Rent a flat, run a shop (no word on whether there's a cat)
March 3, 2016 11:47 AM   Subscribe

Planning a trip to Scotland and want to get away from boring old Edinburgh, maybe just catch up on your reading? Think about staying in Wigtown, "Scotland's National Book Town". Specifically, think about staying in an apartment above The Open Book, an actual book shop. It's only £28 per night, with a minimum stay of 6 nights. Oh, and one other requirement: you will be running The Open Book, with the help of professional booksellers and volunteers.

The shop and Airbnb listing are courtesy of the Wigtown Book Festival, which will be running its official program from September 23rd to October 2nd this year, but the flat and shop are available for rent year-round. Guests can even contribute to the shop's Tumblr.

Plan ahead -- the next available week seems to be in January 2018.

via Neatorama
posted by Etrigan (47 comments total) 25 users marked this as a favorite
 
No cat, no deal.
posted by louche mustachio at 11:53 AM on March 3, 2016 [4 favorites]


You should also cut your hair, though you'll never get it right.
posted by Dr Dracator at 12:02 PM on March 3, 2016 [8 favorites]


Shut up and take my money!
Where's my passport???
posted by Billiken at 12:10 PM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]


How is there not a cat? This seems both a ridiculous and easily correctable oversight.
posted by thivaia at 12:19 PM on March 3, 2016


£28 a night to live in a Belle & Sebastian song?

Not bad...
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:28 PM on March 3, 2016 [13 favorites]


I don't mean to be a wet blanket*, but is this even legal? If you're working in a foreign country don't you have to get a special visa or permit? Sounds pretty awesome though. You can bring a friend too, though there's only one bed. It's not clear if they'll work the shop too.

* Just kidding, it's what I live for.
posted by ODiV at 12:46 PM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]


If you're working in a foreign country don't you have to get a special visa or permit?

There's no pay involved, which probably helps.
posted by Etrigan at 12:48 PM on March 3, 2016 [3 favorites]


You want to read with common people?
You want sell and buy whatever common people read?
You want to sleep above common people?
You want to sleep near common people that twee?
You booked AirBnB.
Because there's no outstanding fees.

posted by maryr at 12:50 PM on March 3, 2016 [21 favorites]


If you're working in a foreign country don't you have to get a special visa or permit?

Not usually for short-term volunteer work.

This is basically my dream in life and the absence of cats is a bonus because the only ones I'm not allergic to are the greedy little Neko Atsume-tachi.
posted by betweenthebars at 12:51 PM on March 3, 2016


So let me get this straight: I pay to work in your bookstore? What a bargain!!
posted by kittens for breakfast at 12:53 PM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]


Cat required.

Also acceptable: a lazy, won't-move-away-from-the-front-door-so-people-have-to-step-over-him Labrador Retriever or other such dog who lives only for belly rubs.
posted by cooker girl at 12:55 PM on March 3, 2016 [10 favorites]


Planning a trip to Indiana and want to get away from boring old Indianapolis, maybe just catch up on your gardening? Think about staying at my house.

It's only $50 per night, with a minimum stay of 6 nights. Oh, and one other requirement: you will be gardening my garden, with the help of professional supervisors and small, easily distracted volunteers.
posted by leotrotsky at 1:06 PM on March 3, 2016 [27 favorites]


So this is Black Books LARPing? Please tell me that one of your professional bookselling assistants has recently ingested a little book of calm...
posted by PeteTheHair at 1:07 PM on March 3, 2016 [26 favorites]


It's only $50 per night, with a minimum stay of 6 nights. Oh, and one other requirement: you will be gardening my garden, with the help of professional supervisors and small, easily distracted volunteers.
posted by leotrotsky at 4:06 PM on March 3 [+] [!]


Reverse-eponysterical?
posted by zombieflanders at 1:13 PM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]


Rent a flat above a shop
Hand around and watch some Scots
Sell some books you think are cool
Pretend you went to too much school
But still you'll never get it right
'Cause when you're laid in bed at night
And watching ivy climb the wall
When you go back home you've no shop at all

posted by maryr at 1:13 PM on March 3, 2016 [21 favorites]


This is everything I dream of (though could be topped by a similar arrangement working at a record store in Glasgow instead ). I definitely would yell "my oven can cook bits of oven! " every night while cooking dinner.
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 1:26 PM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


I am completely unsurprised that a significant number of mefites would pay money to live in a belle & sebastian song.

(I would pay money to live in a belle & sebastian song)
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 1:29 PM on March 3, 2016 [5 favorites]


'cause you think BOOKS

are COOL

posted by dismas at 1:38 PM on March 3, 2016 [4 favorites]


don't you hate it though when your belle and sebastian life gets a pulp song stuck through it and suddenly you've got to worry about things like money and class and power instead of just spending all your time gently gazing out a bus window at the rain while wiftily thinking about the salvific power of pop music?
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 1:43 PM on March 3, 2016 [18 favorites]


Can I deep fry the books?
posted by srboisvert at 1:45 PM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]


I'd last about a half an hour, and then someone would call the coppers after I shouted IAIN M. FUCKING BANKS! for the fourteenth or so time.
posted by Sphinx at 1:46 PM on March 3, 2016 [3 favorites]


i saw the pictures and immediately got this stuck in my head

(not complaining, i would also totally pay good money to live in a b&s song for a week)
posted by burgerrr at 1:58 PM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


I just paused the belle & sebastian song I was listening to to listen to that belle & sebastian song.

achievement unlocked: descent into total self-parody.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 2:00 PM on March 3, 2016 [11 favorites]


don't you hate it though when your belle and sebastian life gets a pulp song stuck through it and suddenly you've got to worry about things like money and class and power instead of just spending all your time gently gazing out a bus window at the rain while wiftily thinking about the salvific power of pop music?

