Shaun Bythell owns The Bookshop, Wigtown - Scotland's largest second-hand bookshop. It contains 100,000 books, spread over a mile of shelving, with twisting corridors and roaring fires, and all set in a beautiful, rural town by the edge of the sea. A book-lover's paradise? Well, almost ...
In these wry and hilarious diaries, Shaun provides an inside look at the trials and tribulations of life in the book trade, from struggles with eccentric customers to wrangles with his own staff, who include the ski-suit-wearing, bin-foraging Nicky. He takes us with him on buying trips to old estates and auction houses, recommends books (both lost classics and new discoveries), introduces us to the thrill of the unexpected find, and evokes the rhythms and charms of small-town life, always with a sharp and sympathetic eye.
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[Orwell's reluctance to commit to bookselling is understandable]***
(Profile Books, 28 September 2017, ebook, 549 pages, Around The Year In 52 Books 2019, 4 books inspired by the wedding rhyme, something borrowed, borrowed from my library)
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I'm a book lover (you may have noticed this) and love nothing more than scouring charity shops and second hand book shops. You never know what gems and treasures you will find. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The Diary of a Bookseller is hilarious at times. I loved Shaun's anecdotes about his eccentric regular customers such as the man who calls up to order books or the man who carves walking sticks and trades these for book credit. I loved his stories about the weird and wonderful people who walk through the door every day. Shaun's shares tales of book-buying trips which fascinated me. I loved Nicky, his full-time member of staff and the bizarre food she rescues from a skip every Friday and tries to force Shaun to eat. The Diary of a Bookseller is a treat.