Waterstones

We went to the Waterstones in Birmingham yesterday (see my review) and I liked it as much as this one, so they’re equally the best Waterstones I’ve ever visited.

This Waterstones is quite a nice store, I’m not a big fan of Waterstones myself but this franchise has one of their best stores here.
It is set over 2 floors and one of my favourite things about this is the view, once you have taken the lift up to the floor, they is a café and then another good selection of books and a seating area, due to the way it was built and the location, they is a great view of Liverpool and even a table so you can have a drink with your book, I like this as it is a good size table. The view, comfy seating and tables are some things not offered in all stores.
Waterstones is normally a bit pricey and I tend to get my books on Amazon so that is a downsight.
I was dissapointed to see in the Window all the «Why vote… 2015 books» because, they had the Tories, Labour and the Lib Dems on display but instead of putting UKIP in the window, they hidden it so you had to have good eyesight and look very closely to notice that which I feel is proporganda to get customers to avoid voting for UKIP.
Due to the view and location and even holding a café, this store deserves 3 stars but due to the UKIP issue and the pricing issue, I can’t go any higher than that.

Excellent branch — huge selection of e-​reader accessories, comprehensive selection of books on Liverpool history and culture, cool stationery section and an Illy coffee bar on the first floor. I could spend hours in here.

Part of me always thinks that they ordered the floorspace of this building before they realised they didn’t have enough books to fill it all. Why else do we have whole shelves devoted to genres that are not only specific, but bizarre? There’s the Damaged Lives section (for books with depressing titles like ‘When Mommy Stopped Waking Up’ or ‘Don’t Beat Me, Daddy’) as well as the downright confusing Paranormal Romance section. Does nobody write love stories set in reality anymore?
The Liverpool One branch of Waterstones owes its popularity to its sheer size. Thousands of books enticingly line the shelves, meaning you can remain browsing for ages. It’s after this time you spot some niggles. A lot of monumental classics are simply never sold here, and the ones that are are stuck into the ridiculously small Classics section, literally a corner of the room about the size of my elbow (that second bit wasn’t literal.)
I’m never a fan of bookshop coffee places either. They always smack of snooty pretension, evident by the fact nobody sat sipping on frothy cappuccinos ever seems to be reading.
As I said, these are just niggles. It’s great to have a bookshop that you really have to delve into to find something good. That’s a reference to the building’s dimensions, as opposed to saying a lot of the stock here is crap… although it is. Seeing some of the things that get published is enough inspiration to pen a bitter novel slagging them all off. One day.

In the light of Amazon’s shopping revolution, it’s a wonder that anyone still bothers shopping for books in book shops. But in Waterstone’s big, new, airy megastore in Liverpool1 it’s obvious that you can’t beat a good peruse of a few books and thumb of a few pages.
For years now, bookshops have been trying to entice shoppers in with coffee and muffins, an idea that I have never gone for but the café in here is pretty good actually and quiet comfortable — but it’s still not for me, I feel like I’m part of the display.
The range is good as you would expect, nay demand, from a bookshop of this size but as with all bookstores this only applies in a very broad sense. Anyone at school or uni looking to get a book on a specific topic might struggle as there’s still relly only room for big authors or best sellers — the history section for example seems to be going the way of The History Channel and filled with WW2 and Nazis books, I therefore assume the pets section has gone the way of Discovery’s shark week (ref: Gervais).

The best bookshop in Liverpool, (Although Bold Street Oxfam has some rare old gems occasionally)
This is a huge Waterstone’s which was recently built in Liverpool One. It has two floor, a great Illy coffee shop and hundreds of books to choose from. They also stock e-​book readers and magazines, and Nintendo Wii games for some strange reason.
The café inside is great, you can grab a book off one of the shelves and have a relaxing read in a friendly and quiet environment (as long as there’re no screaming kids).
They have a large range of audio books as you go up to the second floor and they have plenty of helpful staff attending the shop floor should you get stuck!
This is my favourite local bookshop, Borders in Cheshire Oaks used to be but that’s gone bust and now Waterstone’s rule the roost!
Another great thing about Waterstones is the reliability, if they haven’t got a book in store then they can order almost any title. Also they have a 21 day return policy on all items. So read it fast, and take it back :)

We have all once in a while, walked into the ever so popular Waterstones book shop and the Liverpool ONE branch is no exception. I just admire this particular branch because of its design, quantity of books and great service they provide.
Before Waterstones was in Liverpool ONE, I regularly visited the Bold Street branch, usually for a quick browse in my spare times. However, I seldom go to the Bold Street branch anymore; I much more prefer Liverpool ONE because it’s a lot more spacious, has escalators (compared to slow lifts in Bold Street) and it has large tables for reading /​studying (almost like a library but better) and it is definitely less stuffy which is good as I find heat just makes me sleepy.
This is an excellent place to spend a few moments for yourself and purchase or pre-​order that long-​awaited book with ease.

I too have been to this new Waterstones and I was in exactly the same frame of mind as my fellow Unilocaler upon going in. I guess one cant help feel that bookshops should be rickety old buildings with lots of character, and this glass monstrosity did not quite fit that criteria.
However, its absolutely huge, and subsequently the range of books is unbelievable. Its refreshing to find a bookshop where you have really got a good chance of getting what you want, no matter how specific the book you need is. Of course, they don’t have everything, but nor does Amazon. In terms of a physical space selling books, this is the most comprehensive collection I have seen in the country excluding Oxford Street.
And like Sarah-​Jane, I also noticed that its not just the bestselling fiction that they have improved, but all the niche genres and categories as well.
Fair play Waterstones.

Ever felt like you’ve been sucker-​punched?
I walked into this new branch of Waterstones expecting to hate it. Compared to the original branch on Bold Street, it looks and feels so gigantic and shiny and corporate and soul-​less. Standing and looking at it from the outside, I really imagined I’d walk in and out within ten minutes and yet, I found myself spending an hour in there!
The reason? That gigantic space means literally thousands more books. The art and design section, food and drink section, music and film and travel sections are all great. The fiction section however, has to be seen to be believed. If I’d had the budget, I would have bought at least fifty novels on the spot, maybe more. Alongside special displays and discounts on Pulitzer Prize writers like Cormac McCarthy, Marilynne Robinson, Junot Diaz, Annie Proulx and Don DeLilo, they had tables with Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and Dorothy Allison books laid out. To top it off, there was a special section promoting independent publishers and another promoting the best debut novels of 2010 under the banner New Voices. Suffice to say, I bought two of the latter and busted out of there before I was tempted to go back for another dozen!