Bythell, Shaun "Confessions of a Bookseller"

Bythell, Shaun "Confessions of a Bookseller" - 2019

After having read and thoroughly enjoyed "The Diary of a Bookseller", I was really happy to find that Shaun Bythell had written a second book, "Confessions of a Bookseller". Now, these "Confessions" are similar to the sarcastic comments I loved so much in the "Diary".

If you liked his first book, you should definitely read this one. If you haven't read either of them, you should start reading both, I assure you, you, you will devour them.

We follow Shaun through a year in the bookshop. He tells us how many customers come to the shop every day, how much money goes through the till, that is quite interesting. But even more interesting is the way he acquires those books, his visits to houses where a whole library is sold or people bringing in boxes of books they'd like to sell.

Then there is the talk with customers who would like to haggle. I think everyone believes that once it is second hand, they can ask for a discount because it "didn't cost anything in the first place". Yes, it is. And if a second-hand shop puts a price on an item, I can either take it at that price or leave it. After I read the first book, I found comments by some of his customers on how rude he was. I think, some of them should be grateful that they made it out of the shop alive. The author is very witty and very funny. I think only that gets him through the day.

Anyone who has always dreamt of opening a second-hand bookshop should definitely read this before. I still would love it but, customers, beware!

I hope that I can visit this shop and its author one day. He also has a website: The Bookshop. And a blog.

From the back cover:

"'Do you have a list of your books, or do I just have to stare at them?'

Shaun Bythell is the owner of The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland. With more than a mile of shelving, real log fires in the shop and the sea lapping nearby, the shop should be an idyll for bookworms.

Unfortunately, Shaun also has to contend with bizarre requests from people who don't understand what a shop is, home invasions during the Wigtown Book Festival and Granny, his neurotic Italian assistant who likes digging for river mud to make poultices."

As the owner of The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland, you might think Shaun Bythell's days are taken up with sorting through rare and valuable first editions - or snoozing by the fire with the latest literary gem. But you'd be wrong. Instead, beset by bizarre requests from customers who appear not to know what a shop is, locked in an endless struggle with Amazon and terrorised by his bin-diving, poultice-making employees, Shaun's trials and tribulations make his life very far from a fairy tale."

And now I am looking forward to "Seven Types of People You Find in Bookshops" (Goodreads).