Aug 29

Aug 29 Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell

For those who daydream about owning a secondhand bookshop, Shaun Bythell has the antidote. Or the anecdote…

Confessions of a Bookseller chronicles the daily workings of a secondhand bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland. It’s a wryly observed account of bookshop humdrum, staff antics, and quiet moments with William Boyd and Shirley Jackson.

Each month is preceded by a quote from The Intimate Thoughts of John Baxter, Bookseller (1942) by Augustus Muir - a fictional account of the book trade which springboards Bythell into brief essays on bookish topics such as bookplates, fair pricing, libraries, customer facial expressions in response to prices, and bookshop strategies to remain afloat against online retailers.

To bookworms it sounds idyllic: being surrounded by books, all that delicious shelving, excursions to buy books from bereaved relatives, living with the constant possibility of coming across a truly significant book - but it’s back-breaking work too, and Bythell is forced to seek help from a physiotherapist.

The dark side of bookshop life is the relentlessly rude behaviour of the public. In they come - customers and browsers - tramping rain and soil, demanding discounts, belittling discounts offered, asking dimwitted questions, huffing and puffing, lingering at the counter talking talking talking.

It is an irony of my position that - although I’m surrounded by books every day - most of what I know about them is imparted by customers, the self-same customers whom my first instinct is to discourage from talking. (Loc. 15)

Throughout the diary, Bythell notes the books he reads: William Boyd’s The New Confessions, Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, and Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts are among them. About Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita he writes:

It was nothing like I’d expected, or anything I’d read before. It’s an extraordinary book, the cleverest and most wonderfully evocative use of the supernatural of any book I’ve ever read … (Loc 3691)

And working in a bookshop with a skeleton on the ceiling and a ghost on the stairs, Bythell knows a thing or two about the supernatural.

Confessions of a Bookseller is a straightforward, often humorous diary giving insight into secondhand bookshop life. It’s one for booksellers, book lovers, anyone in shop retail, and the residents of Wigtown. For those who loved his first book -The Diary of a Bookseller - this is more of the same and Nicky is back.

Many thanks to Profile Books and NetGalley for my advanced reading copy.

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