STORYVILLE BOOKS

Lovely little find today. I was on a book hunt (Warhammer and similar) and I had no idea this was here. Mixture of new and used books. Friendly atmosphere and staff. Gaming tables. Will be a regular haunt for me going forward.

One of those places easily walked past but worth a nosey around. Picked up a great book on Keith Haring today after a game of snakes and ladders. A lovely space and one of many Pontypridd independent businesses that deserve local support.

The staff are lovely, the shop itself is great. The owner can't handle public criticism and blocked me from all of their FB pages after I left a comment saying I was disappointed to see AI art platformed at an arts and crafts fair, retroactively creating a rule that anyone leaving public comments calling out AI art will be bocked. No 'we'll look into it', no 'thanks for bringing this to our attention', not even 'we'd appreciate if you had messaged us directly instead', just immediately ostracised. I'm a local artist, I teach art in the valleys. I want other artists to see that they have support against the thieving, unethical practices of AI, and that doesn't happen by shutting down and hiding conversations about it. I'm also queer, and knowing that this is how the owner handles someone bringing up problems, I don't think I'll be attending their queer event later in the year either. Do better.

A large open venue with all genres, gifts, children's sections, cards, wrapping paper and a welcome from the host: Jeff. Add to this the fact they have Book Fairs three times a year and what more could you ask for! Next Pontypridd Book Fair 10am - 3pm on Saturday 13th December... just on time for Yule/Christmas and you get to meet the authors (like me) too!

A wonderful little bookshop offering a really refreshing variety, it's lovely to see so many Welsh language books too. I especially love how diverse the manga collection is, great to see some hidden gems you don't often find in more mainstream bookshops. Really friendly staff, they're also happy to order in specific books they don't have in. Nice touch.