Welcome to Beetle & Books, Edinburgh’s first community bookshop that strives to serve the residents of Edinburgh, old and new.

As well as serving the juciest collection of books, B&B are dedicated to becoming a rock-solid resource for the people who come through our door. It’s no secret that our living standards are changing, we all feel it.

Our education standards have been dropping since 2021, with a consistently shrinking number of UK teenagers going on to higher education while our primary schools have seen a country-wide reduction in grades, particularly in reading and writing.

The cost of living has been on a steep rise since 2021, reaching inflation levels that we haven’t seen in over 40 years. Food, gas, electric becomes more expensive while job hunting becomes endlessley tedious.

The way we connect with our peers, particularly with people outside of our own demographic, has shifted and leans heavily on social media or money-grabbing outings.

Adult literacy levels continue to fall, with one in every five people living in the UK between 16-65 having the same reading/ comprehension level as a 10 year old- that’s crazy! If you’re sat thinking to yourself, well I don’t meet that many people who struggle with reading, that is the power of residential privellage.

While I wish I could wave a magic wand and fix these inescapable things that keep our burdens heavy, I can’t. But what I can do, one step at a time, is build a place that can offer things like:

-Adult literacy classes, shame-free and cost-free

-CV writing days, with an emphasis on cover letters and interview skills

-Teen youth spaces, where we encourage creativity and word-skills in a safe, secure enviroment

-Neurodivergent shopping days (silent shopping hours, different lighting ETC)

-Workshops and lessons centered around building essential skills

-Author talks and Q&As, with an effort to get local authors spotlights

-Pay-it-forward schemes and free book programmes

-Limited publishing grants for unpublished authors of any genre, no matter the demand.

Edinburgh is a vibrant city full of people on all ends of the spectrum, and I truly love this city for that. I think that the residents are the ones that make Edinburgh golden, and we deserve the same dedication that our tourists recieve. There is already a booming activism scene, with organised protests and acts of solidarity for so many different causes seen every week- we want to help and we like to help… why not help ourselves a little more?

Essentially, Beetle & Books is dedicated to becoming more than just a bookshop, but a place of direct community action- A place where you can come to get help or give help.