For about a month, I've studied abroad in the beautiful city of Edinburgh and absolutely fell in love. I cannot rain platitudes about my experience being abroad enough - but this is a book blog, not my travel blog (which I should update at some point), so I'll be focusing on the literary scene of Edinburgh! Unfortunately my course ended before Edinburgh's book festival (Aug 11 - 17), but I was able to bask in the many bookstores this glorious city offered, from indie to secondhand. What a better way to revive the blog than to bring up bookstores?
The Fruitmarket Gallery
One of the first bookstores I visited while in Edinburgh - there were many art and art history books. There's a gallery that also features the art of local and international artists. For the summer, Tacita Dean's work is featured and the exhibit is titled Woman with a Red Hat.
Waterstones
This bookstore is a UK chain that reminded me of B&N back in NY. They even had a Victoria Schwab event (unfortunately I could not attend). I mostly perused their scifi and YA section and found a copy of A Skinful of Shadows and A Court of Frost and Starlight. They have a huge Harry Potter section, to the point of having a miniature Platform 9 3/4 replica cart (not pictured).
Blackwell's
I couldn't stop visiting this bookstore. It was like the Strand of Edinburgh, but within walking distance. That being said, Blackwell's was one of most affordable indie bookstores, with its BOGO free on classics, or buy 3 for 2 deals. I was able to purchase The Master and Margarita (I've wanted to read this one forever), The Time Machine, Goethe's Faust, and a HC Legendary with the Lady Prisoner on the inside cover.
Tills Bookshop
A short walk from the University of Edinburgh, this corner store bookshop fits so many books in such a small space. I know many of my classmates purchased armfuls of books from this shop.
Armchair Books
If I thought Tills had a lot of books, Armchair was a labyrinth full of them. Twists and turns and books right above our heads. There's even books right at the doorway, which is why it says to keep the door to the store closed so you can see the scifi section! I was able to get my best friend one of the antiquarian books on Norse mythology here and he loved it. There's so many hidden gems here.
Edinburgh Books
Just a short walk from Armchair (Grassmarket had three bookstores on this one street!) was Edinburgh Books. This bookshop had two floors of books ranging from a wide variety of subjects. I was even surprised to find a fishing section and even considered getting a fishing book for my brother here.
My photos and recaps do not even begin to cover the vast amount of bookstores there are in Edinburgh. Several other stores I visited with books include - Lighthouse Books and Barnardo's. Everywhere I looked there were books - in the pharmacies and in the thrift stores. I wish I could have visited them all. After a month in Scotland I've come to realize how proud the people are of their literature (every store had a Scottish lit section!) and how much books mattered in this city. What a wonderful city for a bookworm to be living in.
Also would like to show my haul from book buying + books I brought from home.
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Next up - bookstores of London recap (Saturday) and a review (Friday)!
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