IT might not be everyone’s perfect idea of holiday relaxation but literature-lovers are being given the chance to take a break working in a book shop.
For just £150 a week, guests at The Open Book store are expected to sell books for 40 hours while staying in the flat above the shop in Wigtown, Dumfries and Galloway. The unusual holiday retreat has just been listed on lodging website AirBnB. Holidaymakers will be given training in bookselling from local book experts. They will also have the opportunity to put their “own stamp” on the store while they’re there. “Live your dream of having your very own bookshop by the sea in Scotland for a week or two,” says the online listing. The Open Book is leased by the Wigtown book festival from a local family. “I wouldn’t call it a working holiday,” said festival director Adrian Turpin. “It’s a particular kind of holiday for people who don’t feel that running a bookshop is work. “It’s not about cheap labour it’s about offering people an experience.” The money will just about cover costs, he said, adding: “It can be a hard life, selling books in a small town, so it’s not a holiday for everybody. “Wigtown is Scotland’s national book town, but it’s quite a long way from anywhere. So part of the idea was to get new people in people who would hopefully end up having a long-standing relationship with the town. The Open Book has been leased about 10 times so far by guests including a librarian from Portland, Oregon in the US, a Dutch civil servant and a couple in their 80s who had always wanted to run a bookshop. Ben Please and Beth Porter from The Bookshop Band, which writes and performs songs inspired by books, ran the store in January. They have been asked to return next month to take it on during the festival, from September 25 to October 4.
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