From a forgotten bookshop

Will our bookshops disappear?

Aug 07, 2023

Hello, I’m Molly and I write about my slow and simple life in the Scottish Highlands. Please subscribe to support my work and to read more of my stories. You can also find me on YouTube and shop my Slow Scottish Store and sustainable Teemill Clothing.

Nothing silence’s voices quite as effectively as books.

I glance up at the rush of noise as a chatty family walks in, bringing the sounds of the outside world with them.

Yet, in an instant, their voices are hushed. They recognise that this is a place to be respected. That, or they still hold onto the fear of stern librarians…

I continue my mooching. Book-browsing is an athletic sport at times. I squat, stretch and, inevitably, end up carrying around an ever-increasing weight of books.

I am in my favourite bookshop. And yet, it is only one that I stumbled upon recently, despite that fact that it is a mere 5 minutes drive from my home.

Its an unassuming place. On first entering, it appears to be a small, slightly drab space. Filled with plastic bookshelves of contempoary novels. Just a standard second hand bookshop.

On further investigation, it is so much more than that. Once you’ve found the slightly obscured door, and the many rooms this leads to, then the real gems can be found.

I have found all my most beautiful books here.

Its a mismatched place filled with a slight sense of disorder. No polished displays. Fiction sat alongside non-fiction. It is a place that sells books to be read, not to be abandoned on coffee tables.

This is what I love about it.

Bookshops are always somewhere I’ve felt safe. The smell of ink, rustle of pages and squeak of floorboards fills me with a sense of peace. They carry a quiet expectation of yet undiscovered adventures. They are my place of worship.

Yet, our bookshops have been disappearing.

There were 1894 bookshops the UK and Ireland in 1995. By 2016, only 867 were remaining. The fate of these safe havens was looking grim.

However, the tide may be starting to turn.

Since 2017, the number of independent bookshops in the UK and Ireland has been steadily growing and 2023 marked a 10-year high. A staggering recovery that many are putting down to the change of reading habits brought about by lock down and the subsequent explosion of ‘BookTok’.

A brand new generation are falling in love with books. This might just be the saviour our bookshops needed.

With the rise of the digital age, there was always a risk that physical books would be superseded by the more convenient e-books or audio-books. Despite the convenience of these digital counterparts, studies indicate that people still prefer physical books.

For me, having a physical book is vital to my reading experience.

But bookshops do far more than just provide a service. They can have a dramatic impact on communities and add a ‘halo effect’ to local areas. The presence of bookshops can significantly improve economic attractiveness and ‘liveability’ for residents.

Take Wigtown. In 1997, this small town in Dumfries and Galloway was designated as Scotland’s national booktown. This proved to be the lifeline to what had become a diminished community and is now a thriving hotspot and must-visit for booklovers (including myself in September - can’t wait!).

Although absorbed in my own pilgrimage, I couldn’t help but watch the chatty family as they entered that day.

The parents were followed by their teenage son. At first, I presumed he had been persuaded into this family outing and would have no interest in these dusty shelves. But it was clear that, as always, you shouldn’t judge a book…

He was in-amongst them instantly. A seasoned book-browser with all the athletic prowess. I listened as he happily shared titles with his parents. Retold the stories in his own words. Their pride was evident and moving. Just as it should be.

As Marcus Tullius Cicero famously says -