The Oxfam Bookshop in Headingley, Leeds is a welcoming community environment, an excellent place for anyone who is a serious or casual reader, for students starting their degrees this year its conveniently situated between all three universities in the city and handy for obtaining books for all academic disciplines.
At this customer friendly store run by genuine ethically natured volunteers giving their time for charity there is something for everyone. As many different types of books are donated everyday there is always a comprehensive choice of authors and topics. A large contemporary fiction section, a quality and varied poetry section I found a very intriguingly humorous collection by Carol Anne Duffy called The Worlds Wife. There is also a select new age philosophy section and a very useful history section.
The books are priced accordingly and affordably, I purchased The Divided Self by R D Laing for £1:99 and Doctoring the Mind by Richard P Bentall for just £3:99. Both these books are in very good condition. In addition to the usual second hand recently printed books you can sometimes find rare books and first editions in this treasure trove.
It is also a forum for intellectual discourse, several book clubs are run throughout the year by members of the voluntary staff these regular evenings usually include guest speakers, artists, writers etc. At the June book club I was the guest author. The content and opinions contained in my poetry book Observational Expressions of Humanity were discussed at this evening.
In addition to the book clubs the manager runs poetry reading evenings every three months all are welcome to attend and read out any poems they like or have written. At the July evening I read out one of my own poems and a poetic lyric called Facing Page: Top Left by Richard Edwards.
So why not wonder in and see what literary delights you can discover in this treasure trove, make a difference to someone’s life whilst improving and developing your mind.
Liam Whetstone (July 2013)
Volunteer, Oxfam Books Headingly and Poet
Liam Whetstone 