Follow up to The Diary of a Bookseller by
Shaun Bythell, owner of The Bookshop in Wigstown, the largest second hand
bookshop in Scotland. We see first hand to the ups and downs of being a second
hand bookseller, with a special light on the affect a certain online retailer
has on small businesses. I love how blunt and wry Shaun is when it comes to
customers and their questions and requests. Having worked briefly in a bookshop
myself, you'd think I'd be well versed on some people's stupidity ('I'm looking
for a book, can't remember the name but it has a blue cover') but reading this
I couldn't believe the added cheekiness that comes with selling in a second
hand bookshop! Haggling on already fair prices, spending hours on in shop
without buying anything, swapping price tags on books.
The book is a diary that has an entry of
some sorts for every day of the year, including the number of customers and the
till taking at the end of the day. Not every day is a thrilling adventure, we
see the every day mundane and regular chores (buying and listing stock,
cleaning the shop, posting the book club books) as well glance behind the
scenes at the Wigstown Festival (I particularly liked the story of the picture
that Shaun bought years before at auction).
The stars of the book however are the
people. We see the return of part time staff Nicky and Flo, with the new
addition of the Italian woman that agrees to come and work for bed and board,
nicknamed Granny as well as Shaun of course and Captain the cat. The book is
funny but I found it tinged with sadness at times, which just added to the
human element of the story and highlighting the fact there's people behind
small businesses. Like most people who read and enjoy this book, I hope to one
day visit the shop in person.
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