For those who daydream about owning a secondhand bookshop, Shaun Bythell has the antidote. Or the anecdote...

Confessions of a Bookseller chronicles the daily workings of a secondhand bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland. It’s an account full of the daily humdrum, wry observation, and quiet moments with William Boyd and Martin Amis.

Each month is preceded by a quote from The Intimate Thoughts of John Baxter, Bookseller by Augustus Muir - a fictional account of the book trade which springboards Bythell into brief essays on bookish topics such as bookplates, fair pricing, libraries, customer stereotypes, and bookshop strategies to remain afloat against online shopping.

To bookworms it sounds idyllic: being surrounded by books, all that satisfactory shelving, excursions to buy books from bereaved relatives - but the back-breaking work has a toll and sends Bythell to a physiotherapist. And we haven’t even mentioned the customers yet.

The dark side of bookshop life is the relentlessly rude behaviour of the public. In they come - customers and browsers - tramping rain and soil, demanding discounts, belittling discounts offered, asking impossible questions, huffing and puffing, lingering at the counter talking talking talking. Have we as a nation lost our manners?

Throughout the diary, Bythell notes the books he reads - among them: William Boyd’s The New Confessions, Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain, and Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita.

Confessions of a Bookseller is a straightforward, often humorous diary giving insight into secondhand bookshop life. It’s one for booksellers, book lovers, anyone in shop retail, and the residents of Wigtown. For those who loved his first book -The Diary of a Bookseller - this is more of the same and Nicky is back.

I received a free review copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest unedited feedback.

If you enjoyed the first in this series ("Diary of a Bookseller"), then you will enjoy this one, as it is more of the same. I enjoyed both: I liked Shaun and his weary tolerance of badly behaved customers and disobedient staff. There are also sections about the local area and about the business of bookselling, which are very interesting. I found there was a little repetition (although it helps to be reminded who people we encountered months ago are, occasionally they were reintroduced after a day or so) and the cast became a little overwhelming towards the end, especially during the festival, but these are minor quibbles.

I hope he goes on writing these.

If ever a book could persuade you to leave your present hectic life, and escape to a countryside town where you could bury yourself in the local life, have an income in the form of a bookshop and be so very comfortable, this is it.

Shaun has a bookshop catering for a very wide, eclectic audience. The requests are wide ranging and very often accompanied by bizarre statements. Shaun is also easily put upon and is easy going from offering coffee free to the free wifi to the facilities. He seems to have utmost patience with adults and children who rummage, involve him in inane conversation and finally end up buying nothing.

In the form of a daily diary, this book was a delight to read. I carried my kindle with me to appointments in order that I could sneak in a few pages as this was one of those unputdownable books.

Loved it from the word go. I understand it is to be made into a TV series. Wonderful.

A very good book, engrossing and entertaining.
It made me laugh and it helped to understand how is working in a bookstore.
I loved the style of writing, the humour and the stories.
I look forward to reading other books by this author.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

At the beginning I enjoyed this one - especially once I got used to the format. It's written as a diary which each entry starting with the date and a listing of orders placed and orders found. I liked the day to day updates with the details of what went on in the shop - at first. After awhile, however, it started to lose some charm and drifted over to monotonous. While I did get a picture of what day is like at The Bookshop and think it will most likely make an excellent TV show after about 100 pages I found myself losing interest.



This is a nice book to have around to read a few pages at a time but this isn't a book that I want to pick up and read from cover to cover. If you can get a copy from the library great but I wouldn't go out and buy it.

A wonderful account of a year in the life of a bookseller, running the oldest bookshop in Scotland. Filled with colourful characters, (Sandy, the tattooed pagan; Bum bag Dave and Mole Man amongst them) together with Captain the cat 'already nudging the borderline of morbid obesity and the size of a small child'. Shaun Bythell is sardonic, sarcastic and misanthropic, wonderfully compelling and a hero to all those who have a true love for books. The line that made me laugh out loud was his description of one customer 'a very elderly man, walking using two sticks to help him get about, bought a copy of a book called 'Advanced Sex and Explicit Positions of Explosive Lovemaking'. Confessions of a Bookseller was a joy to read and long may independent bookshops continue.

