Book Stores In Glasgow City Centre
I’m going to say something controversial: Glasgow’s bookshops are better than its pubs. And I say that as a dedicated drinker who once argued with a bouncer about the merits o...
I’m going to say something controversial: Glasgow’s bookshops are better than its pubs. And I say that as a dedicated drinker who once argued with a bouncer about the merits of a pint. The city centre is a chaotic nest of bookery, from sacred temples of literature to chaotic piles of paper that look like a dragon’s hoard. You can get lost in here for hours, and that’s before you even find the rare edition of Glasgow’s Sewage System: A Pictorial History.
The Heavyweight Champion: Waterstones on Sauchiehall Street
Let’s start with the big boy. Waterstones on Sauchiehall Street is a seven-floor behemoth that smells like ambition and expensive coffee. It’s the kind of place where you go in for one book and leave with a biography of a 16th-century potato farmer. I swear the escalator pulls you upward into sections you didn’t know existed.
The café on the top floor is a trap. You go up there for a “quick look” and suddenly it’s dark outside, you’ve finished a latte, and you’ve bought three books about Viking navigation. The staff wear badges that say “Ask me for a recommendation,” which is a dangerous invitation for someone like me who will ask about fish-related detective novels.
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The Chaos Monster: Caledonia Books
Run, don’t walk, to Caledonia Books on Great Western Road. This place is a glorious disaster zone. The books are stacked floor to ceiling, and the owner has clearly given up on the Dewey Decimal System in favor of “vibes”. You’ll find a first edition of Robert Louis Stevenson wedged next to a forgotten manual on how to fix a 1973 toaster.
It’s a labyrinth of paper. I once watched a man spend forty minutes trying to extract a single volume from a pile, only to realize the pile was load-bearing. Don’t come here if you have claustrophobia or a tidy mind. Do come if you want to buy a book that smells like your gran’s attic and cost about the same as a bag of chips.
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The Specialist: Thistle Books
Hidden on Royal Exchange Square, Thistle Books is for the serious nerd. They specialize in Scottish history, but also stock a shocking amount of old sci-fi. You want a 1920s guide to Highland sheep shearing? They’ve got it. You want a battered copy of Dune with a cover that looks like someone drew it on a napkin? Also there.
The shop is tiny, about the size of a lift. Breathing is optional. If you cough too hard, you’ll knock over a stack of books about the Jacobites. The owner has the quiet aura of a wizard who has seen things, and he will judge you if you pick up a Dan Brown novel. It’s delightful.
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The Survival Guide
Here is a surprising fact: Glasgow has over twenty independent bookshops within a square mile. That’s more bookstores per capita than most Scottish towns have pubs. Another fun fact: The original Waterstones on Sauchiehall Street used to be a department store called Lewis’s, which is why it has the escalators and the weird layout. You can still find a ghost of a perfume counter in the basement.
My advice? Start at Waterstones to orient yourself, then flee to Caledonia for the chaos. Hit Thistle Books for the weird stuff, and always ask the staff what they’re reading. They will passionately tell you about a Finnish novel about a forest troll, and you will buy it. Glasgow’s bookshops are a literary pub crawl, and you don't need a designated driver.
Just bring a big bag. You’ll need it.
