A book lover's dream holiday in Scotland
Key takeaways
- As UNESCO celebrates World Book Day on April 23, we visit a Scottish coastal town that was saved by books.
- The kind of 'what if' — 'what if I did this with my life,'" Jessica Fox, one of the founders of The Open Book, explains.
- Fox herself turned her "what if" fantasy into reality by swapping her high-stress career in Los Angeles, where she worked as a filmmaker for NASA, for a quieter life as a bookseller in Wigtown.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
As UNESCO celebrates World Book Day on April 23, we visit a Scottish coastal town that was saved by books.
https://p.dw.com/p/5Cb BKThe Open Book, in Wigtown, Scotland, is both a holiday rental and secondhand bookshop Image: DWAdvertisement Running a cozy little bookshop where readers can meet and connect over their favorite authors is a dream shared by many book nerds. But beyond the romanticized idea, the independent bookstore business is renowned for being risky, which is why most people never get to follow that dream.
There is a creative and popular alternative, however: The Open Book, in the coastal town of Wigtown, Scotland, offers a "bookshop holiday" experience in which guests volunteer to run the bookstore during their one- to two-week stay at the apartment above the shop.