Reviews - The Diary of a Bookseller

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The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell

1.7k reviews for:

Ho scritto una recensione lunghissima e bellissima che ho erroneamente cancellato. Che gioia la vita.
Comunque il succo del discorso era che ho adorato il libro e il modo di raccontare di Shaun.

Sicuramente è un libro "diverso dal solito", anche solo per il fatto che è un vero e proprio diario, per questo a volte risulta un po' monotono. Però ti fa affezionare a Shaun, i suoi collaboratori e anche ad alcuni clienti (sottolineo alcuni).

Le parti più interessanti sono le riflessioni fatti su Amazon, gli ordini online, e sulle famigerate prime edizioni che in realtà valgono un fico secco. Ti apre al mondo dei libri usati, e ti fa sconvolgere quando dice che la maggior parte dei profitti proviene da libri sull'aviazione e che la maggior parte dei libri usati proviene da persone decedute.

Insomma, quando si parte per Wigtown?

anissa95's review

It was a jo rnal of a shop owner that I am personally not ready for this type of books.
Maybe I'll pick it up later again.

stellareadsandwrites's review against another edition

4.0

This is the kind of low-stakes, slice-of-life nonfiction I like to read! Very much an easy read but no less enjoyable for it. I absolutely adore bookshops and am definitely guilty of romanticising the bookseller life, but this had a great mixture of heartwarming moments, everyday life, eccentric customers, and the sobering truths of making a career in bookselling. The epilogue was incredibly abrupt which was in keeping with the author's tone, but I would have liked something a little longer and maybe a smidge more hopeful... But maybe that's just me.

evilzombiepanda's review against another edition

2.0

funny lighthearted slow-paced

jake_caldwell51's review

4.25

funny informative slow-paced

lorella_marie's review

4.0

Incredibly funny! If you’re into British humor this is your book! ;)

music_madeline's review against another edition

3.0

informative lighthearted medium-paced

The stories of the mundane provide insight into the life of another at the closest level. There are mentions of politics, but the focus is on food, relationships, travel and work. These are what take up most of the time of a person, not what ends up in history books.

modernreads's review against another edition

0.25

slow-paced

Reading The Diary of a Bookseller feels like being trapped in a waiting room with someone narrating their grocery lists, one beige anecdote at a time. The prose is competent, but there’s no plot. The content drifts disjointedly through the minutiae of an unremarkable life with such reverence you’d think it were a memoir of a world leader—not someone who once spit tea on themselves and thought deeply about it. These are three random paragraphs, yes paragraphs, I picked out:

Wednesday, 26 November
Decline and Fall arrived in this morning's post, so I telephoned Mr Deacon to let him know.

Tuesday 9 September
No Nicky today, so I was on my own in the shop on a warm, sunn day. Failed to locate two of the three orders. Nicky's locator code have been extremely inconsistent lately.

Saturday 12 July
Nicky was in once again. The weather has turned and is now damp and dreich.

This book is a warning to all who think their life has a book in it: introspection alone does not equal insight, and not all lives are meant for print.