WH Smith has a massive range of magazines for all interests. If you have a hobby you are guaranteed…read moreto find a magazine dedicated to it. There are so many different types of magazines and newspapers on sale, far too many to list. A bit further back on the ground floor they have a huge book section. They have loads of different books available at excellent prices with special offers often advertised. The staff will order a book for you if it is not in stock at no extra cost. Downstairs they have a wide selection of board games, Cd's, DVD'S electronics and stationary. The staff are friendly and helpful. This is an excellent store. It can get very busy and the queue for the tills can be very long but its worth it.

A pretty good store, very large and spread over 3 floors. I usually tend to just browse on the one…read morefloor which is where you enter. They have a very good selection of products although it's not the easiest place to browse around. It can be quite hard to find what you want if you are looking for something specific. There's an excellent magazine selection including some American editions. There are lots of nice greetings cards available as well although they do tend to be quite pricey. Staff in this store are quite helpful and friendly, nothing remarkable but pretty good.

This branch of WH Smith's is situated in Liverpool ONE. It is bright, clean and air conditioned,…read morewhich is a godsend in the summer. Downstairs they have books and magazines although the range is not as big as their other store on Church Street. The staff will order a book for you if they do not have it in stock. Upstairs they have a good range of stationary for school, college, university and just general use. They have branded ranges such as Hello Kitty, and their own budget range of stationary. There is also a Post Office branch on this floor which is now the only branch in the city centre, the nearest branch being in the business district. It is only small but has lots of cashier desks which are all open when it is busy. This is a small but perfectly formed store which is excellent.

Since the Paradise Street Project in 2008, WHSmith was another one of those shops which transferred…read moreto the new Liverpool One shopping area. I have always been a shopper of WHSmith and I always will be despite the fact that I think it was more conveniently located back in 2008 on Church Street (now where River Island is). Its current location serves two small floors with the Post Office a trek upstairs in the same building. Most of the time I need to visit Smith's or the Post Office for some reason or another whether it's to use their photo-me vendor or to buy stamps. Personally, I feel this is a terrible move for WHSmith and the Post Office as both have decreased in space and situated further away from the main walkways. They have attempted to "kill two birds with one stone" but for me, this has backfired. Their new format has certainly taken time to get used to.

The Book Clearance store situated in St. John's Precinct is a small shop which sells a variety of…read morebooks at affordable prices. The shop is not really aimed towards children but more to those interested in arts, literature, history, cookery and languages to name but a few. They have a great selection of books on offer and attract a lot of students. Quite often when I was a student, I went straight towards the computing section where they always had a range of books related to software development and hardware. Their prices are usually cheaper than most high street stores like Waterstones but their selection sometimes dated. The shop is perhaps a little tight for comfort and you will have to be on your feet to flick through a book. However, it is a fabulous place to buy hobby books or a good place to browse if you have time on your hands.

The Book Clearance Centre is one of those places where you need to be patient, but you can more…read moreoften than not find something you want or at least are interested in. There is a varied selection of fiction and non-fiction books, both paperback and hardback, at pretty good prices. There is usually some sort of offer on as well, such as three paperbacks for £10. In addition to this, there is a section dedicated to Liverpool - its authors, history and tourist information, as well as the usual tat to do with The Beatles. Not an ideal place, if, like me, bookshops make you need the loo (and I know I'm not alone here - something about browsing bookshelves just makes you wanna go!!) as you need to invest some time if you're gonna find anything valuable. Still, worth a shot!

Really good selection and great service in the children's section. You can get stuff cheaper on…read moreAmazon, but if you want to support the brick and mortar economy this is a good option.

The kids books section is awesome! It has not only books and toys, bit also a yellow submarine that…read moretoddlers can play in. It has a cafe upstairs, as well a pretty good inventory. Recommended.

You're not likely to find a copy of The Protestor's Handbook or The Rough Guide to The Universe in…read moreThe Works. You might however, find something you like if you're into baking, cooking, biographies, art, film or crime. A discount shop specialising in books, stationary and art supplies, The Works sells a wide range of hardback and paperback books at bargain basement prices. Most of the stock looks brand new and they seem to get a lot from certain publishers. The fiction section isn't a patch on Oxfam or any of the bookstores in the area but they do get some decent art, true crime and crime noir, travel, gardening and food and drink books. Last week I spotted copies of The Polaroid Book and Green and Blacks Chocolate Recipes for £7.99 each (RRP £15.99).

