Now there’s been a few hours to recover from the morning foolery, can we interest you in a text to prepare your japes for next year’s April Fools? Featuring a mischievous Uncle Fester type on the jacket designed by Charles Addams.

For your edification and delight, some puddings from The Lady of The Lake cookbook, issued in 1907 for the Trossachs Parish Church Bazaar, and currently on the #cataloguersdesk

Poor Harry. From an 1802 printing of “the Universal Spelling-Book”.

A fresh window full of delights!

To mark International Women’s Day, a post highlighting some international women, with selected highlights from our travel cabinet which feature accounts of female travellers from 1859 to 1965.

The sun is absolutely glorious today, and the window is full of treasures—including a copy of The Hobbit that is just itching to find a home in somebody’s pocketses.

Happy St David’s Day! To celebrate, here’s our 1718 Welsh Bible. This copy also contains the Apocrypha (issues without were available depending on your religious affiliation) and maps.

Just a wee shout and a holler about this Sherlock Homes set currently gracing the shelves, as Conan Doyle never lingers very long here. Today and tomorrow are the last days of our February sale, so it’s the perfect time to build a stack while browsing!

He saw the weather written on the pane as he buckled on his gaiters, shouldering the hammer to walk the lane spooked with his breath, to the pond at the extremity of his acres… —Lorn Macintyre, “Bonspiel” published in Snowball in Summer (Argyll, 2009) #poem #poetry #curling #WinterOlympics 🥌

With all the excitement around curling recently I thought I’d look out a couple of related limited-edition books from the 1880s that we currently have in stock and available from our website.

A copy of Discipline And Punish in this 80s metal typeface would be especially gnarly, I think. I’m sad this Foucault branding didn’t catch on, but if any bands are looking for a new name and logo, this one’s potentially going begging.

We’ve filled the shelves back up and the special sale in the shop continues until the end of February! Buy 3 or more books at once and get 20% off.

Happy Valentine’s Day! There is still time to declare your love to that special someone with this 1820 collection of verses with a hand-coloured frontispiece, or to send this post to your beaux as something of a hint, if you feel like the flowers haven’t cut it this year.

Couldn’t resist snapping a few pictures of these before they head into the window display for the week— we have really been able to grow our selection of books on witchcraft, gender, and social history recently. Come along and browse these and more before they’re gone!

WEBSITE SALE: If you can’t get into our shop for our shop sale, don’t feel left out - we also have a special discount code for orders on our website, also valid until end February. Use discount code FSL20DGB at checkout for 20% off any order on our website. Go to mcnaughtans.co.uk to browse!

SHOP SALE: we have boxes and boxes of lovely books in storage and need to make some room on the shelves to fit them in the shop. Until the end of February, buy three or more books at once in the shop and get 20% off! The discount will be automatically applied to qualifying purchases at the till.

Found in a book today, a brightly coloured bookmark illustrating William Tell shooting an apple off his son’s head.

It’s Burns Night and we’re celebrating Scotland’s national poet! Did you know the first collected edition of Burns’s writing was published not in Scotland, but in Liverpool? This copy was then bound in Manchester before eventually coming to Dumfriesshire in the library of a late 19th-century owner.

Some academic sexuality material hitting the shelves this cold January morning- we are open til 5 today for all your bookish needs.

Happy birthday John Vanbrugh! Born #onthisday in 1664. As well as a modern paperback, we have a 1735 printing of his 1697 play Aesop.

There are some intriguing delights in today’s new window display, including Dickens’ Italian travelogue, a history of London Fog, a number of books on the history of madness and medicine. And I must say, it looks even brighter and cosier than usual amidst the grey and rain outside.

It’s turned a bit wet outside and these illustrations by Willy Pogany for The Rime of the Ancient Mariner are feeling very atmospheric…

Very taken by the grumpy face of this angelic creature on the spine of a 19th-century manual of reproductive health currently on the #cataloguersdesk

While we’re still deep in winter, I can’t resist opening up this stunning picture book on the plant world from 1857. With text written by English novelist Charlotte M. Yonge, the plates in this book were arranged by Haddington-born Robert Mackenzie Stark, who worked as a nurseryman in Edinburgh.

