Running a cozy small book store where readers can meet and connect about their favorite authors is a dream shared by many book lovers. But beyond the romantic idea, the independent bookstore business is famous for being risky, which is why most people never achieve that dream.
However, there is a creative and popular alternative: Open Book in the coastal town of Wigtown, Scotland, offers a “bookstore vacation” experience in which guests volunteer to run the bookstore during their one- to two-week stay in the apartment above the shop.
“I think what attracts people here is the dream. ‘What if’ – ‘What if I did this with my life,'” explains Jessica Fox, one of the founders of The Open Book. “It feels like you’re the main character in a movie.”
Fox turned his “what if” fantasy into reality by swapping his high-stress career in Los Angeles, where he worked as a film producer for NASA, for a quiet life as a bookseller in Wigtown. Once there, she volunteered at The Bookshop – Scotland’s largest secondhand bookshop – and soon realized she wanted to spend her life in the village and among books. He wrote in a memoir titled “Three Things You Need to Know About Rockets: A Real-Life Scottish Fairy Tale” about how he found his place at Wigtown.
sharing the dream
Fox also decided to share a taste of that fairy tale with the rest of the world. She recalls, “I knew I couldn’t be the only one dreaming of living a different life, a slightly more romantic life, surrounded by books, right by the ocean.” This inspired Fox and others in Wigtown to open a bookshop where people could do exactly the same – but without leaving their daily lives.
Open Book guests are free to rearrange window displays, set store opening hours, and be creative in organizing events, which in the past have included wine tastings, karaoke nights, tea parties, author talks, music sessions, and more.
Open Book debuted in August 2014 and quickly went viral. This concept is extremely popular even today. Its bookstore and apartments are booked two years in advance – as far as the Airbnb calendar allows. New booking options usually open on the first Monday of each month.
Fox explains, “What keeps people here — and we’ve had people come three times and are still waiting — is the community they find.” “I think what everyone is looking for is connection. Especially nowadays, with screens in front of our faces, even though it feels like connection, it’s not. And what people get here in Wigtown is the most wonderful, joyful, analog experience of life.”
Small village saved from title of National Book Town
Wigtown, home to about 1,000 residents, is located on the coast in the south-western Scottish region of Galloway. Despite its size, the town has long been a book lovers’ paradise: the Scottish Parliament officially named Wigtown the National Book Town of Scotland in 1998.
In the same year, the Wigtown Book Festival took place for the first time. The annual festival, which runs from 25 September to 4 October in 2026, offers more than 200 events for people of all ages, bringing £14 million (€16 million, $19 million) to the local economy.
Before those initiatives, Wigtown was economically ruined. Many buildings were abandoned and collapsed, threatened with demolition. According to the Wigtown Book Festival website, there were 83 properties for sale in the village when the festival began. Today there are four.
Joyce Cochrane, owner of The Old Bank Bookshop, also in Wigtown, says: “It’s basically books that have saved Wigtown. Wigtown has risen from the ashes – like a phoenix rising from the ashes – because of books.” “And this is a community that is built on books. It’s an amazing success story.”
Edited by: Christina Barak