It was a grey and drizzly Monday when
myself and Lux decided to have a ‘day trip’ to the West End of Glasgow.
Essentially anything that requires a train trip then the use of the subway is,
for us, a day out. Man, I make us sound like two old ladies who think going on
holiday is having a packed lunch in a lay-by off the A38. Ahem. To start off
the excitement we head to a different subway station to our usual Buchanan
Street and wander down to St Enoch which is undergoing work to make it look all
swish and fancy.
Onward.
Actually, take a step back for a moment.
Before we reached the glorious place of soupy wondrousness we did what all old
ladies do when they come across something unexpectedly and emitted an “oooOOOoooo”
sound as we passed the ‘Oran Mor’ arts venue. Ensue a conversation about the
good old days when Melody Maker still existed and we’d hear about cool venues
but never get to visit them - which wasn’t exactly relevant as according to
their facebook page it’s only been going since 2004. I seem to recall we
somehow derailed from reminiscing into laughing hysterically about holy
testicles. Cough. Moving on.
A tingling sensation can be felt in our
bellies, a sign that we must be getting closer to the bookshop, that or there
was a bit too much horseradish in the sandwich we had with the soup. Either
way, we’re nearly there. We initially head for Otago Lane North, an easy
mistake for two doddery old dears like us to make, the ‘NO ENTRY YOU NUMPTIES’ sign
might have been a giveaway. A few confused moments looking at our phones,
arguing briefly about which way we’re facing and eureka! We find Otago Lane!
It’s a very unassuming lane with some
new-ish housing to the left as you enter and what looks like a few rickety
workshops. If you didn’t know there was a book shop there you might well miss
it all together. We waddle up to the front door of ‘Voltaire & Rousseau’ –
named after the French enlightenment writer and 18th Century
philosopher – the bookshop title already a hit with Lux. The small entranceway
is crammed to the ceiling with books. It takes a little time to work out that there
are actually sections written on the book shelves, useful if you can reach past
the piles of books in front of said shelves. Closer inspection reveals that
these seemingly randomly placed reading items are roughly themed to the corresponding
shelving... and this is just the entrance.
The main area of the shop is, well, it’s
something else. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. What an utterly magical
place it is. Hopes of finding anything specific drift away but it really
doesn’t matter. The organised chaos continues - piles upon piles of books cover
much of the floor space making browsing a very cosy experience. There’s a glorious
musty smell too that only second hand books can provide. Much of the stock is
quite old with many a curious title. I ended up purchasing a work on Greek and
Roman mythology called ‘The Golden Age Of Myth And Legend’ printed in the
1920’s and given to a young lady at an all girls school who apparently did well
at mathematics. I had to do a double take at the price. Less than £3 for a
large vintage hardback book? What kind of madness is this? I’ll take
everything. They also have a cat which was happily sleeping oblivious to
everyone on a stack of books near the counter.
We ended our little jaunt to the West End
in a cafe called Offshore on Gibson Street. A nice place with decent coffee and
good taste in music. Back into bimbling mode and we begin to head towards
Kelvinbridge subway except that we don’t and head totally in the wrong
direction. Another few minutes spent looking at our phones (bless ye oh great
map of the google) – a quick about turn and it’s back the way we came. Myself
and Lux spend the return subway journey reciting the Game Of Thrones ‘Bad Lip
Reading’ video, giggling away like two grannies drunk on gin.
As if that wasn’t enough excitement for one
day we also popped into ‘Love Music’ on Dundas Street before jumping on our
train home. It’s one of those independent record shops that still looks how a
record shop should look... and still exists which is the main thing. ‘Love
Music’ is much less chaotic than ‘Voltaire & Rousseau’ but still has a lot
of charm. I scan over the new releases and spot an album by a friend - Rachel Sermanni: ‘Live In Dawson City’ – I’d convinced myself it was only available
online but there it was... in my hand... heading towards the cash desk with me.
The lady who served me had a TARDIS hoodie on. I resisted the urge to beat my
chest and say “big up my Doctor Who compadre, nuff respect”. Ahem. So, to
finish this rather long blog post I shall leave you with a track from the
aforementioned album. Okay, this isn’t a performance from the album, I couldn’t
find a stream of any of the songs and yes, this is also two tracks. Shush.
0 comments:
Post a Comment