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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
2.5/3 stars. At times I really got into the book and enjoyed the humour and tales of quirky customers, at other times I found it dragged a bit. I'd still recommend giving it a go, as overall it has been an enjoyable read.
I enjoyed reading this bookseller's diary. I ran a small online bookstore (now only pintables) and this book confirmed a lot of my suspicions of the book trade:
-Amazon is making the secondhand book trade near impossible
-To make it as a brick-and-mortar store you have to sell books online as well.
-Hardly anyone orders books through a bookstore anymore
-When in retail you become a type of therapist for costumers.
- One of, if not the best part, is the thrill of the hunt and handling those amazing once in a lifetime finds, the ones you only come across because you're in the book business.
-Most people think old books = money. Not true.
-Most people think First editions= money. But this is only true of things printed before 1960s.
- Amazon controls the publishing and writing. Amazon has driven prices down, publishers aren't making as much money so they are less likely to take chances on books.
- People use online reviews to pressure sellers for full refunds. Even if it's not the seller's fault.
-Ghost listings exist to bring down the price of some books. I've always wondered about the crazy low pricing of some books or the crazy high pricing. These are ghost listings - a fake listing of a book. Usually these listings have a low price and will trick a matching price software to bring down the price of the other listed books automatically. Then the buyer will buy the real book at a steal and delete their own ghost listing. Or I imagine it can also enable them to list their real book listing at a higher price. (I also suspect some money laundering scheme is involved in these ridiculously high-priced books.)
-If you want secondhand bookstores to survive, buy a book from them! Even if it's cheaper to buy online. The other month I found a local secondhand bookstore. I asked about a few books, bought a book off the shelf. later I found them on facebook and followed them. Excited to be able to support a dying breed. Two weeks later they announce they were closing. I haven't found another bookstore in my area.
-People don't read listings online and they will ask for full returns over things that were mentioned in the listings.
-Books are heavy, hard to move, hard to keep organized making bookselling a rather physical endeavor. More than you might first imagine. I sympathized with all the online book orders he could not send out because they were missing. (This happened to me several times when selling books.)
The author of the book I thought was overly critical of his costumers, considering they are his bread and butter, but several times he seemed repentant of this fault. I think my father, who used to run a furniture store, could relate; the public is strange and retail is unforgiving. The book was repetitive (it is a diary after all) and had a dry sort of humor to it that at times came off as pretentious. But overall, an interesting book on a strange, morphing market. I plan to read the sequels.
-Amazon is making the secondhand book trade near impossible
-To make it as a brick-and-mortar store you have to sell books online as well.
-Hardly anyone orders books through a bookstore anymore
-When in retail you become a type of therapist for costumers.
- One of, if not the best part, is the thrill of the hunt and handling those amazing once in a lifetime finds, the ones you only come across because you're in the book business.
-Most people think old books = money. Not true.
-Most people think First editions= money. But this is only true of things printed before 1960s.
- Amazon controls the publishing and writing. Amazon has driven prices down, publishers aren't making as much money so they are less likely to take chances on books.
- People use online reviews to pressure sellers for full refunds. Even if it's not the seller's fault.
-Ghost listings exist to bring down the price of some books. I've always wondered about the crazy low pricing of some books or the crazy high pricing. These are ghost listings - a fake listing of a book. Usually these listings have a low price and will trick a matching price software to bring down the price of the other listed books automatically. Then the buyer will buy the real book at a steal and delete their own ghost listing. Or I imagine it can also enable them to list their real book listing at a higher price. (I also suspect some money laundering scheme is involved in these ridiculously high-priced books.)
-If you want secondhand bookstores to survive, buy a book from them! Even if it's cheaper to buy online. The other month I found a local secondhand bookstore. I asked about a few books, bought a book off the shelf. later I found them on facebook and followed them. Excited to be able to support a dying breed. Two weeks later they announce they were closing. I haven't found another bookstore in my area.
-People don't read listings online and they will ask for full returns over things that were mentioned in the listings.
-Books are heavy, hard to move, hard to keep organized making bookselling a rather physical endeavor. More than you might first imagine. I sympathized with all the online book orders he could not send out because they were missing. (This happened to me several times when selling books.)
The author of the book I thought was overly critical of his costumers, considering they are his bread and butter, but several times he seemed repentant of this fault. I think my father, who used to run a furniture store, could relate; the public is strange and retail is unforgiving. The book was repetitive (it is a diary after all) and had a dry sort of humor to it that at times came off as pretentious. But overall, an interesting book on a strange, morphing market. I plan to read the sequels.
