The Unknown Unknown

Bookshops and the delight of not getting what you wanted
A brilliantly funny and clever exploration of why it's only in a bookshop that you'll find something you never knew you wanted to read, from the author of The Etymologicon, The Horologicon and The Elements of Eloquence

Mark Forsyth - author of the Sunday Times Number One bestseller The Etymologicon - reveals in this essay, specially commissioned for Independent Booksellers Week, the most valuable thing about a really good bookshop.

Along the way he considers the wisdom of Donald Rumsfeld, naughty French photographs, why Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy would never have met online, and why only a bookshop can give you that precious thing - what you never knew you were looking for.

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