00:00Would you volunteer to run a bookstore without pay during your vacation?
00:06Three sisters from the US have been waiting three years for this special vacation in Scotland.
00:12We're joining them to find out if the dream of life as a bookseller lives up to its promise.
00:19Ready to go.
00:21Jennifer, Jill and Jamie traded a week of their lives in Columbus, Ohio for a week renting this bookstore.
00:31Jill, I just found a book called A Street Cat Named Bob.
00:34Oh, I love that book. Have you read it?
00:37What? A Street Cat Named Bob?
00:40It is a feel-good book.
00:43Should we put it in the feel-good section instead of fiction?
00:45It is a feel-good.
00:47Then here, give it to the feel-good section.
00:49We were all big readers as kids, and then as we became adults, we just continued to read,
00:54and it just really gives us something to do together. We love book clubs.
00:58Even when we go on vacation, we go on vacation to this one trip every two years,
01:02and I tell my sisters and my mom, don't bring any books.
01:06And I curate a box for each of them of special books that I've saved.
01:11They aren't booksellers, but a professor, an HR manager, and a hospital employee.
01:16For one week, they get to run the store however they like.
01:21The open book is financed by guest rentals.
01:25The proceeds from the sale of mostly used books go towards the book festival in the small town of Wickton.
01:31There's a little bit of everything, even new books.
01:35There's new book displays.
01:38I was just over in the warfare section.
01:40There's sport and...oh, a customer.
01:45Hello, welcome. Come on in.
01:47Hello.
01:47Hello.
01:48Hi.
01:48We volunteer this week.
01:51These are all authors from Ohio, where we're from.
01:54I did not know.
01:55Oh, Captain Underpants?
01:56Yeah, I didn't know he was from there.
01:58He is.
01:58My son loves that.
02:01Most of the customers are tourists.
02:03But locals also come by to meet the rotating shopkeepers from all over the world.
02:08Jennifer discovered the open book on social media in 2023.
02:12It took her six months to book an available rental.
02:16Three years later...
02:19We decided if any of us can ever get a week, we're just going to go.
02:23Like, it doesn't matter when it is, we're going to make it happen.
02:26So I was out to dinner with my husband and some friends, and it was just a habit to always
02:31check.
02:31And they all looked over and I said, oh, it's open.
02:35I was getting ready to go to bed and get a text and it said, this is not a drill.
02:39This is real.
02:40The open book has a week.
02:42And so she's like texting me.
02:43I was like, can you look right now?
02:45She's like, right now.
02:46The bookstore was Jessica Fox's idea.
02:49The American writer first came to Wickton as a visitor and stayed.
02:54In 2015, she opened the bookstore for rent.
02:57Since then, guests from all over the world fulfilled their dream of running a bookstore here.
03:06I think what draws people here is the dream.
03:09The kind of what if.
03:10What if I did this with my life?
03:12It feels like a movie.
03:13It feels like you're kind of the main character in a movie.
03:15And what keeps people here, and we've had people come like three times and still wait, is the community that
03:21they find.
03:22I think what everyone's searching for is connection.
03:26And especially nowadays with the screen in front of our faces, although it feels like connection, it isn't.
03:32And what people get here in Wigtown is the most brilliant, joyful, analog experience of life.
03:40But why Wigtown of all places?
03:42In the 1990s, this town in southwest Scotland was an economic ruin.
03:47Stores stood empty and young people were moving away.
03:51Then Wigtown was designated Scotland's book town.
03:55Today, the town is a magnet for book lovers.
03:57The annual book festival brings in more than 4 million pounds, nearly 6 million US dollars, to the local economy.
04:04There are more than a dozen bookstores for its 900 people.
04:08Joyce Cochrane opened one of the first in 2004, where she hosts events like the Silent Book Club.
04:18It is essentially the books that have saved Wigtown.
04:22And Wigtown has risen from the ashes, like the phoenix rising from the ashes, because of the books.
04:27It's a town that was saved by books.
04:30And it's a community that's built on books.
04:34It's just a wonderful success story.
04:39The open bookshop also includes a vacation rental on the first floor.
04:44A night stay costs 175 pounds.
04:47That's about 235 US dollars.
04:50Has this been a dream come true for Jill, Jamie and Jennifer?
04:54If you could sign up on a regular basis, I could totally see myself doing this, really.
04:59I thought this was going to be a one and done.
05:02I guess you'll see us three years from now.
05:04Three years from now.
05:05The wait list is back up.
05:07If I could bring all my friends and family to this little town and live here.
05:11It's a beautiful town.
05:13It's a beautiful place.
05:14It is.
05:15In two days, Jennifer, Jill and Jamie will hand over the keys to their successors.
05:21Like the sisters, many people come to Wigtown with a dream and leave with a story.
05:27Would you like to run the shop for a week?
05:30Notations'.
05:33prendreå®´
05:34J.
05:34Cicib
05:35I'll tell you what's going about.
05:35Now please get to a give.
05:35I'll tell you what's going on in LAFM plays with.
05:35Well, we discovered the losses and he was better.
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