Shaun Bythell is de eigenaar van tweedehandswinkel The Book Shop in Wigtown, een Schots dorpje dat bekend staat voor zijn vele boekenwinkels en zijn literaire festival. Zoals de titel al doet vermoeden, geeft Bythell in dit boek gedurende één jaar dag per dag een overzicht van zijn activiteiten als boekhandelaar. Het dagboek is geschreven met een droge, cynische ondertoon. Over het algemeen lijkt Bythell het namelijk niet hoog op te hebben met zijn klanten. Of zijn personeel. Dit resulteert in hilarische passages (meerdere keren luidop gelachen), die Bythell vaak zelfs niet eens meer van persoonlijke commentaar hoeft te voorzien, omdat de situaties op zichzelf al absurd genoeg zijn. Mijn favoriete passages gingen over Nicky, de vaste verkoopkracht op vrijdag en zaterdag. Ze kwam standaard een kwartiertje te laat, bracht op 'vreetvrijdag' altijd vies, vervallen voedsel uit de containers van de plaatselijke supermarkt mee, en maakte er een staatszaak van om de instructies die ze kreeg volledig te negeren.
Los van de humoristische toon is dit boek ook gewoon bijzonder interessant, omdat het je een kijkje geeft achter de schermen van een tweedehands boekenwinkel. Zo leer je meer over de bedreiging die de opkomst van Amazon heeft gevormd voor de sector, hoe belangrijk nevenactiviteiten zijn voor de inkomstenstroom van de winkel, en wat voor schattenjacht het inkopen van boeken eigenlijk is. Ik kreeg er automatisch zin van om doorheen tweedehands collecties te snuisteren op zoek naar bijzondere vondsten!
Los van de humoristische toon is dit boek ook gewoon bijzonder interessant, omdat het je een kijkje geeft achter de schermen van een tweedehands boekenwinkel. Zo leer je meer over de bedreiging die de opkomst van Amazon heeft gevormd voor de sector, hoe belangrijk nevenactiviteiten zijn voor de inkomstenstroom van de winkel, en wat voor schattenjacht het inkopen van boeken eigenlijk is. Ik kreeg er automatisch zin van om doorheen tweedehands collecties te snuisteren op zoek naar bijzondere vondsten!
This was entertaining and the antidotes were good. It was just too repetitive and same-same to give it a higher rating.
Bythell’s Diary of a Bookseller was a slow burn. It took me awhile to get into it because readers were thrown into the diary partway into the year with little to no background about the shop, employees, or the author. Bythell’s writing style and descriptions of his day and customers was dry and minimalist. One has to read carefully to uncover the dry wit within the pages.
At my age, people’s behavior should fail to surprise me but Bythell’s descriptions of his customers made me question what is WRONG with people. From customers entering the shop wearing one shoe, spending an hour in the erotica section and behaving creepily, reading for hours in front of the fire and “not finding anything,” Bythell saw it all.
Bythell’s descriptions leapt between the mundane and bizarre and back again. The mundane descriptions prevented me from rating this book higher.
One thing I had not anticipated reading about was the dying trade of the independent bookseller. Bythell went into detailed information about why Amazon’s monopoly on book sales are driving dealers into oblivion. Bythell’s musings on the book trade were topics I had never pondered but found interesting nonetheless. I disagreed with his intense hatred for Kindle but I can understand why ebook purchases drive people like him out of business.
I couldn’t figure out how Bythell kept his shop working with such recalcitrant employees. I found his main employees to have terribly poor work ethics and attitudes. It seemed like they made Bythell’s job more difficult and stressful for him. I was on a high until I read the epilogue. I was sad that so many things had changed between the end of the diary and the date of publication. 😞
Overall, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to any book lover.
At my age, people’s behavior should fail to surprise me but Bythell’s descriptions of his customers made me question what is WRONG with people. From customers entering the shop wearing one shoe, spending an hour in the erotica section and behaving creepily, reading for hours in front of the fire and “not finding anything,” Bythell saw it all.
Bythell’s descriptions leapt between the mundane and bizarre and back again. The mundane descriptions prevented me from rating this book higher.
One thing I had not anticipated reading about was the dying trade of the independent bookseller. Bythell went into detailed information about why Amazon’s monopoly on book sales are driving dealers into oblivion. Bythell’s musings on the book trade were topics I had never pondered but found interesting nonetheless. I disagreed with his intense hatred for Kindle but I can understand why ebook purchases drive people like him out of business.
I couldn’t figure out how Bythell kept his shop working with such recalcitrant employees. I found his main employees to have terribly poor work ethics and attitudes. It seemed like they made Bythell’s job more difficult and stressful for him. I was on a high until I read the epilogue. I was sad that so many things had changed between the end of the diary and the date of publication. 😞
Overall, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to any book lover.
An die Schreibweise musste ich mich zunächst einmal gewöhnen. Wenig detailliert und eher oberflächlich beschreibt Blythell seinen Alltag als Inhaber eines Antiquariats/Buchhandlung in Tagebuchform (wie es der Titel bereits erahnen lässt). Sehr cool finde ich, dass der Autor selbst Inhaber der Buchhandlung ist was dem Tagebuch eine gewisse Echtheit und Authentizität gibt.
