Bythell, Shaun "Remainders of the Day"

Bythell, Shaun "Remainders of the Day: More Diaries from The Bookshop, Wigtown" - 2022

I absolutely love Shaun Bythell's books about his shop and his customers, his clients and his friends. I had already read his former ones and this is just as great.

So, this is certainly one of the best books I read this year. Shaun Bythell's humour is one of the greatest. I hope he will write a new book soon.

Here are some examples:

"Some people (so we're told) don't read. What unfulfilling lives they lead."
I couldn't agree more.

And his favourite from the book "Nil Desperandum, a Dictionary of Latin Tags and Phrases":
"Timeo hominem unius libri." - "I fear the man of one book!"
We definitely should!

A sixteenth century Spanish curse:
"For him that stealeth this book, let it change into a serpent in his hand and rend him."

Book description:

"After twenty years running The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland, Shaun Bythell's life has settled into a mostly comfortable routine; days spent roaming between the shelves, poetry nights by the fire, frequent drop-ins from friends with gossip.

But while customers come and go - whether or not they’ve paid - there’s never a quiet moment in The Bookshop. Apart from the usual stream of die-hard trainspotters, antiquarian porn collectors and toddlers looking for somewhere cosy to urinate, Shaun still must contend with his employees’ increasingly eccentric habits, the mayhem of the Wigtown Book Festival and the shock of the town’s pub changing hands.

Warm and witty, with Shaun’s iconic mix of deadpan humour and grouchy charm, Remainders of the Day is the latest in his bestselling diary series."

Bythell, Shaun "Seven Kinds of People you Find in Bookshops"

Bythell, Shaun "Seven Kinds of People you Find in Bookshops" - 2020

This is the third book I read by Shaun Bythell. In "The Diary of a Bookseller", he introduces us to his second-hand bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland and his quirky customers. In "Confessions of a Bookseller", he gives us an overview of a whole year and carries on in his sarcastic way to describe everyone he comes across.

I love the title. So, apparently, you can find seven kinds of people in bookshops. I kept wondering the whole time where I might fit in. Only to find out to wards the end, that I seem to belong to the "normal people". How boring. Mind you, I wouldn't have wanted to be considered a loiterer, my family is definitely not young anymore, I don't have a beard, I'm also not an expert on anything and hope I don't annoy people with telling them about the books I read or the subjects in them - well, I have a blog for that and can discuss those issues with other readers who are interested in the same stuff. But still … normal???

Well, to me, like to most of the other bloggers, I suppose, a bookshop is there to explore. Of course, sometimes I am looking for a certain book and will enquire accordingly. But most often, I just like to browse - and I will always find something. So, I am glad, booksellers appreciate customers like me.

Shaun Bythell is one of the most hilarious people I have come to know through my reading and I was happy to find out that he has married in the meantime and they started their young family.

As in my reviews of the first book, I am happy to lead you to his blog website The Bookshop and his blog. If you don't decide to buy his books after that, I can't help you.

The author is just as funny, witty and sarcastic as in his other books. Can't wait for his next one, "Remainders of the Day: More Diaries from The Bookshop, Wigtown" to come out in paperback.

From the back cover:

"Between its covers, a book can contain a whole world. And, at one time or another, the whole world comes to a bookshop - so step inside to find:

The Conspiracy Theorist
The Exhausted Parents
The Whistler
The Dark Artist
The Loiterer without Intent
The Craft Enthusiast
The Bore
And many more …

In twenty years behind the till in The Bookshop, Wigtown, Shaun Bythell has met pretty much every kind of customer there is - from the charming, erudite and deep-pocketed to the eccentric, flatulent and possibly larcenous.

In Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops he distils the essence of his experience into a warm, witty and quirky taxonomy of the book-loving public. So, step inside to meet the crafty Antiquarian, the shy and retiring Erotica Browser and gormless yet strangely likeable shop assistant Student Hugo - along with much loved bookseller favourites like the passionate Sci-Fi Fan, the voracious Railway Collector and the ever-elusive Perfect Customer."

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".

Bythell, Shaun "The Diary of a Bookseller"

Bythell, Shaun "The Diary of a Bookseller" - 2017

I read the first sentence on the back cover and knew I had to read this book:
"An elderly customer told me that her book club's next book was Dracula, but she couldn't remember what he'd written."

The book was just as hilarious as this remark. I had to laugh out loud a lot of times. Shaun Bythell is so sarcastic and has a great sense of humour. I loved that.

How a salesperson can keep their calm when faced with stupid questions or remarks is beyond me. Customers who think they own the place, rummage through the books and leave the shop after tossing the books they looked at anywhere and without buying anything.

Which book lover doesn't wish to work in a library or a book shop (although the latter can be disastrous to your finances). But do we really consider how much hard work it is? Just the moving, packing and unpacking of boxes with books is terrible for your back. And dealing with customers who don't treat books the way we think they are supposed to be treated?

I could totally relate with his frustrations about people who would browse in his shop but then order the books from amazon. Or those who haggle over the price. Or the frustrations with the Internet when it doesn't do what you think it should e doing (haven't we all been there?) Or with amazon when his sales sank again under a certain limit. And then the troubles with his staff who seem to live in their own world and totally ignore the ideas and wishes of the boss. What kind of world do they live in? If I'd behaved like that in any of the jobs I had, I probably would not have had it very long. Shaun Bythell seems to be a very kind employer.

I especially loved the stories about the books, how he went to people's houses when a loved one had died or they had to downsize. Wish we had second hand bookshops around here. I sort out my books from time to time and donate them to the library and I'm lucky that they are happy to take them. But still. Would be nice to make a little bit of money. And one of my personal highlights was when he shot the Kindle. Can't blame him.

But there are a lot of other funny stories in the book. Like when a customer asks for the restroom. Even though he had an American girlfriend at the time, neither he nor his assistant seemed to know what he meant, or so they claimed. So, the answer given was "There is a comfy seat by the fire if you need a rest." Americans, beware! When you come to Europe and are looking for the toilet, say it like it is, nobody here calls them bathroom or restroom or whatever. I remember a British friend on being asked for her bathroom thinking whether the person wanted to take a bath. LOL

I also loved the idea of the Random Book Club where he sends you just a random used book once a month. Unfortunately, it is full at the moment, otherwise I would have joined right away.

I am sure this is on my list of places to see when we will visit Scotland the next time. There are two things I definitely want to see:the shot and mounted Kindle and the Festival bed. And there is one thing the author doesn't have to be afraid of once I've entered the shop: I will definitely buy something and I will put every book back on its right place that I have touched. I always do that, so it won't make any difference.

One last thing, I appreciated all the books he mentioned, would have loved a list at the end because there were so many that it was impossible to keep track. And there were lots of other things I appreciated like when he mentions that "older Gallovidians refer to [bats] as 'flittermice', probably something that fans of operetta would recognise." Well, in Germany, everyone would recognize it because the German word for bat is "Fledermaus".

This book definitely gets 5 stars from me. ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

From the back cover:

"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."