The first and last time I visited Gordon’s Bay’s Bikini Beach Books – an old beachfront house overflowing with books – was around 2 years ago, so I figured a revisit was long overdue…

I think most people would agree that the place is pretty amazing, especially if you like books; outside are boxes with old books priced at next to nothing and inside are stacks, piles, tables and shelves full of every kind of book imaginable (as well as some odd decorative things, like shells…).

They’re sorta grouped by genre (like a room corner dedicated to travel) and language (everything from Russian to Welsh with many, many German titles) but for the most part, the general fiction is loosely alphabetised and spread out over each room of the house. This makes finding something specific pretty tricky but allows all kinds of weird and wonderful things to easily find you…

There are some new books, but most are second-hand, meaning some contain traces of their previous owners – Chris and I were mildly alarmed at the number of Dianetics books on display and then totally surprised to see the random one he picked up contained a creepy photo of what we can only assume to be a sleeping scientologist…

Also concerning was that ‘nocturne romance’ gets its own dedicated shelf (fittingly propped up by a mighty purple tower of Mills & Boon) but perhaps more worrying is that it contained just a few Twilight books and the rest were all shameless ripoffs.

Other cool things we did in Gordon’s Bay: eat fish and chips at the harbour, walk along the breakwater and take the scenic route home via the Strand.

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It’s hard to find info on the store online, but Bikini Beach Books are open 9am-9pm, buy books for cash or credit, have a resident ginger cat and are well worth a visit (at 41 Beach Road, Gordon’s Bay).

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