The High Society

68-70 Mansfield Road, Nottingham, NG1 3GY. (0115 941 8646) 

The philosopher Immanuel Kant was known to speak of his love for the ‘mathematical sublime’: an occasion when one is completely overawed by something so massive and incomprehensible it cannot be taken in by the human mind.

Such an experience awaits anyone who enters this second-hand bookshop. A wonderfully Dickensian place, it’s packed to the rafters with dusty volumes on a myriad of subjects. It’s fairly cheap and the owners are always happy to let you browse at your will (if you need something for your reading list, just ask them!). It may boast a more archaic filing system than the Hallward Library, but bugger me it’s fun. You can lose a whole afternoon in here. The workers have a wealth of knowledge and at any given chance will want to share it with you.

And the smell! By God, it smells good. Hundreds of dank, dusty books, unread for years; all with their own essence. The stench of ideas!

Editor’s note: You could have just said books and shit…