Bookworm stories: Why does the bookstore never get old?
Oxford Book Fair launched at Headington Campus. Two vintage bookstore owners talked about the reasons why books enchant people across the city.
About 100 people marched into the Oxford Book Fair, picking up books, vintage maps and prints while browsing carefully to find their favourites.
The event was organised by the Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association.
“I’ve been doing the Oxford Book Fair for 25 years - it’s quite a long way, five hours, for me because I live in North Yorkshire. But it’s lovely because we get such a nice mix of people coming.” said Louise Harrison, 62, TP Book’s owner.
Tradition is stronger
She explained why the book never gets old.
“I think books and bookshops have been a huge part of the history of this country going back when books were handwritten before they were printed.”
“Technology came in, where everybody thought, people are going to be reading it on their devices and they’re not going to want to buy real books. But I think tradition is stronger than that.”
She also mentioned the popularity of books for younger generations.
“I think the younger generation are enjoying, particularly at events like this, they can buy vintage items and I think they see them as a beautiful item. So it’s not just reading the word, it’s holding the book and smelling the book.”
“It’s great to have the convenience of reading from a machine. But I actually have to have a book on the shelf to be able to take it back or share the scene..” she continued.
Strength of having expertise in independent bookstore
“What we do is normally, all of us have our own expertise and our own specialisms. So, there might be certain areas that we deal in - some might specialise in travel books or books from particular parts of the world.” Tom W.Ayling, antiquarian, 31, explains why the bookstore’s popularity continues to grow in Oxford.
“That really lends itself to individual experts, having their own domain of expertise that they then focus on and therefore just work independently.”
“They’ll have lots of collectors who are buying material in that area, and then you can serve them much better as an individual than a corporation could. So that’s why we have lots and lots of independent dealers who come to these fairs, but who also have book shops around the country.”
The power of social media reaches all generation of book lovers
Tom is also well known on social media for providing information about rare books, having 385.7K followers on TikTok. He shared the strong points of using social media to share what he does.
“The idea is to get the word out about what we do to as many people as possible. So I’m really passionate about rare books and book history...I think it’s incredibly fascinating and I want to share it with as many people as possible.”
“All those apps, they reach perhaps a younger demographic than we can normally come to the fair, but they also reach people of all ages because people of all ages are on social media. “
“Today at the Book Fair, 10 to 20 people have come up and said, I’m here because I saw your videos. And you know, that’s really nice. It’s getting lots and lots of new people interested in being book collectors.”
Tom Ayling at Oxford Book Fair
https://www.tiktok.com/@tomwayling?lang=en
The next Oxford Book Fair will be held over two days, on 18-19th April 2026.
https://www.pbfa.org/fairs/oxford-premier-book-fair-april-2025