As a bibliophile and future librarian I was immediately drawn to this book. I’m also aware of the town where this bookshop is and am hoping to work/stay a stint at The Open Book which is owned by Shaun’s parents. I enjoyed learning about Shaun’s bookshop and his daily life as a bookseller. I did think that daily entries felt a little monotonous, and I’m not sure that format worked for me. I preferred the parts of his story that included more personal interactions like the lead-up to the book festival. Shaun would hate that I read his book on my Kindle.

This book is a series of journal (diary) entries from a used bookstore owner in Scotland. Most of the entries in the first 80% of the book were boring. My life is more interesting than this guy's. The only thing that kept me actively reading was the entries that were interesting were wonderful. By the time the entries became solidly enjoyable in the last 20% I was so tired of reading them I almost didn't care anymore. His grandmother was more interesting, and she should have been included more.

Another problem was a lot of entries included back stories of books about hunting and fishing and old British men's clubs; which really cuts down on the readership interest for this book. Another minus was when scenes could have been descriptive, like when he was refurbishing his bothy, there was no visual. I wanted to know what was being done to repair and freshen it up. I don't even think he said what color paint was used. I hope it wasn't as drab as most of this book was

O.M.G.
This book is so, so, so, boring.
I quit at 20%. I kept falling asleep.

What sounded like a great read [the life of a bookseller in a small town in Scotland - HOW FUN!!], ended up being not. It basically is written in journal form and is full of the weather, the leaking ceiling, the employee who chooses not to listen to her boss, how many online order come in each day [and how many he can fill], and how much is in the till at the end of the day. Are you asleep yet? No worries, so was I. What a huge disappointment.

Thank you to NetGalley and Profile Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Confessions of a Bookseller is basically the early in the life of a bookstore owner in a small town in Scotland. This is a firsthand account from the owner of an actual store. I had not realized that this was a follow-up to another book. Now having read the first book had no impact on reading this book.

I loved the premise which is why I requested an advanced copy. It was not quite what I expected. Yes, it truly was the "day in the life" as each day is like an entry in a diary with the number of customers, online orders, and comments/activities that happened that day. It became very repetitious though there were moments of funny encounters with the various customers and people in the owner's life.

An irony was that the owner wanted the demise of the Kindle as I was reading this on a Kindle. Plus, he was doing what looked like a good business via the Internet and the Amazon market.

This was a quick read but does not compelling to me to look for the first book nor recommend it.

Thank you NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for honest feedback.

Diary of a Used Book Store Dealer.
It took me a while to get into the cadence of this book, then it went quickly. There is an abundance of discussing books and authors, politics and how digital books have changed the industry. There is some comedy about the questions customers ask and interactions with the sellers of books. As with most re-sale outlets, customers want to buy as cheaply as possible and sell at Antique Roadshow prices. There are many instances where I needed to google a phrase to understand the humor that a native of the UK would understand. I received this ARC book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.

Written in diary form, this story catalogs the year-in-the-life of Shaun, a book shop proprietor. As a business owner myself (sadly, not in books) I found it very true to my own life of interactions with customers and employees alike.

A charming account of life as a small town used book seller in a world of the internet and Amazon. It reads like a love letter to books.

Be warned: your "to be read" list will grow with the referencing and describing of so many books!

I was given a copy of this book by Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Loved the first book and couldn't wait to read the sequel.

More fun and outrageous encounters in this bookstore, also some insightful and thought provoking remarks.
Would love to visit this bookstore if I ever made the trip to Scotland.
Highly recommended for all book lovers.

Thanks Netgalley, the publisher and author for an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

Confessions of a Bookseller is bascially like Diary of a Bookseller: Same author, same format, same humour, and it's what it says on the tin: The diary of a bookseller.

Shaun is based in Wigtown, Scotland's booktown, and runs a second hand bookstore which also has an online presence. Each entry starts with the amount of books that were ordered online and the amount of books from the orders he was able to find, and conclude with number of customers and amount of money made.

In between is an assortment of strange customers, shenanigans his employees came up with, information on the weather, thoughts on his current reads, his to do list and updates for the bookish things in his town he's involved in, like the festival at the end of the summer.

