http://www.edinburghbooks.net Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:34:35 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Once in a while we all need some escapism. Some reach for a Terry Pratchett, others pick up an Agatha Christie to get their minds off the cares of the day. My escapist reading is, well, it's literally escapism. Ever since I was given a copy of Donald Caskie's 'The ... http://www.edinburghbooks.net/burns-night-on-the-oder-1945/ Apologies for the lack of recent blogging activity. I have been out to pasture for over a year but I’m fed up with grazing(pun intended) and intend to blog much more frequently…at least one entry every six months. I was just pricing a wee book of poems by the late Neil ... http://www.edinburghbooks.net/a-couple-of-poems/ 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 of Alice in Wonderland complete with Tenniel-like illustrations ... http://www.edinburghbooks.net/beware-the-ulsterman-my-son/ 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 last chapter, but there my liberalism ends. So, my story will ... http://www.edinburghbooks.net/in-the-beginning/ 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 Court of Charles the Second' by Anthony Hamilton.The inscription to ... http://www.edinburghbooks.net/book-inscriptions-1/ 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 piece of paper and "From Popular Antiquities Pub. 1810" was ... http://www.edinburghbooks.net/a-scotch-carol/ Edinburgh Books has been a landmark for book lovers for more than twenty years. Formerly known as West Port Books, it was saved by the skin of its teeth from becoming yet another café in 2006 by William Lytle. This off-beat Edinburgh bookshop has a huge, wide ranging stock of second-hand ... http://www.edinburghbooks.net/welcome/ 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 standing and do everything but peer between the first customer's ... http://www.edinburghbooks.net/move-over-skinny-dog/ I don't think we have a huge problem with theft but then again, I just don't know. There are eight fairly sizeable rooms in the shop with thousands of books in each of them and although I try, it's impossible to keep an eye on every book we sell. ... http://www.edinburghbooks.net/dirty-rotten-thieves/ One of the great things about working in a secondhand bookshop is being able to listen to the radio or the music of your choice whenever you like, which for me is most of the day. When I bought the property, along with the shelves, a few chairs and a ... http://www.edinburghbooks.net/thank-you-for-the-music/