A delightful little @jonathancape.bsky.social literary periodical subscription card found in a book today. What ‘particular type of book’ would you fill in on the reverse?

Our little spider has made it into the Daily Record! www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottis...

Our little antique spider is famous! www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinbur...

Apart from being a bit flat it’s looking pretty good for a spider that might be 200 years old… found on the endpaper of ‘Gems, Principally from the Antique’.

Gavin Douglas’s Aeneid, the first complete translation of any major classical work into an English-related language, through the years. The 1553 title-page is here represented by its facsimile in our 1710 printing, photographed also for picture 2.

Arrrr! It be National Talk Like A Pirate Day! And though that be a poor excuse to highlight arrrrrr piratical stock, I be taking it like doubloons from a heavily laden merchant ship! Shiver me timbers! Yo ho ho AND a bottle of rum!

Our Non-Fiction Book Club is back next week

It is no small thing to find yourself represented in the pages of books or in the lives of their authors, especially when your identity is marginalised. (1/3)

We have a lot of vintage paperbacks in stock at the moment, including a few Collins White Circle examples, introduced in the 1930s in response to the success of Penguin Books. I’ve always liked the Crime Club design of two hooded figures, here on a 1936 printing, but used with a few tweaks til 1959.

POV: you’re visiting our stand at the @yorkbookfair.bsky.social York Book Fair today - here until 5pm!

The @yorkbookfair.bsky.social York Book Fair is now open! Come find us at Stand 11 where we have a full display of recent acquisitions. We’re here until 7pm on Friday and 10am to 5pm Saturday.

Piles in preparation for this week’s PBFA @yorkbookfair.bsky.social York Book Fair! We’ll be there on Friday and Saturday this week showing off lots of freshly-catalogued books.

Currently on the #cataloguersdesk is A Comic History of England in its original parts. Part six preserves an advertisement for Dombey and Son, which began publishing in the same format a few months earlier.

Found in a copy of Bob Dylan’s novel Tarantula. The Madrid bookshop La Tarántula faced many attacks from far-right groups in the 1970s, run by translator and activist Gabriela Sánchez Ferlosio. Are there any Spanish booksellers out there who know more about this fascinating bookshop and bookseller?

Setting up our stand at the PBFA September Edinburgh book fair at the Augustine United Church on George IV Bridge went surprisingly quickly… we’re here until 4pm today!

The book fairies have smiled upon us, and we’ve got some excellent titles in the window, many of which are rare to grace the shelves, as they get snapped up so quickly. So come on down and have a browse!

People often ask how to keep their books in good condition, and while there are definitely things to recommend (proper storage) and things to avoid (direct sunlight, damp), sometimes it’s the materials of the books themselves that cause problems.

There’s quite a clear subject split in today’s shelf— first, a fascinating selection of works from and about Central and South America:

We have new @spyglassart.bsky.social stock of cards and prints!

Not sure if anyone is still doing the 10-year challenge? #10yearchallenge

A sharp copy of the first book appearance of the brothers Grossmith’s comic masterpiece The Diary of a Nobody, initially serialised in Punch magazine in 1888-9. www.mcnaughtans.co.uk/product/the-...

An attractive Scots ownership inscription in a book on the #cataloguersdesk today. The book is from 1706, and James Kinloch has signed his name again to the rear with a date of 1710.

In honour of oceanographer Sylvia Earle’s birthday, we’ve sought out a few lovely secondhand offerings that delve into the sea’s life and mysteries. Chief among these are some works by Rachel Carson, whose writing served as a major inspiration for Earle. Which book would you like to dive into?

Delighted with this little influx of works in gender studies, maybe one day we’ll have enough to constitute a whole section!

Details of an engraved title-page currently on the cataloguers’ desk…

What a fake-out from this parcel tracking…

On the #cataloguersdesk today, a guide to sports and pastimes newly updated with rules for activities ‘of rising importance’ at time of publication in 1870: bicycling, baseball, and lacrosse, the latter two recently imported from North America.

Just a wee spotlight on our Classics section, which boasts a fine selection of primary Greek and Latin texts and translations as well as recent and out of print scholarly works on antiquity. We’ll be here until 8pm tonight if you fancy a browse!

Occasionally we come across a nugget of information when researching a catalogue note, that is not relevant to the book in question but is still delightful. Today, I learned that the Perth printers James and Robert Morison both married (to two young sisters) when they were teenagers and lived… (1/2)

Each day begins with a fresh shelf of secondhand books, and it’s been an excellent week so far— AND we’re open until 8pm tonight and Saturday for even more perusing! Hope to see you soon 📚

Some stunning classics gracing the window today, a few sold immediately and so this is the third iteration of the display. With authors like Weil, Spark, Le Guin, Stevenson, and Dostoevsky, whose book would you snatch up?

We’ve got four brand new designs for our bookmarks, ready for you to collect! We have a lot of fun finding illustrations and dreaming up captions for these. Which is your favourite?

Happy birthday Sir Walter Scott!

Sweltering summer days always feel perfectly suited to a paperback, a cold drink, and a spot in the sunshine. We’re open until 8pm tonight and Saturday for evening browsing! Here are a few paperbacks to satisfy that very craving.

A fun and rare hybrid novel and cookbook from 1929 aimed at the juvenile market. It follows a thirteen-year-old girl’s education in the mysteries of the kitchen by her grandmother’s cook. www.mcnaughtans.co.uk/product/the-...

James Nairn was very keen that there was to be no doubt as to his ownership of this 1697 printing of George Buchanan’s History.

Another week, another window, this time with a focus on social history.

Happy to be recognised as the best-smelling bookshop in Edinburgh 👌

Just a little sampling of the delectable poetry and prose fresh on the shelves today.

Currently on the #cataloguersdesk : the secrets of levitation revealed in a 1900 conjuring book. The 4th picture is a diagram of the apparatus needed in case any #edfringe performers want to add some visual interest to their act.

A selection of delights from our children’s section. Come in to browse more or send us a message to enquire about any of these. #childrensbooks

On the #cataloguersdesk, rules and regulations for formations and training from a time when the British Army had more than twice as many troops as it does today.

Just a few favourites from a bookseller’s favourite section: books about books! There’s a whole bay of shelves devoted to everything from bibliography and publishing, to typography and illustration, and all kinds of treasures on reading, language, and writing. What catches your eye here?

A dentist’s advert from 1868, with helpful ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures flanking the letterpress.

The poetry section always seems to have hidden treasures— slim volumes whose spines give little away— so here are a few brought out into the light.

A nice variety recently added to the recently priced shelves!

Recent charity shop finds, soon to go onto the #cataloguersdesk …

Starting next week! Special extended August opening hours mean we will open an hour early, from 10am, every day, plus an extra late-night 8pm close on both Thursdays and Saturdays. These hours will be in operation 4th to 31st August and normal hours resume from 1st September.

Paging through some of the gorgeous new architecture books on the shelves— can anyone guess the architects or buildings highlighted here?

Some decorated initials from a 1602 edition of Terence. I particularly admire the strut on the Q here.