Keeping it in the family

My love of Wales has often crept into this blog, and this week reappears as we visit the north of the country, a breathtakingly beautiful area of the world.

I was there late last summer, travelling with friends, enjoying landscape and coastline, a selection of good pubs, good company and – of course – a bookshop.

Browsers Bookshop is found in the town of Porthmadog which, for those who don't know the area, is very close to Snowdonia National Park The town is also home to a steam train, which later took us through a good amount of that beautiful countryside as we continued with our travels. If you get the chance to incorporate the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railway into your journey I urge you to take it.

Anyway, back to Browsers. The bookshop is deceptively large, with the warm red shop front taking you back through rooms of books until you reach a room of cards and art materials. The first room contains 'readioactive' material and bookcases are labelled according to their subject, including sections for Wales, the sea, and science. Classic novels are nicely displayed in alphabetical drawers and there are well-stocked audiobook and secondhand areas too. Children and young adults are also very well catered for.

Fiction at the front of the bookshop is plentiful and well signposted to suit different tastes, meaning browsers could easily pick a mood and contain their search to its respective area if they were in a hurry. As I was taking my time, I dawdled, enjoying the buzz of people before approaching the bookseller, who recommended The Dig, by John Preston.

Browsers Bookshop has been run by one family for more than 40 years and during the course of our conversation I had the pleasure of hearing more about a life in the bookshop and plans to pass the business on to the next generation.

If the future is even half as friendly and welcoming as the present this is very good news for town's readers.


Browsers Bookshop
73 High Street, Porthmadog, Gwynedd, LL49 9EU
Tel: 01766 512066