Edinburgh rewards a reader with time to spare. The city is compact enough to cross on foot, yet it keeps its best shelves in side streets, basements and corners of town that visitors rarely reach — places where the person behind the counter has actually read the book they are pressing into your hands. What follows is a working guide rather than a definitive list: the shops worth building an afternoon around, what each one does best, and how to avoid wasting a journey on a locked door.

The centre: Blenheim Place to the Grassmarket

Begin at Topping & Company on Blenheim Place, a few minutes from Picardy Place. It is the sort of shop that makes a chain bookshop feel under-furnished: long rooms, deep shelves, a serious poetry and history section, and handwritten recommendation cards that are usually worth obeying. The events programme is relentless, so check the board by the door before you leave.

Head south towards the Old Town and you hit Main Point Books on South Bridge, which specialises in remainders and discounted paperbacks — useful if you need something long for a train journey. Further along West Port, near the Grassmarket, Armchair Books is the classic Edinburgh second-hand experience: stock stacked floor to ceiling, a ladder for the top shelves, maps and prints in boxes, and a reassuring smell of old paper.

On West Nicolson Street, Lighthouse Books takes the opposite approach to the antique: radical politics, queer writing, anti-racist and activist titles, zines and small-press poetry. It is the best place in the city to find something a chain would never stock, and the staff will happily argue with you about it.

Stockbridge and the New Town

St Stephen Street is the quiet triumph of Edinburgh bookselling, with two very different shops a few doors apart. Golden Hare Books is small, wood-floored and beautifully edited: contemporary fiction, nature writing, essays, and a children's section that has been chosen with real care rather than bulk-bought. Rare Birds Books works to a clear brief — writing by women — and does it across fiction, memoir, poetry and criticism, with a lively events calendar.

Both are a short walk from the Water of Leith, which gives you an obvious excuse to sit on a wall and read the first chapter of whatever you have just bought.

Leith, Broughton and the coast

Haddington Place, off the top of Leith Walk, has become a small bookish quarter in its own right. Typewronger Books is tiny and eccentric in the best way, dealing in books, stationery and typewriter repairs, with readings and launches most weeks. A few steps away, McNaughtan's Bookshop is the place to go for antiquarian stock, prints and maps — the sort of shop where you ask before touching anything, and where the answer is usually yes.

Walk down Leith Walk itself for Elvis Shakespeare, which mixes second-hand books with vinyl, and Argonaut Books, a newer arrival with a strong new-fiction table and a loyal local following. Further east, at the end of a proper walk, The Portobello Bookshop on Portobello High Street is bright, modern and generous with events — and the promenade is right there when you have finished.

South Edinburgh: Bruntsfield, the Meadows and Clerk Street

The Edinburgh Bookshop on Bruntsfield Place is the dependable generalist: good fiction, excellent children's shelves, sensible gift recommendations and a stream of author events. Near the Meadows, Tills Bookshop is a happy hunting ground for second-hand paperbacks, while Edinburgh Books on South Clerk Street leans towards Scottish interest and out-of-print titles. If your budget is small, the charity bookshops on Nicolson Street and in Morningside will still fill a bag for the price of a sandwich.

How to read a second-hand shop

• Stock turns over constantly, so a shop that disappointed you in March may surprise you in June.
• Ask what is out the back. Most dealers keep recent arrivals off the floor until they have been priced.
• Check condition properly: foxing, a shaken spine or a price-clipped jacket all matter more than the cover suggests.
• Prices vary wildly for the same edition. If a title is common, it is worth waiting.

A half-day route for a proper browse

1. Start at Topping & Company on Blenheim Place while you are still decisive.
2. Walk south over North Bridge for Main Point Books and Lighthouse Books.
3. Cut through to West Port for Armchair Books, then pause in the Grassmarket.
4. Cross the Meadows to Bruntsfield for The Edinburgh Bookshop, then loop back past Tills.
5. Finish in Stockbridge at Golden Hare and Rare Birds, and walk the Water of Leith home.

Practical notes before you go

Independents keep shorter and more varied hours than chains, and many shut early on Sundays or take a Monday off. Check the website or ring ahead, particularly in winter and during the Festival, when the centre is heaving and the shops near venues fill quickly.

A few things worth knowing:

• Staff will order almost anything in, usually within a few days, and will post books if you are travelling light.
• Events are often free or cheap, but big names need booking well in advance.
• Bring your own bag; carrier bags cost extra almost everywhere now.
• Do not reshelve. Leave books on the counter or a trolley — you will save someone an hour.
• If you are here in August, buy in the morning. By late afternoon the good tables have been picked over.

None of this needs to be a grand plan. Pick two shops near each other, give yourself an hour in each, and let the stock do the persuading. Edinburgh's booksellers are among the friendliest in Britain, and almost all of them would rather talk you into a novel you had not considered than sell you the one you came in for.

Photo: Suzy Hazelwood / Pexels