P assage Four Londoners are great readers. T hey busy vast numbers of newspapers and magazines and of books — especially paperbacks. They still continue to buy “ proper ” books too, printed on good paper and bound between hard covers. T here are many streets in London containing shops which sell books. P erhaps the best known of these is Charring Cross Road in the very heart of London. Here books of all sorts and sizes are to be found. Some of those shops sell any kind of book, but many of them specialize in second-hand books, in art books, in foreign books, in books on philosophy , politics or any other subject about which books may be written . O ne shop in this area specializes solely in books about ballet! Although it may be the most convenient place for Londoners to buy books, Charring Cross Road is not the cheapest. F or the really cheap second-hand volumes, the collector must venture off the beaten track, to Farringdon Road, for example, in the East Central district of London. Here there is nothing so grandiose( 宏伟的 ) as bookshops. I nstead, the booksellers come along each morning and tip out their sacks of books on to small barrows( 手推车 ). And the collector, some professional and some amateur, have been waiting for them. I n places like this one can still, occasionally, pick up for a few pence an old volume that may be worth many pounds.