So it is refreshing to hear about someone who has bucked this trend entirely and transformed a weed-infested car parking space behind her bookshop into a tranquil urban sanctuary garden and opened it to the reading public.

That is exactly what Liz Meldon, the lively proprietor of the well-stocked Rathgar Bookshop, has done at the back of her building in Rathgar, Dublin 6. Liz, a keen gardener, stocks an excellent and up-tothe-minute selection of gardening books.

Before this, she owned the equally vibrant Dundrum Bookshop for 15 years, in the old shopping centre. Then along came the new Dundrum shopping centre development and Liz was compelled to leave.

"Quite frankly, I have no regrets at all, " she says. "I'm very happy here. I love Rathgar and have a lovely view, " she says, gesturing to the spire of the big, tree-framed Presbyterian church immediately across the road from her enticing window display. "Rathgar is a real, living place."

And now, to coincide with the shop's first birthday last month, it's got its own reading garden . . . a quiet haven where you can also sip coffee or tea in the dappled shade of trees.

To get to the garden, you go past the stand of architectural and literary reviews and a series of framed New Yorker cartoons, through the dedicated children's section at the back from where music always emanates. In the yard, there are white metal tables and chairs, camellias, new climbers starting to cover the walls and big, generous window boxes packed with a very pretty, double pink Busy Lizzie.

Farther on and you're into a decked sitting area, where the light is filtered by the sheltering trees and there are burgeoning plantings of ferns, anemones, clematis and the usually tender, very attractive and clinging climber, Rhodochiton, which has, amazingly, survived the winter out there.

"It's very sheltered, " says Liz.

There are candles and lights for when the evenings are dusky but still warm.

The bookshop and its reading garden is at 100 Rathgar Road and opens six days a week until 6pm, with late opening until 8pm on Thursday.

While a general bookshop, Liz specialises in gardening books and welcomes any gardeners and would-be gardeners to visit and take a browse.

For more information contact 01-4928600 rathgarbooks@eircom. net