Owner of Leeds' only floating bookstore shares how shopping for books opens up a 'whole new world'
The co-founder of a floating bookshop shares why we need to keep reading alive 📚
Hold Fast Bookshop is like a Tardis.
As a shop which is based on a boat, it’d be easy to think that little fits inside.
But step on board the 80-year-old barge in Leeds Dock and you’ll find a library of books in all genres, shapes, and sizes.
It’s a quirky shop which makes book buying itself a truly joyful experience.
As the Yorkshire Evening Post’s Leeds Reads campaign is encouraging our city to fall back in love with reading, we spoke to Hold Fast Bookshop’s co-founder Victoria Bonner, to discuss just how magical a good book can be.
Victoria co-founded Hold Fast Bookshop with her husband Chris in 2022. The pair wanted a career which connected their passion for reading with their desire to preserve 1946 boat the Marjorie R.
Victoria believes that reading is a simple way to slow down the pace of modern life and build your empathy, too.
“Life these days is so busy and I think many people feel pulled in all directions at once,” Victoria told the YEP.
“If you have a chance to sit down with a book, you’ve just got you and your book and there’s no distractions. It brings your blood pressure down and it triggers the recovery of your nervous system.
“Apart from that, if you’re reading about other people’s lives, you learn to put yourself in other people’s shoes - you become more tolerant and more able to understand where people are coming from.”
In the modern age, independent bookshops are facing increased competition from online marketplaces. However, Victoria believes that physical retailers offer something the internet can’t compete with: the chance to be surprised as a “world opens up” inside a bookshop.
Victoria said: “When you buy books online, you’re getting fed your information from an algorithm which learns what you like and it just tells you more and more of the same.
“Whereas when you come into a bookshop, you can browse, you can pick things up, you can read blurbs, you can chat to other customers. There’s a whole world you wouldn’t know about if you just buy online.”
She highlighted that “absolutely amazing” books that can sometimes go under the radar have an opportunity to shine in independent bookstores with passionate booksellers.
Hold Fast Bookshop has particularly seen interest in contemporary climate fiction thriller The Wager and the Bear by John Ironmonger, and folk horror novel Scratch Moss by David Barnett. Both books are from independent publishing houses.
It’s one of just two bookshops across the UK that are based on a boat, and Victoria confessed that running a floating bookshop leads to some unique dilemmas.
“We get some unusual problems,” Victoria said.
“We’re probably the only bookshop that has to check the river level, and we have to set our ramp to get on at different heights depending on the rain. But it’s a great job and I love it. There’s nothing better than talking about books all day.”
Interest in reading is declining in the UK. Last year, research from the National Literacy Trust discovered that just one in three children aged eight to 18 say that they enjoyed reading in their free time.
Victoria argues that to get more children interested in books, parents need to lead by example.
“When they see you read, it becomes normal for them so one of the easiest ways to get your children to read is to read yourself.
“If they see you with a book, they’re much more likely to pick up a book of their own. You can have conversations about what you’re reading and it becomes interesting for them.”
Victoria said that Hold Fast Bookshop has books on everything from fiction to football to even crisps.
She encourages anyone and everyone to pay the floating bookshop a visit and to choose a book they know they will love.
“Just have a browse and see what catches your attention,” Victoria said.
“Some people come in and they say it’s a guilty pleasure but you shouldn’t feel guilty if you’re enjoying it.
“Read what you enjoy.”