Bookshops of Glasgow: A look inside a Shawlands hidden gem that has served the community for over 15 years

Sixty-something and still Shawlands’ only independent bookseller, Barry Young has owned Young’s Interesting Books in Glasgow’s Southside since 2008, alongside wife Noelle Carroll.

The area’s ‘vibes’ have changed remarkably in the sixteen years since. Time Out, the highest authority of travel writing, even named Shawlands as ‘one of the coolest’ neighbourhoods in the world in 2022. “I don’t think you could have called Shawlands trendy when we first moved here,” Young said, smiling.

Many small coffee shops, delis and bakeries have popped up, popped down and back up again in a now-constant battle for Shawlands’ competitive café market. Perhaps nothing signalled the hipster migration from Glasgow’s West End to Southside more than the recent opening of Koko House, a staple of any West Ender’s ‘brunch’ diet, on Pollokshaws Road.

Yet the wonderful variety of West End indie bookshops – synonymous with any hip neighbourhood – is curiously yet to be replicated in Shawlands (there are, however, new openings in nearby Govanhill and Strathbungo).

“I say to everybody: open your own bookshop,” Young, who moved to Glasgow from the west of Ireland to fulfil his bookselling dreams, said. “Do it now because the town needs more bookshops.”

In the meantime, “every year is better” for Young’s ever-more interesting cove of literary treasures. Whilst dealing almost exclusively in second-hand books, the only prerequisite for titles sold at 18 Skirving Street is that they are, of course, interesting. The bookseller pointed to a tightly-packed row of antique books, many of which chronicled the history of Native Americans, perhaps for the first time. “You get some astonishing books, real treasures,” Young said.

“It may not be a particularly rare book but sometimes you get these absolutely sublime bindings, which are just so tactile and so beautiful,” he added. “And you just want to stroke them.” Young’s affection for the trade shines brightly from a cramped, dimly lit desk in the depths of the shop. After all, at the heart of the most interesting bookshops are interesting owners, charming the customer even more than their tremendous collections on the shelves.

“It’s one of these dream jobs,” Young notes. He speaks with a sparkle in the eye and frankness, marked by sincerity. “Like opening a pub, or being a rock star.” Not dissimilar to the pursuit of musical stardom, many bookworms – the old and, particularly in Shawlands’ case, the younger generation – seek a taste of bookselling. Young has been inundated with offers of young, hopeful volunteers from the area, but is steadfast in his belief in a husband and wife team which keep the shop ticking – to continued success.

But for Young, it is proof that books, battered covers and all, are not simply forgotten by Generation Z readers. “It’s rubbish,” he said. “There’s always been young people coming in.” The bookshop business, he conceded, is “hard to get into”. Prior to setting up shop in Shawlands, Young worked several jobs across Ireland, from the Irish Times to managing an outdoor adventure centre in Connemara.

Although his mother hailed from the city, there was “something about” Skirving Street, Shawlands and Glasgow which appealed to the Irishman. “There’s so many common links between Glasgow and Ireland,” Young said. “Not just in genealogy but also in temperament and the way that people behave – the friendliness.”

A bookseller’s background is often evident in their organisation and selection of books. On a previous visit, a memorably excitable customer had secured a first edition copy of Irish poet Seamus Heaney’s ‘North’. Two years later, Young now speaks of the shop’s stock of authors born in his adopted city, Glasgow, such as Alasdair Gray and Ivor Cutler. As ever, the rarer and stranger the edition the better.

“You come across new things that you didn’t know existed all the time,” he said. “Some of them are absolutely fantastic and beautiful – wonderful things to have passing through your hands.” One of the bookseller’s proudest finds was a “terrible-looking” paperback review of Bob Dylan’s tour of Australia. “Just rubbish” on the outside, but on the inside, Dylan “had written across two pages about his love for Australia, spelling Australia wrong, signed and dated it,” Young said.

The rarity of a book signed by the star may have earned the Southside shop some cash, but for Young, the joy of “such a rewarding and interesting pursuit” is in the re-homing of good books – not the money. The death of the independent high street bookshop? “They’ve got a very good chance of surviving,” Young said.

Young’s Interesting Books on 18 Skirving Street, G41 3AB, is open 11am to 5.30pm Monday-Saturday and 12pm to 5pm on Sundays.