Ottakars

Ottakar's - A bookworm's best friend Back in the heady days of 2000, I fell in love. What's this got to do with a bookstore? Well, keep with me and I'll explain. Back in 2000 I moved in with Mel, who had lived in Chelmsford all of her life. I'd been brought up in Welling, Kent, a small town on the border of Kent and London, a twenty minute drive from the newly opened Bluewater shopping complex, and about half an hour from the slightly older Lakeside complex. Although I'd grown up reading books, I had usually taken advantage of the local library, which Bexley council had spent a lot of money in funding. On the rare occasions that I wanted ...  Read the complete review

The nearest Ottaker's book store to me is in grimsby in lincolnshire The store itself holds more than 500,000 books, and stands in 15,000 sq ft of ground. Quite amazing, eh?! Situated in freshney place, it's one of my all time favourite book shops, and very nearly every time I'm in Grimsby I visit this store. The store is exceptionally clean and tidy, with the thousands of books nearly placed into rows or piles for people to browse around. They are all sectioned off into their respective categories, ie, travel, sci-fi, romance etc. All the latest novels and such like are placed in full view for everyone to see as they enter the store. Like, ...  Read the complete review

I thought I was keen on bookshops, until I met my other half who can spend unfeasible amounts of time browsing and who has consequently made me reaslise that my enthusiasm is relatively modest. As a result of hanging about with a bok maniac, I get to see the inside of numerous bookshops all over the country. My primary expereince of Ottakars is in Gloucester, although I have been into a few others over the years. A couple of years ago, ottakars decided that just sellig books wasn't enough, and have taken to including cafes, where you can drink expensive coffee (as all high street coffee seems to be currently) eat cake and gt crumbs all over your new ...  Read the complete review

I had not come across Ottaker's until they opened a shop in Norwich a couple of years ago. Because they were building from scratch, I had high hopes - a large, purpose-built bookshop in a city rather lacking in outlets for serious new books. Ought to be good for Waterstone's to have some competition, I thought. I'm disappointed. Waterstone's shop, about 200 yards from Ottakar's and of roughly the same size, has nothing to fear from Ottakar's. Yes, if you want computer books there's quite a good range. There are two or three other subject areas that seem well enough stocked. And I doubt if anybody will complain at the token ...  Read the complete review

I have always been an avid reader of books, when I was younger it was the local library and second hand book shops, but as I progressed through better paid jobs it became the usual waterstones/whsmiths etc. But by far and away the best books hop for new books that I have ever visited has to be Ottakers, this one was the Gloucester branch where I was living at the time. First, it’s huge. It has two stories and the ground floor is where you find the fiction section, sport, TV + film and a dozen other areas. There is a large plaything for the children (it’s a type of Archimedes screw with little plastic balls that…well, you have to see it really) which ...  Read the complete review