The Works is the perfect place to find stationery, small gifts, hobby and children's books because…read moreit is a compact store serving two floors where you can easily seek what you're looking for. It is ideal for kids to browse as items are cheap too, so it's a great place to spend some of their pocket money. I always go here to buy my annual calendar (that's what I remember The Works most for). Other than that, I recall that I used to buy all my art equipment from here for my school art lessons, which was my favourite subject so I ended up buying nearly all their pencils, charcoal, chalk pastilles and paint brushes! Above all, a brilliant shop to spend your time.

This is a fab original little bookshop fighting against the likes of Waterstones and Blackwells. I…read moremean, it's not actually fighting those giants, but you know what I mean. If you've seen You've Got Mail you know what I mean. This is a proper bookshop. Books are crammed onto rickety-looking shelves and span all kinds of categories. They buy as well as sell books, so you can get yourself a good swop-shop thing going on if you're savvy enough. Obviously, you've got to have some spare time on your hands to browse through everything, but it's well worth it as this is one of the few remaining old fashioned book stores in the city centre, and you can find some real gems. Also worth a look from an academic point of view - being near the university campuses means you can get some bargains as far as uni reading goes.

It's good because it sells a lot of books cheaply but my enthusiasm for little quaint second hand…read morebookshops has worn a little thin mainly because the owners al seem to be sociopaths or misanthropes. Too harsh? Maybe, it could just be the case that put end to end and the hours sat alone with only books for company probably add up to years, either that or books give off some sort of toxic fumes that effect the central nervous system. Still there are lots of books here so if books are what you're after then why not take a few minutes to see if there's anything amongst the second hand stock - and therefore tick your little green eco box for the day to boot - and you may just come across some thing you'd never thought of picking up .

For its size the Blucoat Books and Arts store crams a hell of a lot into its small store which is…read morebasically a space under the stairs leading to the rest of the stores in the Gostins Building. Their selection of books is really very good especially in the arts, films and music sections. Taking an interest in the cinema section I was pleased to see many titles that you would struggle to find even in the new Waterstones - which for all its size isn't as extensive as you would expect, maybe they should concentrate on the books instead of the coffee to go with them. Added to this they only have an arts and crafts space that would give Rennie's a run for their money. It is not a one stop kind of place for all your artistic needs - that would be a bit too much to ask considering the lack of floor space - but with an extensive range of paints, cards and paper the enthusiast will find enough to keep them busy.

When I think of the bookshops in Liverpool, this one never seems to spring to mind first, but it…read morereally should. Tucked away in a little cluster of shops off Hanover Street, Bluecoat Books is a good little store for the budding artist, crammed with Art and Design books on specific artists and architecture as well as the usual A-Z of fiction. They have an art materials workshop with a rainbow of paints, brushes and canvases on sale and also a surprising amount of childrens books which took me back to the days when I was much happier reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar than Austen! I also noticed there was a whole section on travel guide to...'s and they had some out-of-date ones out at 50p each! Also it was £5 for 3 of the second-hand hardback books so I'm stock up for a while now! I won't be forgetting this place in a hurry!

This book shop has some really great bargains, the only down side is that it rarely has new…read morereleases but I guess that's why they are bargains. Not only does it sell books but also it has a wide range of stationary and some crafty things also. Hard backs and paperbacks, I've bought many of their deals where you can get 3 paperbacks for five pounds. The shop is a bit cramped so if you're looking for something in particular you can feel as though you are getting in the way. Stick with it though and grab your self some bargains. Think it's changed it's name now to THE WORKS

This book shop is a real bargain shop.They not only stock books but crafts and dvds and games all…read moreat discount prices.It is quite small and if there are a lot of people in there it can be difficult to look at things.They also have named pens and outdoor toys for kids.I picked up a few bargains here including books for kids.