A review by amyheap
The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell

4.0

For bookish people, the idea of running a bookshop is something of a dream; kind of like running a cafe for people who enjoy baking. The reality, of course, doesn't quite live up to the imagination. Shaun Bythell runs The Bookshop, for second-hand books, in Wigtown, Scotland. It's often freezing, the part-time staff are eccentric, the customers frustrating, and the changing industry, worrying. Bythell is an amusing curmudgeon, and the day to day details of second-hand book selling are fascinating. He isn't a fan of librarians, for very narrow, retail-related reasons, and, understandably, is far more concerned with the business of books, than their power in people's lives, but on the whole this is a funny, heart-warming, and eye-opening year in the life of a small town Scottish bookseller.