Running a cozy bookshop where readers gather and connect over favorite authors is a romantic notion many book lovers harbor. But independent bookshops are notoriously risky to run, and for most people that dream never becomes reality.
There is, however, a creative alternative in Wigtown, Scotland: The Open Book offers a “bookshop holiday” where guests live in the flat above the store and volunteer to run the shop for one to two weeks. Visitors can arrange the window displays, set opening hours and host events — past activities have included wine tastings, karaoke, tea parties, author talks and music sessions.
Jessica Fox, one of The Open Book’s founders, says people come for the “what if” — the fantasy of stepping into a different life, even if only temporarily. Fox herself traded a high-stress filmmaking career in Los Angeles, where she worked on projects for NASA, for a quieter life among books in Wigtown. After volunteering at Scotland’s largest secondhand bookshop, she settled in the village and later wrote a memoir, Three Things You Need to Know About Rockets: A Real-Life Scottish Fairy Tale, about finding her place there.
The Open Book opened in August 2014 and quickly attracted attention. The concept remains in high demand: the shop and its apartment are typically booked up to two years in advance, as far as the Airbnb calendar permits, and new booking windows usually open on the first Monday of each month. Fox notes that many guests return repeatedly, drawn not only by the novelty but by the sense of community they find. “What everyone’s searching for is connection,” she says, contrasting the analog, face-to-face interactions in Wigtown with the more superficial connections of life online.
Wigtown itself, a coastal village of about 1,000 residents in Galloway, has long been a haven for readers. In 1998 the Scottish Parliament designated Wigtown Scotland’s National Book Town, and that year also saw the first Wigtown Book Festival. The annual festival — which in 2026 runs from September 25 to October 4 — offers more than 200 events and contributes millions to the local economy.
Before these book-centered initiatives, Wigtown faced economic decline, with many vacant or derelict buildings. According to the festival’s website, there were once 83 properties for sale in the village; today there are far fewer. Local bookseller Joyce Cochrane, owner of The Old Bank Bookshop, says books essentially saved Wigtown, helping the community revive and thrive around a shared passion for reading.