Edinburgh’s Book Quarter
Six independent bookshops, one bookbinder; the West Port boasts a concentration of bookshops that is unparalleled in most British cities. Each bookshop has its own atmosphere and ethos. All are home to the ineffable workings of serendipity.
There is Andrew Pringle Booksellers, the always amusing Armchair Books (plus dog), Main Point Books, Peter Bell Books and a specialist foreign language bookshop with no name. There is also, just down the hill, the Owl & Lion Gallery, where you’ll find Isabelle Ting, our local book binder. Scottish Pictures is an essential stop for print and map enthusiasts, whilst the Old Town Bookshop, although situated five minutes away on fashionable Victoria Street, is a spiritual brother of the West Port bookshop crowd.
Twitter Feed
- That should have been WelcomE @redbrickchapel
- Welcom aboard @redbrickchapel
- Bitch wanted to produce puppies from bookshop dog Struan the collie - see pictures - http://bit.ly/azXJdP
- Little old lady just brought in "Dosworth" 1st ed. by Sinclair Lewis signed & dedicated "Dear Vita & Harold, all our love - Sinclair Lewis"
- Clarence believes that nasty, grubby,foul-mouthed men who smoke in our doorway ought to have a bucket of water thrown over them. I agree.
Recent blog entries
- Beware the Ulsterman my son...
I bought a wee book at the auction today called Malice in Kulturland by Horace Wyatt, published by The Car Illustrated in 1915. It’s a satire on the political situation in Europe at the start of the Great War in the style…
- In the beginning...
It has gone out of fashion in these post-modern times, but stories used to begin with a beginning, progress to a middle and conclude with an ending. Open-minded as I am, I have never minded a slight twist in the…
- Book Inscriptions # 1
You find all sorts of inscriptions in books, usually on the front endpaper, from the plain name and address to pledges of undying love. I came across one today at the front of a copy of ‘Grammont’s memoirs of the…
- A Scotch Carol
You find all sorts of interesting things stuck inside books: letters, tickets, obituaries, even money.
Today I found a Carol – a Scotch (or Scots) Carol in fact which I will now commit to cyberspace. It was typed on a small… - Move over skinny dog
Some customers are just funny. Funny peculiar I mean, not Funny ha-ha, though we have our fair share of those too.
One peculiar thing that these funny customers do is to go straight to a section where somebody else is already…