Trying to find some books to take back to Moscow for my American studies course led me to a tour of London bookstores: Waterstone's , Border's (yes, Borders is big here), and Foyle's. It was a little disappointing, too.
Years ago, the big Dillon's near the British Museum was something really special for an American. Now, the people at the information desk didn't know who Piers Paul Read was when I asked for his book...
The American studies and media studies sections were just filled with Hate Bush, Hate American crap. Chomsky piled everywhere.
And the same at the other bookstores. At Foyle's I asked if the publishers paid for Chomsky to be at the checkout counters on the 2nd floor. Oh, no, she answered. It just sells better there. The problem is that Chomsky is absolute crap, and that like Jerry Springer, the British seem to have embraced it with a passion.
So, except for Alistair Cooke, practically nothing decent to take back. Instead, we got some history books--Foyle's is the least bad of the bookstores, the most old-fashioned and they did have Piers Paul Read on the Knights Templar.
Another symptom of Crappy England: The Sunday Times published an interview with a Porno actress. Charming. The Thunderer become The Wanker, it seems...
Still there are some good things. After a lunch at Brown's near Leicester Square, we walked across the footbridge to the South Bank, and after declining to pay 35 pounds for a ticket to Alan Bennett's "The History Boys" (we bought a copy of the play in the bookstore for 8 pounds), had a cafe latte at the National Film Theatre bar, since the movie tickets cost 8 pounds each, a bit stiff for us Yanks--then took a double decker bus home, using our unlimited travel card. This is a real pleasure, just hop on and off buses and tubes anywhere, really makes sightseeing easy, and each time you save 1 pound 20 pence it is a little bit of heaven.
The papers have forgotten the BBC controversy and the Tsunami for a grisly New Year's murder in Cambridge, the suspect just committed suicide, and a Tony Blair-Gordon Brown confrontation, something that was in the paper a year ago when we were last here. At least some things don't change.