The Diary of a Bookseller coming to Booksellers Soon

The next best thing to owning or working in a bookshop has to be reading about someone working or owning a bookshop and luckily for us book lovers we are going to have the opportunity to read all about the life of Shaun Bythell who just so happens to own the largest second-hand bookshop in Scotland.

Shaun’s bookshop which is called wait for it, The Bookshop has over a mile of shelving spread along twisting corridors, dotted with roaring fires, and filled with over 100,000 books for shoppers to peruse all of which can be found in a beautifully rural location a stone’s throw from the coast and now its owner is about to share that Bookshop with us as his book The Diary of a Bookseller is published.

Shaun’s diaries which are described as being wry and hilarious document the highs and lows of the day to day running of a second hand bookshop covering things such as heated conversations with his staff including the “ski-suit-wearing, bin-foraging Nicky” and the inevitable plethora of eccentric customers that walk through his doors.

Talking about his book Bythell said: “When I bought The Bookshop in 2001 I had a vague idea of what it might be like. None of my expectations proved to be correct. On a daily basis, I’m surprised by the questions customers ask, and the assumptions people make about the business, from how we acquire books to how we price them. The full spectrum of humanity passes through the doors of the shop – some haggle, some recommend books, some are spectacularly rude, some want to tell you their life story, and some want to know yours – and this diary is an attempt to record some of the more memorable encounters.”

(If Shaun looks familiar to you that’s because we shared a parody video he and his staff made)

As well as life in the bookshop, Diary of a Bookseller also takes readers along for the ride as Bythell goes to auction houses and old estates on book buying trips, his recommendations both old and new, and with a “sharp and sympathetic eye” draws the reader into the charm and simple rhythms of small town life as he goes about his daily business.

The worldwide (excluding Scandinavia and the Netherlands) rights to the novel have been obtained by Profile Books and it is due to be released in August next year. Commissioning editor of Profiel Books Cecily Gayford said: “I’m beyond delighted that we’ve acquired Shaun’s brilliant account of life in the second-hand book trade. The Diary of a Bookseller is funny, sharp, observant and warm – the perfect introduction to the joys and horrors of running a bookshop, Wigtown and Galloway, and a life lived in books. Our only regret is that he wouldn’t give us a discount on the cover price, but we bought it anyway.”

The Diary of a Bookseller is not available for pre order yet but you can guarantee that as soon as it is it will be on every member of For Reading Addicts’ wishlists.