We rarely manage to keep any Virginia Woolf in stock for long, so it’s a joy to have such a lovely selection of her work out on the secondhand shelves at one time! Come along and have a browse before they all get snapped up!

On the #cataloguersdesk today, a little collection of Arkham House publications including several by H P Lovecraft.

A beautiful book on my desk just now.

All set up at the @yorkbookfair.bsky.social New Year book fair! We’re here until 4.30pm today only with over 100 other booksellers from around the country.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on this day in 1892, and his books are so wildly popular they rarely last a week or even a day on our shelves before being snapped up. So here is a little volume in praise of the twentieth century’s ‘most magnificent teller of tales’.

Happy New Year everyone!

We are open today, Christmas Eve, until 5pm! Then closed through 1st January - back from 11am on the 2nd. Enjoy your holidays!

Today, four titles from the recently-priced shelves that could, at a push, also double as episode titles for 90s teen dramas. We’re open until 5pm on Christmas Eve, so there’s still time to treat yourself or a loved one to some books.

Our children’s section is freshly restocked with beloved classics and delightful adventures just in time for a last minute gift for readers of any age. Whether you’re introducing someone small to a new story, or finding something to bring back memories, there’s plenty to discover!

We’ve got penguin, panther, pan & pelican paperbacks galore! Here’s a tree of just a handful of the titles recently priced, but there’s plenty more to peruse. Is there a title or author you’ve been searching for?

Adding to the chorus of birthday commemorations for Jane Austen, born #otd exactly 250 years ago - please enjoy this scarce 1851 edition of Emma - described by Janine Barchas as being produced ‘in defiance of copyright and good manners’.

Take your places please for today’s thing #foundinbooks, a dance ticket inside a 1953 Penguin printing of Virginia Woolf.

We’ve been busy packing up orders the past few days, and we just wanted to remind everyone of our last postage dates! Any international orders placed by end of day Thursday 18th December, and any UK orders placed by end of day Sunday 21st December can be sent out to arrive in time for the holidays.

It’s December already! We’ll be open as usual through Wednesday, Christmas Eve, then closed Christmas Day through New Year’s Day for a holiday break. After Hogmanay normal hours resume from Friday 2nd January.

An explosive bookplate on the #cataloguersdesk this morning, that puts this cataloguer in mind of the soldiers at Pippin Fort in Camberwick Green.

A very intriguing book on the cataloguer’s desk today— psychic Margaret Underhill claims to have received the text here in automatic writing from the psychologist William James. With scant biographical information online, this will be a delightful rabbit hole to disappear into for a short while…

A signed, limited set of Alasdair Gray’s first novel, winner of the Saltire Society book of the year prize in 1982 and a landmark of contemporary Scottish fiction. www.mcnaughtans.co.uk/product/lana...

We are very excited to be working on the new extension of our business. In 2026 we are planning to open Spyglass Books, a new bookshop for children’s and illustrated books.

A previous owner has annotated the index of this 1720 printing of Herodotus with topics he felt should have been included, among them the shape of camels (four thigh bones and four knee bones to the rear, apparently).

I have twice glanced at this yellowback currently on the #cataloguersdesk and seen a grotesque two-headed, eight-legged beast depicted there, only to look closer and see that, more prosaically it is 2 horses, one behind the other.

Absolutely charmed by these illustrations from Orlando the Marmalade Cat’s 1952 Seaside Holiday by Kathleen Hale. These photographs are from a just-landed modern facsimile reprint.

Some highlights from our substantial Classics section.

If you happen to be in Edinburgh...stop by @mcnaughtans.co.uk if you can!

Some lovely vintage Penguin paperbacks currently in available in our shop.

Before and after of our setup at the PBFA Edinburgh one-day book fair today - we’re here at the Augustine Church Hall on George IV Bridge until 4pm!

A window full of Norse and medieval treats to kick off November! And who doesn’t love a book about bog bodies?