separate new and second-hand sections on all subjects.("What All?", "Yes All!", "What All?", Well, nearly All."), though we often need to ask each other where New Cycling or Second-hand Canals or Chess has got to. Children's Books are a particular strength, with some 9000 separate new titles in the children's book room. Musical Scores & Books are also profusely present, though hard to keep in order. We afford Edmund (Birmingham Conservatoire etc.) and Emily (CBSO etc.) to come and refresh the repertoire as frequently as possible.We also boast a homely cafe with many curious exhibits on almost the only un-booked walls in the building. We are publishers of books on Derbyshire, local history and the popular Family Walks series.Our second-hand books don't seem to compete with our new books, though the Internet may be competing with both. For a chilling view of the future, already as far East as Berkeley, California, read this article, which we found via Peter Robins' Daily Telegraph Book Blog,though my Astrophysicist friend, Melvyn, says things are nor as bad in Berkeley Ca as this article makes out. But do you read, Melvyn?
This online presence does include the possibility of browsing among or ordering RARE BOOKS or our own PUBLICATIONS, or even ANY BOOK IN PRINT. Just click on any of these categories just listed. The new-book ordering system is mainly "off-the-peg" so doesn't jell with this site quite as well as we would like. Irritable e-mails are tolerated.
E-mails, to nickscarthin@gmail.com are as welcome or unwelcome as
letters, faxes, phone-calls and ansaphone recordings. Barring mishaps, ALL messages will be answered, orders
quickest of all, publishing enquiries slowest of all, offers of books usually within a day or two (the river of
books is always in spate here, "for rain has been falling far off at their fountains"). We have now started a
Customer Reward Scheme - a £1 Scarthin Voucher is given
for every £20 spent on books or gifts.
We like to link to other interesting pages, particularly literary, scientific, ecological and thought-provoking - as well as to other small businesses providing services which are useful or local or singular or run by friends/relatives - or all of these!
Oh, and a few more SUITABLE SLOGANS, about the only poetical outlet for a Commercial Gent. here they come.
DID WE DO WRONG? THE LIBRARY OF SAWN-OFF BOOKS describes one of our more recent commissions, which you may find amusing or, perhaps, outraging. Or for a more comprehensive rethink of the Book Trade, try clicking on The Ecology of Books
Our current mini-exhibition is a whimsical look at the changing face of <</a>