Remainders of the Day
A Bookshop Diary
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4.4 • 5 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
New from the author of Confessions of a Bookseller and Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops, another hilariously grumpy year behind the counter at The Bookshop. Though diaries of daily life, Shaun Bythell has created an endearing and cozy world for booklovers, a warm and welcome memoir of a life in books.
The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland is a book lover’s paradise, with thousands of books across nearly a mile of shelves, a real log fire, and Captain, the portly bookshop cat. You’d think that after twenty years, owner Shaun Bythell would be used to his quirky customers by now. Don’t get him wrong, there are some good ones among the antiquarian porn-hunters, die-hard train book lovers, people who confuse bookshops for libraries, and the toddlers just looking for a nice cozy corner in which to wee. He’s sure there are some good ones. There must be . . .
Filled with the pernickety warmth and humor that has touched readers around the world, stuffed with literary treasures, hidden gems, and incunabula, Remainders of the Day is a warm and welcome memoir of a life in books.
If you’re new to Shaun Bythell’s bestselling series, this is a great place to start. If you’re one of Bythell’s legion of fans, welcome back to The Bookshop.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bythell (The Diary of a Bookseller) returns with another rollicking account of running The Bookshop, Scotland's second-largest used bookstore. Bythell records his interactions with his colorful Wigtown neighbors, presented in short anecdotal entries alongside a running tally of daily sales. There's his free-spirited upstairs neighbor who teaches an unpopular belly dancing class, temporary employees who have "made a singularly ill-judged decision to become a bookseller, and an even worse choice to seek my counsel on the subject," and a neighbor's poodle who constantly relieves itself on Bythell's azaleas. Then there are the customers, a motley assortment of the best and worst of humanity—some who quibble over a single pound and others who insist on tipping. Bythell's biting wit combines with an obvious passion for the work, even as he struggles to maintain an online presence, a new necessity for secondhand shops: "I've now been suspended from Amazon, ABE and Facebook, all by algorithms." The time frame is prior to the advent of Covid, yet it's a reminder of how bookstores remain sacred spaces, as well as the very real labor that goes into maintaining them: "The sun still rises in the east, and sets in the west. The shop is still here." Bythell's narration is equal parts preposterous and profound, sure to prove irresistible to fellow bibliophiles.
