Easily found and also easy to park at, while it does have a small selection of antiques don't let that part of its name put you off. This is a medium sized shop with a good selection of books in a village in the Scottish Borders between Peebles and Galashiels. It has one main room with two smaller ones at the back and while perhaps a little cramped when there are a lot of browsers, it is worth going out of your way to visit. Jeremy Briggs
Shop attracts repeat customers with varied large stock, covering most genres. Best titles in a glass case or behind sales desk are online. Chatty, helpful knowledgable owners. WAD. Chris K 27.07.11
Another good bookshop. TommyG 09.12.11
Last Century Books vies with The Border Reader as best secondhand bookshop in the borders. Excellent prices, very wide stock, strong on Scottish titles, outdoor pursuits and classic fiction. Lots of classic children's books as well. Don't miss the Tardis-like cubbyhole in the middle of the shop which contains another room full of books. Well worth a detour. Steven Kelly 10.07.15
A traditional bookshop with wide variety of stock and friendly owner. Strong on Scottish interest. Some sections a little jumbled (eg history) but fun to browse. Prices reasonable. HB 22.09.19
A lovely traditional shop whose large interior belies the smallish facade. A very pleasant and helpful owner and a most productive visit. Wessexman 06.09.21
Nice old fashioned shop to browse and rummage through. Deceptively spacious and crammed with books. Pretty well organised. Run by a very pleasant fella with a very dry sense of humour. Most categories covered and prices very reasonable indeed.
Take note - opens at 11am. Don't worry too much if he's a bit late. Innerleithen is a lovely laid back place that seems to go at it's own pace a bit. He came along to open up about 10 minutes later, to be met by 3 of us waiting outside his shop. He offered us a 2.5% discount on all purchases as an apology - as long as we spent over £100. Told you he had a dry sense of humour... Recommended! Flip M 27.07.22
A good traditional secondhand bookshop with friendly owner. Slightly chaotic with piles of books on the floor but that’s what makes browsing fun. Also some prints, antiques, and bits and bobs. Lots of paperback fiction and Scottish interest. Prices very reasonable. All the internet stock seems to be in boxes on high shelves and not available for browsing. I quite understand why but it does mean many interesting books are hidden away. HB 20.06.24
Another long-established bookshop, which I gather has been in business for around 30 years. Owner friendly and helpful: let me know that the intention is to retire and close the shop at the end of 2025. Last Century Books is housed in a shopfront on the High Street in Innerleithen: a traditional, small town bookshop which immediately feels like a “Drif Special” when you walk through the door. Four large rooms packed with books, reasonably well organised by subject, but arguably a wee bit crowded and over-stocked. Range of popular plus some less common titles on Scotland, geography, mountains and hillwalking towards the front of the shop, plus rarer books in cabinets. Biographies, history, trade paperbacks, genre fiction and ephemera towards the back. Stock generally in G to VG condition, leans towards readers rather than collectors, allow an hour or two for a rummage. Prices below average which may reflect the slightly off-the-beaten-track location. It's also worth having a look for chance finds in the antique/ collectables shops further along the High Street. Mr Wolf 04.09.25
The recent review by Mr Wolf is a nice summary of this shop: large, rather cluttered but well organised, and with good stock at low prices. After 27 years, Last Century Books is closing on 20th December as the likeable owners, Keith and Gill, are to retire at last. The premises are highly unlikely to remain a bookshop.
The huge stock of fiction includes a vast array of paperbacks (classics and Penguins mostly £2, but up to £3; recently published books £1.50-£2.50), but also a significant proportion in hardback. The drama section is excellent and the large poetry section scarcely less so. Also very strong for Scottish literature, including poetry. A large and good stock of children's books, including many older/vintage titles, including annuals.
For non-fiction, the best quality is to be found in the history, military and Scottish/local interest sections - all of which are large and seriously good - but transport, travel, walking, climbing, crafts, antiques, needlework, cookery and religion/spirituality have decent stock too. OS maps mostly £2.50. Good also for books on hunting, shooting and fishing. The music section is quite good - sheet music 50p each or three for £1 - and there are some interesting true crime books. Only fair for natural history, but a few decent geology titles. A small science stock, but as so often with this kind of shop, rather fusty and out-of-date. Plenty of good biographies, some hard to obtain.
Prices are very much on the low side, especially for fiction. Most of the non-fiction is also very reasonably priced, although there are a few exceptions, notably some of the better Scottish books, which are priced at or perhaps slightly above the norm. Sale books in the window - a different subject each week - are just £1. The closure of this traditional-style shop will be a real loss to the book trade in this part of Scotland. But you still have time to check out what it has to offer, although after 11th October it is closed for a fortnight's holiday.
Innerleithen is a pleasant town, often overlooked by visitors other than anglers and mountain bikers, for whom it is a real draw. The nearest railway station is a dozen miles away at Galashiels, but Innerleithen can be reached by the X62 bus (Edinburgh-Galashiels, via Peebles), which runs every half-hour. A few doors away, at 42 High Street, Lou Lou's Vintage Emporium (Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday 11.15am-4.30pm) has only a very small stock of books, but these are of quite a high standard, including at present some scarce local history titles. Booker T 09.10.25
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