Für jemanden, die selbst in ihrem Job mit Kund*innen zu tun hat, konnte ich beinahe jede aufgeführte Kund*innen-Interaktion nachvollziehen und erinnerte mich an eigene Erfahrungen im Einzelhandel. Der Ton des Autors ist - so muss ich anderen recht geben - wirklich sehr schroff und ich kann verstehen, dass es für viele beleidigend rüber kommt. Manchmal ist man nun mal aber auch einfach nur noch genervt weshalb ich seine Reaktionen verstehen kann.
Mir hat dieser Einblick in das Leben eines Buchhandlung-Inhabers sehr gut gefallen. Ich kam nur mit den vielen Namen durcheinander und mich strengte der Schreibstil ab und zu doch etwas an, weil er oft von einem zum nächsten ohne erkennbaren Übergang sprang.
4/5 ⭐️
Für jemanden, die selbst in ihrem Job mit Kund*innen zu tun hat, konnte ich beinahe jede aufgeführte Kund*innen-Interaktion nachvollziehen und erinnerte mich an eigene Erfahrungen im Einzelhandel. Der Ton des Autors ist - so muss ich anderen recht geben - wirklich sehr schroff und ich kann verstehen, dass es für viele beleidigend rüber kommt. Manchmal ist man nun mal aber auch einfach nur noch genervt weshalb ich seine Reaktionen verstehen kann.
Mir hat dieser Einblick in das Leben eines Buchhandlung-Inhabers sehr gut gefallen. Ich kam nur mit den vielen Namen durcheinander und mich strengte der Schreibstil ab und zu doch etwas an, weil er oft von einem zum nächsten ohne erkennbaren Übergang sprang.
4/5 ⭐️
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Non fiction ‘year in the life’ of a second hand book seller and dealer. I love books and was dragged around many second hand book shops as a kid. Learnt some bits about the value of books on the second hand market. I don’t think the writer would like me much - as I’m most partial to new book smell and new book feel.
#thediaryofabookseller #shaunbythell #wigtown #justread #libbyapp #nonfiction #bookstagram #bookworm #secondhandbooks #scotland #thecustomerisalwaysright
#thediaryofabookseller #shaunbythell #wigtown #justread #libbyapp #nonfiction #bookstagram #bookworm #secondhandbooks #scotland #thecustomerisalwaysright
Strangely addictive
It wasn’t as funny as I had assumed, but funny nonetheless. The wonderful anecdotes reflected the specificity of working in an antiquarian bookstore. I have to admit painfully that a few times in the past, I also left a bookstore without buying a book and I promise I will never do it again.
Also, it was great seeing the bookshop from the owner's side with all its rules, problems and the weird thing customer’s sometimes say.
Examples:
At 10 a.m. the first customer came throught the door: 'I'm not really interested in books' followed by 'Let me tell you what I think about nuclear power.'
After lunch a teenage girl – who had been sitting by the fire reading for an hour – brought three Agatha Christie paperbacks to the counter; the total came to £8. She offered me a limp fiver and said, ‘Can I have them for £5?’ I refused, telling her that the postage on Amazon alone would come to £7.40. She wandered off muttering about getting them from the library. Good luck with that: Wigtown library is full of computers and DVDs and not a lot of books.
When the old man in the crumpled suit came to the counter to pay for the copy of Dostoyevsky's The Idiot, I discreetly pointed out that his fly was open. He glanced down - as if for confirmation of this - then looked back at me and said, 'A dead bird can't fall out of it's nest', and left the shop fly still agape.
To sum up: I hope to visit this extraordinary Scottish antiquarian bookshop in Wigtown someday.
It wasn’t as funny as I had assumed, but funny nonetheless. The wonderful anecdotes reflected the specificity of working in an antiquarian bookstore. I have to admit painfully that a few times in the past, I also left a bookstore without buying a book and I promise I will never do it again.
Also, it was great seeing the bookshop from the owner's side with all its rules, problems and the weird thing customer’s sometimes say.
Examples:
At 10 a.m. the first customer came throught the door: 'I'm not really interested in books' followed by 'Let me tell you what I think about nuclear power.'
After lunch a teenage girl – who had been sitting by the fire reading for an hour – brought three Agatha Christie paperbacks to the counter; the total came to £8. She offered me a limp fiver and said, ‘Can I have them for £5?’ I refused, telling her that the postage on Amazon alone would come to £7.40. She wandered off muttering about getting them from the library. Good luck with that: Wigtown library is full of computers and DVDs and not a lot of books.
When the old man in the crumpled suit came to the counter to pay for the copy of Dostoyevsky's The Idiot, I discreetly pointed out that his fly was open. He glanced down - as if for confirmation of this - then looked back at me and said, 'A dead bird can't fall out of it's nest', and left the shop fly still agape.
To sum up: I hope to visit this extraordinary Scottish antiquarian bookshop in Wigtown someday.