Between the shelves

Today is World Book Day. Jonathan deBurca Butler paid a visit to one of our busiest bookshops to see what people are reading these days, and how.

PEOPLE seem to heave a sigh of relief when they walk through the swinging doors of Eason’s on O’Connell Street in Dublin. For a moment the hustle and bustle of the city’s main thoroughfare is left behind and this bookshop, like so many around the world, becomes something of a serene sanctuary. In ways, perhaps, the shop is a mirror of the very item it is trying to sell. Is there any better refuge than inside a book?

Dubliner Jim Galligan grew up close to the city centre. He has spent hours of his life in Dublin’s bookshops and is a regular at Eason’s.