The Visa and the Damage Done

I just got back from Ireland. I went to Galway for about a week with my dad. We made a pilgrimage to Kenny's Bookshop in Galway City before it closed its doors for good. (They'll continue with their internet store. And I heard rumors - which have not been independently confirmed - that they will open a new retail space in a new development in the docklands area of the city.) It was a great bookstore and I am glad I got the chance to go before it closed. (I was there when I was 10 years old but don't remember it.)

I also went into Charlie Byrne's Bookshop. And a place called Dubray Books, Eason Books, and Hughes & Hughes.

Kenny's was great. They had rooms and rooms of books. The place looks small from the photo but there were dozens of rooms in the place. In fact, on my third trip to the store I was still finding new rooms of books. We were there on their last day of business and the place was mobbed.

Charlie Byrne's has to be one of the best bookstore I've ever been to in my life. Really fantastic stock. It kills me that I can't go in there every week.

This is what I brought back with me:

Sleepyhead - Mark Billingham
Lazy Bones - MB
The Burning Girl - MB
Scaredy Cat - MB
Lifeless - MB
State of the Union - Douglas Kennedy
Imagination of the Heart - Vincent McDonnell
Always the Sun - Neil Cross
The Necropolis Railway - Andrew Martin
The Dark - John McGahern
Memoir - JMcG
The Swing of Things - Sean O'Reilly
An Accident Waiting to Happen - Adrian White
Beyond Black - Hilary Mantel
Juggling - Barbara Trapido
The Photograph - Eamonn Sweeney
Call the Dying - Andrew Taylor
The Brooklyn Follies - Paul Auster
Arthur & George - Julian Barnes
Missing - Mary Stanley
A Game with Sharpened Knives - Neil Belton
The Moon Tunnel - Jim Kelly
Priest - Ken Bruen
City of Tiny Lights - Patrick Neate
Single Obsession - Des Ekin
Tokyo - Mo Hayder
Desire Lines - Annie McCartney
A Kind of Homecoming - Eugene McEldowney