If you click on one of the "buy it here" buttons below, you'll find yourself at Wide World Books & Maps' website, where you'll be supporting an independent, Booksense-affiliated, Seattle bookstore and travel goods shop. If you click on a "look for it here" button you'll go to Abebooks, a site where un-chained used bookstores post their inventories. In either case, buying a book from one of these sites is casting a vote for small businesses everywhere.

Terrell's Suggested Reading List for Scotland...

(well, Edinburgh and the Highlands, mostly. Glasgow, the Lowlands and the Islands will have to be another list)

Guidebooks

Cadogan Guide to Scotland  Cadogan's guides don't have many pictures, but I love their write-ups. They always include plenty of history, cultural items, insider tips and off-the-beaten-path suggestions along with selective lists of hotels and restaurants in a variety of budget options. And when you consider that they're writing about their own back yard here--it is a British-based company--you can see that their insider opinions really are insider opinions. Buy it here. P.S. I just heard that Cadogan's parent company has been purchased by New Holland Publishers, makers of the Globetrotter guides. Hopefully, they'll keep the Cadogans as they are

Cadogan Guide to Edinburgh If you're just doing the city, use this more specific guide from the same people for more pointed details. Buy it here

Thomas Cook's Drive Around Scotland We had a great time driving from Edinburgh up into the Highlands and, although I enjoyed taking the train, I have to say that I saw a lot more while we were driving. I'm just glad my brother didn't mind driving on the wrong side of the road. If you're not afraid either, I suggest this newly revised driving guide from British publisher Thomas Cook. Organized by region, it includes suggested driving routes and itineraries, places to stay and eat, plenty of color (or is that colour?) pictures, and background information on the things you're seeing. Buy it here.

Michelin Motoring Atlas for Great Britain and Ireland  If you're going to be driving around, you'll need a good map. We actually used, and I prefer, the AA atlas but it's difficult to find in the US. (If you're thinking about ordering from Amazon, be sure to check the publication date before you buy. Most of the ones they're offering are from resellers and are not the current edition.) Personally, I'd wait and buy my atlas in the UK, but if you want one before you go, Michelin does a good job with theirs and it does get updated annually. If you want a folding map instead of an atlas, I'd go with the ones from Ordinance Survey. Their touring maps are excellent and their hiking/walking maps are definitely the map of choice for anywhere in England and Scotland. Buy the Michelin atlas here or contact the store about Ordinance Survey folding maps.

Literature

Outlander by Diana Gabaldone I am an unabashed fan of this book. Just because it's a time-traveling historical romance with an incredibly romantic, tall, red-haired, wisecracking leading man who makes all the girls swoon doesn't mean it can't be good. And really, it is good. Gabaldone has done a great job bringing the Scottish history of the Jacobean era (that's Bonnie Prince Charlie, you know) alive. I loved tracing Jamie and Claire's steps through Edinburgh on this trip. I was talking to a Scottish customer one day who told me that she thought Gabaldone (who lives in Scotsdale, Arizona) had done a great job not only with the history but with making the Scots actually sound like Scots. This is the first book in a multi-book series (I think she's up to five or six, now) but the story gets a bit weaker as they go on. The first two are my favorites but I usually read straight through the fourth one once I get started. Buy it here.

Picador Book of Contemporary Scottish Fiction I found this great anthology at the Seattle library. I was looking for something by the younger generation of Scottish writers and came across the Picador Book of Contemporary Scottish Fiction. It’s got everybody. You'll find Ian Rankin, James Kelman, Duncan McLean, Irvine Welsh and lots more. Skip the very boring introduction and head straight to the stories. Good stuff if you’re interested in Scotland at all although I have to admit that a lot of the subject matter concerns being out of a job. It’s out of print in the US but you can look for a copy here.

Naming of the Dead by Ian Rankin This is the latest and apparently the penultimate of Rankin's award-winning mystery series set in Edinburgh and featuring the hard-drinking, heavy-smoking Inspector John Rebus. The series started 16 books ago with Knots and Crosses but it's entirely possible to read the books out of sequence and still get what's going on. Rankin loves Edinburgh and it shows. The books are littered with references to specific places, people and Scottish pop culture. I kept my computer handy as I was reading Naming of the Dead so I could reference Wikipedia to find out about things like Irn-Bru and iTunes for clips of songs by Rebus' favorite bands. To follow the hard-boiled detective around the country you can use the guide Rankin wrote, Rebus' Scotland or consult the interactive map on his website. Buy it here.