The Bookshop, Wigtown

Largest second-hand bookshop in Scotland

About Shop Online
 

The Bookshop, Wigtown

The Bookshop is the largest second-hand bookshop in Scotland, with over a mile of shelving supporting roughly 100,000 books.

The shop, the oldest bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland’s National Booktown, is home to our extensive range of stock covering all subjects of all ages for all ages. After years of selling through huge online monopolies, we finally decided that we’d had enough of being told what to do by algorithms and built our own online shop.

So wherever you are in the world you can shop at The Bookshop. European Union customers European VAT is paid at checkout so no costly import taxes or postal charges on orders under 150 euros.

We hope you enjoy browsing our independent online shop.

 

Book of the Month

Night Train To Odesa – Covering The Human Cost of Russia’s War

Jen Stout

Jen’s account of her time in Ukraine during the Russian invasion is not political hectoring, nor is it the work of someone who has the machinery of a vast media organisation behind them; it is a moving examination of the consequences of a brutal war on the lives of ordinary people boxed into the corner of a conflict from which they can’t escape, written by someone who had to rely on the kindness of strangers to survive.


The Bookseller’s Books

Remainders of the Day: More Diaries from The Bookshop, Wigtown

The Bookshop in Wigtown is a bookworm’s idyll – with thousands of books across nearly a mile of shelves, a real log fire, and Captain, the bookshop cat. You’d think after twenty years, owner Shaun Bythell would be used to the customers by now. Don’t get him wrong – there are some good ones amoung the antiquarian porn-hunters, die-hard Arthurians, people who confuse bookshops for libraries and the toddlers just looking for a nice cosy corner in which to wee. He’s sure there are. There must be some good ones, right?

Filled with the pernickety warmth and humour that has touched readers around the world, stuffed with literary treasures, hidden hems and incunabula, Ramainders of the Day is Shaun Bythell’s latest entry in his bestselling diary series.

The Diary of a Bookseller

A unique chance to join Shaun Bythell, the owner of The Bookshop, to see behind the scenes of the world that is bookselling. Through his honest and wryly hilarious diaries, we get a very different view of bookselling: one beset with malfunctioning heating, eccentric customers, bad-mannered, bin-foraging employees and a perennially empty till.

Shaun takes us with him on buying trips to old estates and auction houses, recommends books (both lost classics and new discoveries), introduces us to the thrill of the unexpected find, and evokes the charms and horrors of small town life.

International bestseller, The Diary of a Bookseller, has now been translated into twenty-eight languages.

Confessions of a bookseller

Bookselling, Shaun reveals in his sequel to the bestselling The Diary of a Bookseller, is far from the idyll you might imagine. Beset by bizarre requests from customers who appear not to know what a shop is, locked in an endless struggle with Amazon and terrorised by his bin-diving, poultice-making employees, Shaun documents his trials and tribulations with a sharp eye and even sharper wit.

This is the inside story of a life lived in books: from the pleasures of the unexpected find to the friendships forged over shared tastes and the sadness of finishing a really good book, Confessions of a Bookseller will delight and inform until the very last page.

Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops

In twenty years behind the till in The Bookshop, Wigtown, Shaun Bythell has met pretty much every kind of customer there is – from the charming, erudite and deep-pocketed to the eccentric, flatulent and possibly larcenous.

In Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops he distils the essence of his experience into a warm, witty and quirky taxonomy of the book-loving public. So, step inside to meet the crafty Antiquarian, the shy and retiring Erotica Browser and gormless yet strangely likeable shop assistant Student Hugo – along with much loved booksellers favourites like the passionate Sci-Fi Fan, the voracious Railway Collector and the ever-elusive Perfect Customer.

The Book Shop Bag

Now available to buy in our online shop.

Time to leave your comfort zone???

Join our Random Book Club.

Watch

Meet Shaun, tour the Bookshop, meet some of the visitors and staff, plus so much more….

Follow the story on Facebook

Follow us on Facebook for all the latest daily goings on.

Moving? Have Books to sell?

If you’ve got books you’d like to sell, contact us at [email protected], or by phone at 01988 402499.

 

Press

‘Utterly compelling and Bythell has a Bennett-like eye for the amusing eccentricities of ordinary people … I urge you to buy this book and please, even at the risk of being insulted or moaned at, buy it from a real live bookseller.’

- The Diary of a Bookseller - Charlotte Heathcote, Sunday Express

‘All the ingredients for a gentle human comedy are here, as soothing as a bag of boiled sweets and just as tempting to dip into.’

- Confessions of a Bookseller - Adam Douglas, Literary Review
This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to enhance your browsing experience. We use necessary cookies to make sure that our website works. We’d also like to set analytics cookies that help us make improvements by measuring how you use the site. By clicking “Allow All”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyse site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.
These cookies are required for basic functionalities such as accessing secure areas of the website, remembering previous actions and facilitating the proper display of the website. Necessary cookies are often exempt from requiring user consent as they do not collect personal data and are crucial for the website to perform its core functions.
A “preferences” cookie is used to remember user preferences and settings on a website. These cookies enhance the user experience by allowing the website to remember choices such as language preferences, font size, layout customization, and other similar settings. Preference cookies are not strictly necessary for the basic functioning of the website but contribute to a more personalised and convenient browsing experience for users.
A “statistics” cookie typically refers to cookies that are used to collect anonymous data about how visitors interact with a website. These cookies help website owners understand how users navigate their site, which pages are most frequently visited, how long users spend on each page, and similar metrics. The data collected by statistics cookies is aggregated and anonymized, meaning it does not contain personally identifiable information (PII).
Marketing cookies are used to track user behaviour across websites, allowing advertisers to deliver targeted advertisements based on the user’s interests and preferences. These cookies collect data such as browsing history and interactions with ads to create user profiles. While essential for effective online advertising, obtaining user consent is crucial to comply with privacy regulations.