In 2004 Edinburgh was designated UNESCO’s first ever city of literature because of
various literary legacies of which there are too many to go into detail here.
But as you can also imagine it's also home to many diverse and exciting bookshops
which I would love to take you on a tour of but I decided to focus in specifically on my favourite
book shops in Edinburgh’s old town today, with plans on doing other parts of Edinburgh in future
videos. Edinburgh old town is the oldest part of Edinburgh city centre and it preserves much
of the original medieval street plans of the city. First up is lighthouse books. Now
if you've been to Edinburgh in the past but not for a few years you might recognize this locale
as the home of Wordpower but this bookshop preserves the intention and legacy of Wordpower
books which is that it is a radical bookstore with a focus on books that promote diversity
and education from non-fiction to fiction and you can find a little bit of everything
in here. It's an absolutely incredible selection and I always find something new on their shelves.
It's located not far from Edinburgh university so perfect for any students wandering by.
Their feminism as this sign states is proudly intersectional, they have a bunch of very
specific little categories which you can browse through and you can also buy a book for somebody
else. So you can donate money or a specific book for somebody, who perhaps doesn't have
the funds at the moment, to read something and learn a little bit something too.
According to their website they're also fully wheelchair accessible.
We then have Transreal which is a specialist bookshop dedicated to science fiction and
fantasy books which you can find on Candlemaker Row. I’m an absolute die-hard fan of the
science fiction fantasy genre so this bookshop is obviously one of my favourites. It also has books
that I just never come across in other book shops, old and new in both genres, from authors who are
huge and well known, to authors who you probably have never heard of. Mass market paperbacks are
one of my favourite formats of books and this is pretty much the only bookshop I can find them in.
We then have Blackwell’s in Edinburgh. So this is a chain bookshop in the UK which you can
find locations for dotted across the country, the first of which was established in Oxford and one
of Blackwell’s specialties is providing books to universities so they have a ton of books in here
a ton ton ton ton, and I spent a lot of time here back in my student days. They also, because they
are located in Edinburgh, have a specialist section dedicated to Scottish literature,
both non-fiction and fiction, so if you're visiting the city and want to read a little bit
more from Scottish authors and about Scotland then there's a whole room there for you to choose from.
When you head upstairs you find yourselves in the non-fiction shelves of which there is so so much,
something for everybody including an excellent classics selection.
We then have armchair books which is the only secondhand bookshop to make it onto
this list specifically but it is incomparable when it comes to the second-hand bookshop
sub-genre, I guess, of bookstores you could call it. I love this place, it's an absolute treasure
trove with shelves stacked to the ceilings. Now it is a little bit more um condensed in layout,
it is quite narrow and there's a little bit less space to move around in order to give people,
you know, the space they deserve especially given the times that we're in so I don't have a ton of
footage from inside the bookstore because I wanted to respect that distancing and allow people to
browse themselves but trust me this place is well worth a visit, you will find something.