Bear Island Book Exchange

I recently decided that it was about time my younger brother read Phillip Pullman’s Dark Materials. I don’t own the books myself, having read them at school, so I decided I’d buy them for him to read over the summer.
The same week I decided this, I came across Northern Lights in a charity shop, along with The Amber Spyglass. No middle book, but I figured that by the time he’d read the first one, I’d have found The Subtle Knife in another charity shop.
This was much, much harder than I thought it’d be. Being a huge book lover, I am in charity shops all the time hunting through the books and adding to my collection, but every shop I went into had the first and last book of the trilogy, but no Subtle Knife. I don’t know what it is about this book, but I couldn’t find it anywhere.
Finally, after 2 months, I happened to be buying something else from this stall when I saw TWO copies inside. That’s how great this stall is: it magically comes up with all the books you can never find in other second hand bookshops.
I also love that the general fiction isn’t arranged strictly in alphabetical order, because a) it makes browsing more fun, and b) it means you read every book title rather than just homing in on the areas where your favourite authors would be.

This is a book shop in the lower area of the historic Cardiff Market. An old Victorian building that remains a good source of produce from local traders. As you enter the market you will be greeted by the same smell of fresh fish that has filled my childhood memories of this place.
This book shop is one of the best places to grab a bargain on a book in Cardiff. They’re all second hand so the average you’ll pay is about two quid or two pound fifty. I find it near enough impossible to go to this book stall and leave without grabbing cheap book I need to add to my list of books to read. There’s an area of this stall that has no interest to me, that’s the vast array of Mills and Boon books on offer, but if that takes your fancy then their number is as close to infinite. The books are separated roughly by genre, inside on the right you’ll find sci-​fi, crime and horror novels, as well as more Mills and Boon than you could hope to shake a stick at. I find the best section to be the shelves outside the stall on the right hand side. This has general interest, classics and humorous books. They also buy books, so you could treat it like a library where you slowly lose money if you were so inclined.

I love love love second hand book stores more than a helluva lot of things. I could spend all day in them. Often I do. Especially in the best ones, which provide chairs. I love the smell of them. I love browsing shelves picking up bargain copies of novels or poetry collections on my Must Read Someday list and buying vintage hardbacks of French classics. It’s no surprise then, that I like Bear Island. They sell a lot of contemporary paperbacks with novels costing around the £2 — £2.50 mark. They also sell A LOT of Mills & Boon. This amuses me muchly. I often buy a couple for friends as gifts. It makes me smile. They also sell rare and antiquarian books, Welsh books and quite a lot of sci-​fi. Friendly staff, a real ‘I’m glad I stumbled upon you’ kinda place.

visiting Cardiff market on a rainy day found this second hand book shop tucked away behind sweet shop.
Amazing selection of second hand books particularly american female authors i normally pay between £6−8.00 a welcome bonus of £2.50p
The staff was fantastic and had a great debate on Feehan v Kenyon.
This is a must for any reader.