I'd say it's probably a hit or miss: Either you like it a lot or you're bored. If you liked part one, you'll like part two because it's more of the same.
Books like this confirm my suspicion that I would not do well if I had to deal with customers, but make me curious nevertheless about running a bookstore and I hope that some day I'll be able to book myself in the Airbnb in Wigtown, the Open Book, which lets you exactly do that for up to two weeks.

In Shaun's recollections, we meet people we already know, like Nicky who wears a black ski-suit in the wintertime, Sandy the tattooed walkingstick maker, Anna, Shaun's parents. Captain, the bookstore cat.

If you liked part one, if you played with the thought of selling books, like episodes with weird people, this one is for you.

I recieved a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Shaun Bythell takes us through a year of his life in 2015 as a second hand bookseller, a financially precarious business, in the small Scottish town of Wigtown. This is a biographical read guaranteed to delight all of us book obsessives and those curious about the nature of the book trade in all its glories and vagaries, narrated by a man who describes himself as both cantankerous and a curmudgeon. It is in the format of a diary, where every entry gives us information on the amount of online orders and orders found, the day's weather, the total taken at the till and the number of customers who come into the shop. Nicky, a woman in her late forties, is the sole remaining employee left with her foodie Fridays and there are belly dancing classes that take place in the store. The bookshop has over a mile of shelving, real log fires, a dream destination for all book lovers.

Bythell gives us a real sense of Wigtown's community, that includes many from from various parts of Europe and the American Anna, Shaun's partner for five years, who has slotted into the area with ease, although their relationship breaks up, thanks to what he refers as his fear of commitment, as he continues to miss her. We follow him as he makes trips to buy book collections and meets their owners, books sent to FBA (fulfilled by Amazon), because there is insufficient space in the shop, despite his hatred of Amazon and Kindles. He finds scraps of paper in old books that turn out to be worth a lot more valuable than he could ever have expected. His love of books is unmistakable, the pleasure he gets from handling books, and from reading. His descriptions and accounts of customers are a joy to read about, some real oddballs abound, such as those who cannot differentiate between a bookshop and a library, in search of a book they have practically no information about, and many other embarrassing scenarios.

This is a fun and entertaining read, often hilarious, that provides a real sense of place and community, of the memorable Shaun, his life and his bookshop. It is full of eccentric and quirky characters, not to mention the unforgettable Granny, home invasions and book festivals. I can imagine it appealing to many readers, many of whom probably dream of running a bookstore, with its eye opening account of just how difficult it is to survive in this business sector. Highly recommended! Many thanks to Profile Books for an ARC.

I did not realize this book was a sequel so now I’m looking forward to reading the previous book! I loved getting a glimpse into someone else’s brain and especially a fellow book lover. I enjoyed Shaun’s random daily thoughts and feelings. His attitude towards customers is sometimes pessimistic but certainly realistic and funny. I wanted to curl up by the fire in the bookstore with a cup of tea or glass of wine!
Thank you to Shaun Bythell, NetGalley, and Profile Books for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book which I received from the publisher in return for an honest and unedited review. It's similar to his Diary of a Bookseller but it's nice to have more.

My full review on my blog

https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2019/08/18/book-review-shaun-bythell-confessions-of-a-bookseller-serpentstail-netgalley/

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had actually never heard of Bythell before reading this, but I am now waiting for his first book from the library. This book is honest and funny and still makes you think, which is more than most book could even hope to do. As someone who worked in a bookstore for years, I recognised many of these customers and have heard many of these comments. Particularly funny to hear the owner (rather than an employee who can't say anything) respond to what people will say! And what I found really touching is that his bookstore is a hub for the community. All that is left now is to visit Wigtown for myself!

Shaun Blythel is a fascinating protagonist who owns a bookstore in Scotland. The setting is idyllic and he's surrounded by a quirky set of friends and customers who add drama to his life and keep the plot moving forward. There seem to be a lot of books with a "bookstore" setting lately, but this is a particularly compelling one. An excellent read.

As a librarian I liked this book. We experience so many weird questions and encounters, not totally the same as a bookstore, especially the bargaining about prices. I did enjoy reading this, I found it funny, and outrageous in some instances but a little boring in others.
A definite read for any book lovers. I would love to visit this bookstore if I ever make it over to Scotland.