I could linger for hours on end in the Last Bookshop on Camden Street, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
Patrick Comerford
I have been back in Dublin a few times in recent weeks, and each time as the buses drove along Aston Quay and Bachelor’s Walk I am realised that among the many things that I still miss are the second-hand book barrows that have long disappeared from the Quays and from Clare Street.
The Camden Street and Harcourt Street area has become a new favourite place to stay when I am back in Dublin. And there, over the last year or two, I have found what I think is my new favourite second-hand bookshop.
The Last Bookshop is a second-hand bookshop run by Alan Warnock and his wife Mary. They once ran a similar shop in Ranelagh that I remember fondly. They moved the Last Bookshop to Camden Street almost seven years ago, in November 2017, but I had moved from Dublin by then and I have only got to know the sop in Camden Street in the last year or two.
Like those bookshops on the Quays that many of us miss, there are trays of books outside on the footpath. Inside, behind the bright red shopfront and awning, it is an Aladin’s Cave of second-hand fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and drama.
Thousands upon thousands of books are organised on shelves and tables and precariously stacked in tottering but neat piles that cover every available space.
Trays of books outside the Last Bookshop on Camden Street, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
Where can I find anything? Mary and Alan rely on memory when it comes to any particular title or volume.
The front of the shop is devoted to books on Irish interest, including books on Irish history, culture and language. One wall is history, another is Irish fiction, and there are four shelves of Irish language.
A narrow path between the books leads to the rear of the shop where I can find general fiction, history, religion, and science books. There are books on art and architecture and cinema, theatre, set design and costumes.
Many of the books look as though they may never have been read. But then we all have books at home that we never get around to reading. Many of the books come from house clearances or from people who are downsizing.
With such a vast collection, this is exactly what a good second-hand bookshop should look like. Alan Warnock has worked in Hodges Figgis, managed the Waterstones shops on Dawson Street and Jervis Street, and then he sold online for a while.
Thousands upon thousands of books cover every available space in the Last Bookshop (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
I could linger for hours on end in a shop like this, forgetting the time of day and rekindling my imagination. Second-hand bookshops are about serendipity. You walk in thinking about one theme, and you walk out with half a dozen books on topics you never realised you were interested in.
It is not the same experience as looking for books on Amazon. There is little point in going into a second-hand bookshop looking for a specific title. ine for that, but while its algorithms may be programmed to know what people like me are buying, it can never grasp how my imagination works or what I my find curious and enticing.
My mind is wider, deeper and more nuanced than any algorithm, and it is best catered to by a good second-hand bookshop. And I still like to have a book in my hand, to turn its pages, to feel the texture of the paper and to smell the pages.
A back door and an archway of bamboo leads into a hidden courtyard and the Cake Café, which has a strong sustainability ethos in an eco-friendly building.
The Camden Street shop is in the Daintree Building, once a print shop that sold paper and stationery. Now it is one of the first eco-friendly developments in Dublin, and was developed specifically with conservation in mind, recycling rain water and using solar panels, with as little waste as possible.
But how could time spent in a second-hand bookshop – or in a café – ever be a waste of anything? It’s certainly never a waste of time.
I still miss the second-hand book stalls once found on Aston Quay and Bachelor’s Walk (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
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