A kiosk selling rare and unusual books, from vintage porn to George Orwell, has opened in Exmouth Market. Misty Blegvad, a second-hand book dealer with around a decade of experience, now operates the stall, offering titles spanning art and design, photography, esoterica, popular culture, counterculture, fashion, film, and music.
From Coffee Stall to Cultural Hub
Blegvad took over the kiosk from its former operator, Miguel, who ran it as the Exmouth Cultural Kiosk, trading books and occasionally serving ales in the Clerkenwell street. Miguel had previously revived the disused kiosk by contacting the council, a move Blegvad credits with the stall's existence. “Shoutout Miguel and shoutout the council for having some willingness,” he said. “The willingness of the council is an important factor in all this because if it wasn’t for them, this might just be another coffee stall.”
Blegvad, who also works in the heritage industry, previously sold at Peckham Car Boot, with which he has had a “long and happy history” since its launch in 2019. He described his buying criteria as “kind of broad and loose, but I know it when I see it. Then I buy it.”
AI Drives Demand for Physical Books
According to Blegvad, the pre-loved and vintage books market is experiencing a “meteoric rise, thank goodness,” which he attributes to a broader return to physical media. “It fits into a broader trend of a return to physical media; records, CDs, cassette tapes, VHSs, all this old physical media is really coming back into vogue because people don’t feel like they can trust the digisphere so much anymore,” he explained.
Recent reports have highlighted how AI companies purchase second-hand books to scan and train their models, sometimes destroying the books in the process. In August, the Camden New Journal reported that independent booksellers saw influxes of orders for obscure titles from buyers believed to be acting on behalf of US tech companies. The BBC reported a US court ruling revealing the process “includes removing a book’s spine so all the pages can be scanned rapidly.” Blegvad noted that these stories outraged the bookselling community.
A Curated Collection of Rare Finds
The kiosk’s collection includes 20th-century editions of Interview magazine and porn magazines with a “freaky vintage aesthetic,” alongside several regular books Blegvad buys on repeat either because they sell well or because he “loves them intensely.” One such title is The Bog People by PV Glob, a 1965 study of Iron Age bodies preserved in northern European bogs. “Love this book to death. It’s just amazing,” he said. “I just find it so utterly thrilling and mysterious and fascinating.”
Other frequent items include Charlotte Salomon’s Life? or Theatre?, a graphic autobiography by a German painter murdered at Auschwitz at age 26 and pregnant. The kiosk also stocks biographies, Italian architecture books, novels in French, poetry by Jim Morrison, modern classics from JD Salinger and George Orwell, poetry by EE Cummings, and “anything Pasolini or Fellini-related.” Visitors can also pick up a free copy of the Islington Tribune at the kiosk.
