Edinburgh: City of Literature but not Bookshops

The Edinburgh International Book Festival has set up shop in a shared garden a few blocks from us. Unfortunately, I didn't realise that tickets for anything in this festival season have to be booked well in advance so a lot of the authors I wanted to see were sold out by the time I got my act together. Fortunately, it's been mostly the adult events that have been sold out, so I've still been able to indulge my love of children's and Young Adult books. I've gone to two sessions with Chicken House authors Cornelia Funke and Gill Arbuthnott and both of them have been accompanied by their publisher, Barry Cunningham famous for not rejecting J.K. Rowling's novel when it came across his desk. Trivia fact, Cunningham got his start in the book industry by dressing up as a giant puffin.

The other great thing about the book fest is that they've put together an amazing bookstore on site, actually two, one for adults and the other for non-adults. Having access to a great independent bookshop even if it is only for 2 weeks has been a reminder of just how barren the bookshop scene is in Edinburgh, despite it being a UNESCO City of Literature. While there are loads of independent second-hand booksellers, not to mention the charity bookshops, I've only managed to find two independent booksellers who sell brand new books. Word Power Books is the Octopus Books equivalent here, only it takes itself way too seriously. The other independent is a speculative fiction bookstore here, Transreal Fiction, which is a plus for someone who is a speculative fiction fan and writer. However, I read more than SF.

Unfortunately, the bookshops that I've really bonded with have been ones I've met while away from home. I found an amazing bookstore on the Old Square of Prague that had a wall of English-language books. They stocked just about every book I'd ever read and loved as well as just about every book I've wanted to read. However, my very favourite bookshop so far has been Kew Bookshop, a wee place near the London Underground stop for Kew Gardens.

Closer to home but still not close enough, on our recent trip to the Borders area of Scotland, I kept stumbling across bookstores that I'd love to have access to on a weekly basis: The Forest Bookstore in Selkirk, Talisman Books in Melrose, The Main Street Trading Company in St Boswells, and Latimer Books in Kelso. I may be forced to take the two hour bus journey down to the Borders every month or so to soak in those new book vibes.