Get out of my life.

Also, instead of going to Wigtown, just stay in Glasgow and hang around the used book shops. Stuart Murdoch usually pops up after a while.
posted by kariebookish at 2:02 PM on March 3, 2016 [6 favorites]


Well, as the manager of the shop, I suppose one could acquire and install a cat if one wished.
posted by amtho at 2:06 PM on March 3, 2016 [3 favorites]


I guess I'd have to pay more to realise my dream of running a book shop like Bernard Black. A lot more.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 2:19 PM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


Can I deep fry the books?

Being Scotland, the answer is always yes.
posted by Celsius1414 at 2:33 PM on March 3, 2016 [4 favorites]


mfw
posted by turbid dahlia at 2:56 PM on March 3, 2016 [4 favorites]


I dunno, man, this sounds right up my alley
posted by Hermione Granger at 3:07 PM on March 3, 2016


I dunno what alley it's up, but I'm looking at Wigtown on google maps and I can't find Diagon anywhere.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 3:14 PM on March 3, 2016 [5 favorites]


Holiday mystery solved! My wife and I were in this shop this summer and got the vibe that the people running it hadn't been there long. We overheard them mention to a local that they were pleasantly surprised by the selection and were discussing an American couple who has just finished the week before. My impression is that in addition to running the shop you get to be the object of curiosity in Wigtown for the week.
posted by nangua at 3:16 PM on March 3, 2016 [8 favorites]


I don't mean to be a wet blanket*, but is this even legal? If you're working in a foreign country don't you have to get a special visa or permit?

If you get far enough into the listing they're pretty careful to make clear you don't have any obligation to do any work.

"Please note that this is not a volunteer opportunity, nor are we paying you to work. This is a holiday that you are paying for, classified under cultural tourism and you can enjoy the bookshop as you wish."

So, while they might be a bit sad if you just used the B&B bit and ignored the shop, they wouldn't actually do anything to make you do any work.
posted by howfar at 3:41 PM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]


My impression is that in addition to running the shop you get to be the object of curiosity in Wigtown for the week.

That's...actually kind of brilliant, as a marketing strategy. How do you get the locals to come in more often? Basically turn your shop into a reality show.

Might even work better than a cat.
posted by Lyn Never at 3:48 PM on March 3, 2016 [4 favorites]


What if the bookstore vacationer is a cat? Maybe a nice couple of Maine Coons from Portland?
posted by leotrotsky at 4:25 PM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


This is everything I dream of (though could be topped by a similar arrangement working at a record store in Glasgow instead ). I definitely would yell "my oven can cook bits of oven! " every night while cooking dinner.

Honey, we're librarians. This is a bit of a busman's holiday for us.

(Although I like how even though we're on vacation, you're cooking dinner for us! Take that, Emotional Labor Thread!)
posted by robocop is bleeding at 4:26 PM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]


I just paused the belle & sebastian song I was listening to to listen to that belle & sebastian song.


None more twee. Hey, how do you keep from damaging your ukuleles when you take your Vespa crosstown?
posted by leotrotsky at 4:29 PM on March 3, 2016 [3 favorites]


> Hey, how do you keep from damaging your ukuleles when you take your Vespa crosstown?

well it's simply too risky. we'll have to walk instead. come on get your umbrella and put on your sweater.

we can have a halting but emotionally intense conversation along the way.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 4:53 PM on March 3, 2016 [7 favorites]


I'm ordering a slough of absurdist fiction on my week. Also, I am replacing the tea kettle with a red bull station. I think I'll expand their collection to include the complete works of Tim Allen.
posted by Nanukthedog at 4:58 PM on March 3, 2016




You can also stay at Paris's Shakespeare & Co. in return for reading a book a day.

Which has cats, as is only right and proper.
posted by notquitemaryann at 7:02 PM on March 3, 2016


My kids love going to the OpenBook because it's a different set of staff each time and some of them really don't mind striking a bargain, whereas trying to barter in the other bookshops in Wigtown is relatively dangerous (if getting a frown from a second-hand bookseller is your idea of danger...).
posted by BoundlessJoy at 1:58 AM on March 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


I feel like this is the kind of thing where you'd see me enthusiastically greeting my first customer and then an immediate cut to all of us standing on the sidewalk watching the shop burn down to it's foundation.
posted by um at 2:44 AM on March 4, 2016 [16 favorites]


There was just a slight smell of mold

I'm out.

Besides that - you get other people to pay you to run your shop? As business plans go, this is both genius and appalling.
posted by IndigoJones at 5:50 AM on March 4, 2016


confession: i never actually watched or listened to pulp's version of common people until today (i have heard and enjoyed Shatner's version off of Has Been)

the music video for the original is...a thing.
posted by dismas at 10:25 AM on March 4, 2016


and now i'm going down a horrible 90s music video spiral
posted by dismas at 10:27 AM on March 4, 2016


I'm sorry comrade, but I cannot be in solidarity with anyone who thinks that video is anything but perfect.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 12:04 PM on March 4, 2016


You couldn't nail that aesthetic today if you tried. And Forever 21 has.
posted by maryr at 8:08 PM on March 5, 2016


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