Cool Idea of the Day: 'Bookselling Residencies'

Shelf Awareness

Wigtown, Scotland's national book town, "is offering members of the public the chance to experience the lifestyle of a bookseller in a series of residencies that will begin at this year's Wigtown Book Festival... and continue for the next 12 months," the Bookseller reported. The Open Book project "will invite interested parties to apply to live in and run a local bookshop, renamed the Open Book, for a period of up to six weeks.... Participants will be given a crash course in bookselling and will be asked to contribute to a blog outlining their experiences, as well as keeping the shop open for a set number of hours a week."

Adrian Turpin, director of the Wigtown Festival Company, said, "For many booklovers, the idea of running a bookshop is a dream. But it can be a tough lifestyle and one that demands dedication and inventiveness, as the many bookshops in Scotland's Book Town show.... The Internet has had a huge effect on booksellers. The Open Book project is intended as an original way to examine some of the issues facing bookshops in the age of Amazon. It will also bring exciting new creative energy to the town."

Part of the inspiration for the project came from American author Jessica Fox, whose Three Things You Need to Know About Rockets chronicled her life-altering decision to leave a job at NASA and move to Scotland to live in a used bookshop. Six years later, she is still there.