The Diary of a Bookseller: Shaun Bythell (Shaun Bythell, 1)

Product Information

Shaun Bythell kept a one year diary covering his book shop - and also his life and the lives of some of those around him. It's a very entertaining read, though I wish that he had given more ink to some of the more pleasant experiences that probably occurred in his shop. (I'm sure that there must have been more than he related.) The more bizarre or annoying experiences made good reading, but more positive experiences would have made for a better balanced book. Mr. Bythell seems to be a bit of a curmudgeon, so perhaps that accounts for many of the episodes he included. Charming, darkly comic memoir…Warm, witty and laugh-out-loud funny, this gently meandering tale of British eccentricity will stay long in the memory. –Daily Mail

But then too there are the buying trips to old estates and auctions, with the thrill of discovery, as well as the satisfaction of pressing upon people the books that you love . . . Like Chocolat meets Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Bookshop, set in the Tuscan hills… A celebration of writing, words and people: delightful’ Shaun Bythell e un tînăr domn din orășelul scoțian Wigtown. A cumpărat o clădire friguroasă și ține un anticariat cu cîteva mii de volume. Bythell cumpără și vinde cărți de tot felul. Cele mai căutate sînt cărțile despre căile ferate britanice. Meseria de librar-anticar nu-l îmbogățește, n-a îmbogățit deocamdată pe nimeni. Dacă ar avea mulți bani, ar călători la Paris, ar vizita muzeul Louvre, ar privi chipul Giocondei sau ar merge în Grecia și ar urca pe Akropolis. Nu are bani și, în lipsă de altceva, se apucă să scrie un jurnal meschin. Un jurnal valorează exact atît cît valorează autorul lui. Anne had expressed the desire in the rewritten introduction of her diary for one person that she could call her truest friend, that is, a person to whom she could confide her deepest thoughts and feelings. She observed that she had many "friends" and equally many admirers, but (by her own definition) no true, dear friend with whom she could share her innermost thoughts. She originally thought her girl friend Jacque van Maarsen would be this person, but that was only partially successful. In an early diary passage, she remarks that she is not in love with Helmut "Hello" Silberberg, her suitor at that time, but considered that he might become a true friend. In hiding, she invested much time and effort into her budding romance with Peter van Pels, thinking he might evolve into that one, true friend, but that was eventually a disappointment to her in some ways, also, though she still cared for him very much. Ultimately, it was only to Kitty that she entrusted her innermost thoughts. Anne Frank Diary Anniversary Marks the Day Holocaust Victim Received Autograph Book as a Birthday Present (PHOTO)". The Huffington Post. 12 June 2013 . Retrieved 29 April 2014.You’ll be amazed at how many customers try to haggle over prices. It’s a shop, not a rummage sale, for goodness’ sake! I can’t imagine ever having the cheek to offer less than the advertised price. Shaun Bythell consideră, pe bună dreptate, că un „client ideal” nu caută prin rafturi la întîmplare, ci „știe exact ce vrea”: numește fără să clipească titlul, autorul și editura, fiindcă a citit o recenzie luminoasă în The Times și se încrede în părerea gazetarului (p.10). Un singur musafir îndeplinește toate condițiile cerute, domnul Deacon, un bătrîn ce va muri de Alzheimer (aflăm dintr-o notă strecurată în finalul cărții, la p.351). În absența domnului Deacon, anticarul nostru va rămîne doar cu clienți reali, adică prost crescuți, bădărani și ignoranți... Mitgang, Herbert (8 June 1989). "An Authenticated Edition of Anne Frank's Diary". The New York Times . Retrieved 1 August 2021.

Makes for entertaining reading . . . he has a keen waggishness which makes his reflections funny and memorable and this book a hoot.” — THE MEMPHIS FLYER An elderly customer told me that her book club’s next book was Dracula, but she couldn’t remember what he’d written."

Success!

This book won't please everyone it could prove tedious for some but for me I sure am going to be sad to leave this book, the people, the town and this bookshop. I've never wanted to visit Scotland before but now I feel almost compelled to, I feel such an affinity for this book loving town and I'm so glad places like this still exist!

filmed as Laatste Zeven Maanden van Anne Frank (English title: The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank) in 1988, directed by Willy Lindwer.

Remainders of the Day

Imagine reading the work diary of someone whose job follows a regular pattern each day, doing the same general activities, and that’s basically what reading this book was like - with some humorous anecdotes thrown in! Enter Shaun Bythell, owner and proprietor of The Bookshop in Wigtown (Scotland’s largest secondhand bookstore), who willingly accepts the economic challenges of owning a used bookshop, a challenge exacerbated by the shop’s location in a relatively unknown region of Scotland, in exchange for the freedom to be his own boss and respond to the occasionally stupid customer with just the right level of subtle snark.