Harvest Books and Crafts, Pontypridd

Continuing In Many Bookshops with Mr. Charmley, we come to Harvest Books and Crafts, Pontypridd. This little bookshop is located in the centre of the town of Pontypridd in South Wales. As the name suggests, it sells book and crafts.

The character of this shop is best decribed as 'broadly Evangelical'. Anyone who knows anything about the Evangelical movement today will have some idea what that means: it means that The Shack will be found alongside books by R. C. Sproul and Geoff Thomas. This is only to be expected, really, seeing as The Shack has been promoted by 'Evangelical' personalities whatever that means these days), and therefore a lot of books stock it on the mistaken assumption that it muct be all right. The stock is very small, understandably, as the shop is fairly tiny, and of course has to contain the crafts as well as the books. I could have wished that the stock had been selected with more discernment, as is the case in other craft/bookshops, such as that in Droitwich. Nevertheless, an effort has been made to have a good range of books, including good Biblical commentaries. The shop will order in books on demand from customers. I found the staff helpful and friendly, and as this is the only Christian bookshop for some miles, it deserves to be made use of. And of course, a shop's stock is decided in part by demand. If people want certain books, they will be stocked. On the other hand, books that are not bought will eventually not be stocked. I will probably go back there next time I go to Pontypridd. Whenever that is.


Next: Back to London.