I blog from Charing Cross Road, London, where I just visited Henry Pordes Books, Any Amount of Books, and Quinto. It was at this last shop where I made a transaction. I'm travelling light, so I had to be discriminating in my choices. This meant forgoing a cheap, hardback set of Karl Popper's Open Society and Its Enemies (which I have long coveted). I did purchase Richard Hofstadter's Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, a biography of early U.S. socialist Joseph Wedemeyer published by the infamous International Publishers, and Earl Browder's Marx and America: Why Communism Failed in America, which, as the title indicates, was written after Stalin ousted Browder from his longtime spot as leader of the CPUSA. In addition to my forays into the famous used bookshops of Charing Cross Road and Cecil Court, I glimpsed Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the London Eye. Passing through Sloane Square, Picadilly Circus, and Vauxhall is enough to make me feel as if I were in a Morissey song. I depart the land of Morissey, Monty Python, and soccer hooligans named Nigel later today, to return briefly next week.

Why not buy the books (e.g., Popper) in London, stash them in a locker at the airport, and pick them up on your way back through? Travel light and get the books.

Hope you got a chance to see the Tower of London. A great tour and lots of cool torture devices.

Almost like having to sit through a John Kerry speech.