Rich and varied tale of the tough world of bricks and mortar booksellers.

Having visited Shaun's bookshop it was easy to picture both the shop, Wigtown and the beautiful Galloway countryside. Ok that's the end of the tourism promo, now the review.

The books is a concise and well written read with Shaun dispensing many fascinating literary facts, bookseller anecdotes and observations on his varied and often eccentric clientele and staff. I love the random book club concept.

Whilst the stories can a little repetitive he does gives a great insight into the world of the second hand bookseller and the irresistible domination of the market by amazon which makes my review here somewhat ironic as Goodreads is owned by amazon.

The chapters are headed by Orwell quotes from when he worked in a bookshop which are a nice touch and the narrative naturally follows the ebbs and flows of the seasons as sales peak and trough throughout the year.

If you are ever in the Wigtown area I'd highly recommend Shaun's bookshop for a visit but don't dare his wrath by leaving without a purchase - very hard to do in my experience.

If you'd like to see some of the characters involved search for "readers delight" on YouTube and do follow them on Facebook.

Will this be published as an ebook?, well my review copy was, but at least I read it on a kobo rather than a kindle.

I was provided this book free by the publishers via netgalley but was not obliged to write a positive review.

I love stories set in a bookshop be it romance or murder or any other genre. A stack of books in the background will always make me want to read the story. This, however, is not a story but a diary kept over a period of a year by the owner of a second hand bookshop in Wigton. I thoroughly enjoyed it and, as I have spent a large part of my working life dealing with the public and am always astonished at their rudeness/stupidity/ fill in as appropriate, so I had to laugh at some of the stories the author told. There are nice helpful and generous visitors as well I hasten to add.

Trouble is with a book like this you wonder just how much of it is really true and really happened and how much is adding 'verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative'. I mean, not everybody can be mad or eccentric or colourful as they seem to be here, particularly his assistant in the shop. It was years after reading the James Herriot books that we readers learned that some of the tales told were embroidered somewhat. No problem with that really but that is ok if it is fiction, not so much if it purports to be non-fiction.

However, no matter I really enjoyed this and it made me laugh so that surely is the best recommendation?

Shaun Bythell owns The Bookshop, Wigtown – Scotland’s largest second-hand bookshop. It contains 100,000 books, spread over a mile of shelving. This is his diary of a year running his bookshop, ably assisted by a series of characters, both staff and customers. It is very funny and Shaun has a knack of penning descriptions of the customers who frequent his shop, form Mr Deacon who orders his books in person, rather than online through to the inane questions asked by customers who think they are funny, with such gems as ‘I can’t find anything to read in here’ and ‘It is cheaper online’.

You also get an insight into how hard it is to keep a second hand bookshop going with the mighty Amazon and eBooks/Kindle changing the book market place dramatically over the past few years. When he bought the bookshop in 2001 we had the Net Book Agreement (NBA) and chain retailers like Dillons, Ottakers and Borders, who have all gone now, plus eBooks were just starting to make an impact (there is a YouTube clip of him taking a shotgun to a Kindle and mounted in the shop – ironic for me as I read the book on my Kindle!).

He is ably assisted/hindered by his one full time member of staff Nicky, who leads a novel way of life that includes raiding the local Morrisons bins for ‘Foodie Friday’. You get an insight into the world of assessing and buying book collections, usually after the death of a family member and can read the passion he has when he discovers a rare book or one beautifully bound and/or illustrated. The bookshop itself is used for events, including an annual literary festival and even has a bed in it, which makes a change from the usual coffee outlet found in a chain bookshop.

Having worked in a bookshop (okay it was WHSmith’s but I was the Book Department Manager), I can relate to his perceived rudeness to some of his customers. As he says in the book he can get away with it as he owns the shop, sadly others in retail have to accept the insults and sarcastic comments some customers can send your way. He is never overly rude though, just to those that deserve it.

Reading this book wants you a) to read many of the books he recommends and b) visit his bookshop, if only to meet some of the customers like Mr Deacon and the owner himself. If you have any interest at all in books, do read this as it will reinforce your love of books and bookshops.

The Diary of a Bookseller is just that - the day by day activities of a bookseller in rural Scotland. Mr Bythell's bookshop is in Wigtown - apt given the amount of time Shaun spends wigging out. Despite being annoyed by a number of his customers, Shaun Bythell is popular within his community and has a yearly round of dinners, dates and fishing/hiking engagements which he touches on lightly. Personal concerns are kept to the side and the most revealing information in his book is given about his right hand bookseller, who is eccentric in the extreme.
The rhythm of the bookshop, with regular acquisitions and sales in person and online, is addictive. Shaun's pleasure when someone who has been searching for a books for years finds, and buys, it in his shop comes across very well. I enjoyed this book as a palate cleanser to all the 'magical bookshops where people find love and fulfillment' books, but be warned it is quite dry.

As someone who has worked in the book trade (retail and libraries) there was much I could relate to in this book and I was very envious with how rude Shaun gets away with being to his customers. I think that this will be a bit niche but people who like diaries / blogs-to-books will love this

One of my favourite comedies from the early '00's was Black Books, a comedy set in a second hand book shop and starring Dylan Moran as a misanthropic book seller who hates people and drinks copious amounts of wine. This is the book equivalent to that comedy, and I absolutely loved it.

The book outlines a year in the life of Shaun Bythell, owner of The Book Shop, and his daily interactions with customers and excursions to source books. It's never pretentious, and often very, very funny. I particularly warmed to shop assistant Nicky, who is basically described as a wombling Jehovah's Witness, who often turns up to her shifts in the book shop in an all in one black ski suit with an accompanying assortment of food found in the skip behind Morrisons. The daily struggle with customers was also very funny and informative - I gained a particular fondness for regular customer Mr Deacon, but ultimately reminded me that I never want another career in retail!

The book serves as a great insight into the dying breed of booksellers, and provided a lot of information about books that I didn't know, such as books published before 1501 known as 'incunabula'. I liked the little excerpts from George Orwell which proceeded every month too, as they provided some cohesiveness to the structure of the book and made it feel less like a traditional diary.

I think the only section I didn't enjoy was where the author got sidetracked talking about fishing for a few pages in August. Again, they only lasted a few pages, but they felt a little bit out of place.

In all honesty, I think this is one of the best books I've read this year, and has had me heartily reminiscing about the old book shop that I use to frequent as a youngster. Now, unfortunately, it's been turned into a pub (!) but this book proves just how vulnerable and invaluable book shops are in our country since the rise of the ebook and major retailers. My only regret is that I read this on my kindle, but make no mistake, I'll be buying the hardback.

This is so funny. So, so funny. Anyone with even the slightest experience of 2nd hand bookshops will find empathise, anyone with any experience with small communities will cry with laughter. There's a bit when an unwanted admirer dies that made me laugh so hard I woke up the cat. There's one big and rather serious problem though, which is that the book is already incredibly dated, and it's not published until October. By the time of release a lot of the events will be over 3 years old and the industry moves fast. He talks at length of his belief in the end of the physical book. 2 years of data and sales growth already show this is unlikely to happen anytime soon.