THE New York Times might be the last place you’d expect to hear about a town in the Scottish Borders but that’s exactly what drew Karen Watkins to Wigtown.
Originally from Redlands, California, she came across the now famous Open Book experience in the Scottish town which allows people to fulfil their dream of running their own bookshop.
Watkins and her friend Jane Broussard, from Texas, are the current residents of the store, which is available to book through Airbnb although has a waiting list a couple of years long.
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Guests have come from all over the world to take part in the experience, with a map on the way into the shop listing locations from Hawaii to Beijing.
With the Open Book celebrating its 10th birthday, the Sunday National spoke with the team behind the idea and those who’ve taken part.
Getting started
THE original idea came from filmmaker and author Jessica Fox (below) who has now lived in Wigtown for 16 years having originally lived in Massachusetts.
“I made my way to Wigtown because I had a dream of working in a bookshop by the sea in Scotland,” she explained.
“My love of Scotland made me start thinking I wasn’t the only crazy American dreaming of running a bookshop in Scotland and I wanted people to be able to do that without doing what I did – which is giving up their life to it.
“It turned out I was wrong; people from all over the world – not just the US – have that dream.”
The building which now houses The Open Book was set to close until she teamed up with Rosemary and David Bythell, who bought the building and turned the second floor into a flat while keeping a bookshop downstairs.
The volunteer-run enterprise now helps to raise vital funds for the work of the Wigtown Festival Company.
Joyce Cochrane, of the nearby Old Bank Bookshop, is among the volunteers to help meet and greet the guests and show them the ropes.
“I’m really, really proud of what we’ve achieved – The Open Book has changed all of our lives for the better,” she said.
She also emphasises to people that the shop offers a “blank canvas” and they can transform the store however they choose.
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“It’s been incredible. I grew up in Wigtownshire and would never have imagined in my youth that I would be coming home to welcoming people from as far afield as I have done,” she said.
“It’s opened the doors of Wigtown to the world and the world just keeps coming.”
A book lover’s dream
WATKINS admits that she has always been a book lover herself, admitting that she once brought 76 books home from a trip.
She said she’s been waiting for this experience for eight years after first finding out about the opportunity.
“Needless to say, I love books, I love going to bookshops and this was just a perfect opportunity,” she told the Sunday National.
What’s particularly unique though is that while most Airbnb guests consider themselves visitors, The Open Book offers a chance to really become part of the fabric of the community, with Wigtown designated as Scotland’s national book town in 1998.
Watkins continued: “It has been wonderful. The people are so friendly and nice. Everybody comes in and welcomes you.
“One of the things I like to do for the customers is let them know it’s an Airbnb because most people don’t know that so it’s interesting for them.
“I went to every store here in town and introduced myself and bought one book from every shop and just talked to everybody.”
So, has running her own bookshop lived up to what she hoped?
“Oh definitely. And more – I can’t imagine how full we are going to be with names and places and wonderful people we’ve met by the end of the week.”
‘It’s still surreal to me’
DAISY Yeung, originally from Hong Kong, and her friend Lydia Man, also from Hong Kong but now living in Nottingham, were also among those to take on the Open Book.
“Even though I’ve finished my vacation and I’m back in Hong Kong, the whole thing still feels rather surreal to me,” Yeung said.
“It was the experience of a lifetime.”
Specifically, Yeung came out of Scotland with a much greater understanding of Scotland’s love of crime fiction.
“We really love crime fiction so we enjoyed learning about authors who we didn’t know from the customers.
“We found out about Scottish crime novelists like Peter May and Josephine Tey which were amazing discoveries to us.”
Man was particularly pleased that the pair managed to get some “incredible weather” during their time in Scotland.
“It’s quite lovely. I think because the town is used to having people running The Open Book, when they know you’re in there, they showed an interest.
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“People want to know about us and are so friendly and other bookstore owners invited us to events and to dinner.
“It felt like everybody is very open to visitors so it’s very easy to get into that community.”
She added: “We were just there for a week and we didn’t do a lot of preparation because you don’t know what books they have or what the focus is.”
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