Seriously!? Dammit to hell.
Well, that’s one Charing Cross bookshop I certainly won’t be returning to . . .
The giveaways are always the paper. If it comes out of the photocopier while you’re there it’s not considered real, because paper was cruder in the 17th century. (It was also expensive because it was still made out of a combination of hardwood and the flesh of unbaptized French children.)
The “Harvard students must be able to swim before graduation due to multimillionairess benefactor Mrs. Widener’s son drowning on the Titanic” is an old legend with no truth value, but there is a Harvard U/Widener Library/Titanic connection to Shakespeare’s first folio. Harry Elkins Widener (27 and a bachelor who lived with his super rich mother) had the ambition of owning every First Folio in existence, and was actually en route to an auction when he drowned. He actually had a seat in one of the first lifeboats, but left it to go retrieve a first edition of Bacon’s Essais left in his stateroom and by the time he did there were no lifeboats available. Presumably the Bacon and some other of his literary treasures he’d bought up in Europe are still down there somewhere if they weren’t gobbled by guppies over the last century (give or take 3 years), though I’m guessing they’ve developed a little shopware by now.
Since no one has mentioned it I’ll put in a good word for the Bevington Shakespeare which now comes in a paperback multi-volume portable edition. It’s a little pricey though you can get used ones (and even a really cheap used one if you don’t mind it being an older edition). The annotation is great.
I actually liked carrying around my non-portable hardcover copy back in my student days. I felt as though I not only had the complete works of Shakespeare on hand but also an awesome blunt object should one be necessary.
I think a well annotated Complete Works of Shakespeare would be one of the greatest things you could have on Kindle or that Sony Reader. Nobody wants to lug around a 40 pound book, but it’d be great if you could read it that way and then cross reference with another book also in the kindle.
Even as one who lugged in good cheer, I see the virtue of this (though for myself I still like reading things like Shakespeare on paper).
As you probably know, Amazon has a place you can click to tell the publisher your wish.