Saturday, May 23, 2020

Confessions of a Book Seller by Shaun Bythell Book Review


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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