This handy little Post Office is great. It is located within the local the belly of the The Best…read moreOne - a little grocery shop, and is really, only a little counter. Nevertheless, on many an occasion I have had a handful of items, such as ebay parcels, late birthday cards and so on, to post and simply dreaded the idea of the queues that would await me in Headingley or Leeds. They are virtually never busy, and when they are the queue is a ten-minute wait, not a forty-minute wait. They have friendly helpful staff who have not once, ever offered me a Post Office credit card (I hate it when they do that!) and they have a few extra simply stationary supplies should you require. What could be more perfect? Job done.

We come here to do our weekly lottery, the staff are always pleasant and polite to talk to, I just…read morehope they don't close it down like they are doing with the other post offices. http://www.plumberyorkshire.co.uk/pages/plumber_in.php?plumber_in=Leeds

This handy little newsagents is situated on the main strip in Rawdon, which is strictly speaking…read morethe only strip in Rawdon! Considering the wilderness of retail that is Rawdon this place is really useful and well used by the locals. It sells all the usual suspects including a huge range of local and national newspapers, magazines, a range of cards, gum, tobacco, stationary, canned goods, drinks (including those super cheap but e-number-tastic little 20p cartons), chocolate, crisps and all sorts else. The staff are friendly enough although the shop has its restrictions - they only allow two school children in at any one time (which is understandable) and if you turn to the left whilst in the queue you will see a rather large, erm, *adult* magazine section staring you right in the face. This section, of course, only caters for the men of Rawdon. Being a hardened feminist one can rise above these things, sadly it is to be expected in any standard newsy. A reasonably priced and handy (no pun - promise!) little store.

This cute little second hand bookshop has shelves packed full of an array of used and antique…read morebooks. Their sections include maritime, cricket, ornithology and fungi among others. Any bookworm could spend hours browsing. There is a special cabinet set aside for the large hardback antique books which look like something out of a fairytale, some dating back centuries! There are also some delightful, slightly more recent hardback books for children and teenagers from the mid 20th century which provide a wonderful insight into what life might have been like for youngsters at that time. There are also plenty of modern books at decent prices including the likes of Harry Potter and Star Wars. The owners can open the shop specially for an appointment for anyone interested in selling or buying a number of second-hand books - the email address for more info is book.shop@btinternet.com. This is a great place to browse for a unique, carefully chosen gift for a book enthusiast or someone who has a passion for a particular obscure topic that may well be covered here...or just to have a nosy through the shelves for that special find.

For a while now I have had in my possesion a Grimm's Fairy Tales book dating back to at least 1906…read more As I didn't know much about the book other than that Grimm's Fairy Tales are rare, I decided to look online to see if there was any information I could find. After a four hour extensive google search I found nothing. No images and very little about the publishers. The only reason I know it dates back to 11th July 1906 is the plaque in the back. The book belonged to a school girl and she was rewarded the book for perfect attendance at Leith Academy in Edinborough. Needless to say, my fruitless efforts led me to believe that there would be a shop out there that would know much about this book and be able to give me some sort of professional opinion. I searched all around Leeds but all the shops said the same thing: "The only store I know of that deals with books is The Book Store in Kirkstall". It took me a while to get there, mainly because money is hard to come by but I eventually found myself outside of this mysterious and well talked about store. The store itself is quaint and a little charming but nothing to write home about. Certainly a bookworms delight but nothing more. I approached the counter and talked with the woman behind it. She seemed friendly enough but I expected a little more professionalism from her, after all she owns this book store so she should at least know something about the books she handles! Here is what she said. "The book is a reprint of the Grimm's tales" Firstly I would just like to say, No sh*t Sherlock. It's not exactly going to be the hand written very first edition of the tales by the brothers themselves is it? I was aware that it wasn't a first edition 1812 copy so I let her continue. She examined the book to the extent someone who didn't know what a book was would do, in that she handled it like it was a brand new book. It was painful to watch this nice old book being treated rough. She also completely ignored the plaque at the back that I had to point out to her when she said "without a date for this book there isn't much to go by." The date in the book is when the book was given to the girl which was 1906 which means the book itself could possibly pre-date that by a few years. I would say that is substantial evidence of the date of the book but this woman was absolutely clueless and completely dismissed the fact that the date was there saying: "That date doesn't have anything to do with the book though, it does not tell us when the book was published." I get that but it's not going to be anytime AFTER the date is it? Because the book was given to the girl ON the date inside the plague of the book. She then looked on her computer for what I can imagine must have been a google search for the book, of which I told her I had done an extensive search online for this book with the evidence that I had but I still found nothing. I really don't know what she was hoping to achieve in the two minutes she looked online but obviously, she didn't find anything. To which she concluded her examination by saying that "Unless it has illustrations in, especially by Arthur Rackham, i am sorry to say the book isn't worth anything." Basically making out that the work inside the book is rubbish unless it is accompanied by the illustrations of a famous artist. I was always under the impression that a books worth came from it's main selling point itself, in this case, the Fairy Tales. What I find funny more than anything, Is the fact that a woman who owns a book store full of old, possibly ancient and antique books, told me that a rare book that is 100+ years old was worth nothing. She also mentioned the state of the book, complaining that it was in poor condition. In actual fact,the book itself is in a good condition. It's not falling apart save for an illustration at the beginning of the book and the cover is in great condition considering the age of the book. I am no expert by all means but I have seen books this age in poor condition, not only are they illegible but most are very delicate indeed. I would go as far as saying this book is in great condition and as much as I can praise the store I can't praise the lack of help I received. I didn't expect much for free in terms of evaluation but I did expect more professionalism in terms of knowledge and handling of the subject matter.