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A review by lisamshardlow
Remainders of the Day by Shaun Bythell
4.0
This is the third book in The Diary of a Bookseller series. Shaun Bythell owns The Bookshop in Wigtown - Scotland’s biggest secondhand bookshop, with 100,000 books for sale. In this diary, Shaun records his everyday working life in and around The Bookshop. He shows us a very humorous and entertaining glimpse into the world of bookselling.
Once more, Shaun is back with more witty observations about his customers and employees. I don’t know how he does it. Most of the time he was just observing and telling his diary about what was happening in and around his shop but he managed to do it in such a way that it’s entertaining and sometimes even quite hilarious. I especially enjoyed the return of Emanuella (or Granny as Shaun likes to call her)! And a few other favourites, such as Sandy the Tattooed Pagan and Bumbag Dave. I also enjoyed the ‘Amazon issue ‘. The narrator did another great job of delivering all of Shaun’s humour and being able to pull off different accents.
I really loved this book, but I didn’t find it AS entertaining as the first two in the series. I can’t quite explain why though. Maybe it was because nothing very exciting happened during the year Shaun was writing about. I don’t know, but it was definitely filled with the usual sarcasm and wit which is what I love most about these books.
I still loved this book from start to finish, so I give Remainders of the Day 4 out of 5 stars.
I would recommend this to anyone who loves nonfiction memoirs, entertaining stories, epistolary novels, books about books, sarcastic humour, and insights into the book trade.
Once more, Shaun is back with more witty observations about his customers and employees. I don’t know how he does it. Most of the time he was just observing and telling his diary about what was happening in and around his shop but he managed to do it in such a way that it’s entertaining and sometimes even quite hilarious. I especially enjoyed the return of Emanuella (or Granny as Shaun likes to call her)! And a few other favourites, such as Sandy the Tattooed Pagan and Bumbag Dave. I also enjoyed the ‘Amazon issue ‘. The narrator did another great job of delivering all of Shaun’s humour and being able to pull off different accents.
I really loved this book, but I didn’t find it AS entertaining as the first two in the series. I can’t quite explain why though. Maybe it was because nothing very exciting happened during the year Shaun was writing about. I don’t know, but it was definitely filled with the usual sarcasm and wit which is what I love most about these books.
I still loved this book from start to finish, so I give Remainders of the Day 4 out of 5 stars.
I would recommend this to anyone who loves nonfiction memoirs, entertaining stories, epistolary novels, books about books, sarcastic humour, and insights into the book trade.