The Bookshop

Booksellers of New Zealand are a remarkably friendly bunch - two events in Auckland and I wasn't booed off the stage or lynched. I'm checking that they haven't stolen my valium. Off to Wellington/Featherston now to bore a different group of innocent people.

In Unity Books in Auckland on Friday.

Last night I was meant to go to the Booksellers NZ annual dinner, but accidentally ended up here. (Sorry, Lincoln).

More from exotic locations - Emanuala's (from Italy) cat Bea looking suitably bored, Francesco from Italy, Joy Underhill's dogs bored to sleep and Nina from Moscow driven to drink by it.

36 hours after leaving Wigtown, have arrived in New Zealand. Now to inflict my dreadfulness on these poor people.

Thank you to everyone who's sent pictures of their cats looking bored senseless by my book.

I can't remember who sent this, but it looks like a very cool car.

Thanks to Kirill for this from St Petersburg.

And this.

Advance copy of the paperback edition.

An extract from the Dutch edition, read by Kira.

Thank you to Sharon in Vancouver for this.

Thanks to Aurélie Sartres who not only illustrated the cover, but spotted it on French TV.

A tempting offer from someone with a very fishy name in the post this morning.

Right, someone messaged me about a copy of Lansing's Endurance from the Antarctic collection I bought a while ago. I can't remember who it was, but I've found a copy if you want to message me.

No, we do not have our entire stock listed on the computer, and staring at me in silence for ten seconds after I've told you that is not going to make me change my answer.

Two customers have just come in and both picked up a copy of Diary of a Bookseller from the table.
Customer 1 - 'I've just finished reading this.' Customer 2 - 'Is it any good?'
... Tread carefully, customer 1. Very carefully.
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'Do you have any cheap first editions of Lord of the Rings?'
Give. Me. Strength.

The joys of rural life - regular customer Desmond dropped these off this morning.

What a wonderful experience walking through the Bookshop! I just finished Diary of a Bookseller. The book made me laugh out loud and pause for thought at the same time. Loved it!

The man's a comic genius of the dry-as-dust variety and all booklovers will appreciate the vicarious pleasure of feeling like they're involved in the day-to-day running of a bookshop without the capital outlay and back troubles from lifting crates of books day in day out. Having said that, some of us now want to try it up in Wigtown for ourselves where they are canny enough to sell the experience. Booked out till 2021 I believe...could that be this man's fault?? Stay tuned for the sequel to find out...

The Diary Of A Bookseller. A terrific book - some truly wonderful stories. The irony of reading it on an iPad hasn’t escaped me but I paid for that indiscretion by also buying a “real” copy. It will sit proudly on my bookshelf. My bucket list now includes a visit to Wigtown, which is about as far from where I live as it’s possible to be.

So I read the diary of the Kindle killer on Kindle. ;)



If i ever visit The Bookshop, would you make a video of me reading the below from your book?



"The experience of clearing a deceased estate is one familiar to most people in the second-hand book trade and it is one to which you slowly become desensitized, except in situations like this, in which the dead couple is childless. For some reason the photographs on the wall - the husband in his smart uniform, the wife as a young woman visiting Paris - evoke a kind of melancholy that is not there in deals where couples are survived by their children. Dismantling such a book collection seems to be the ultimate act of destruction of their character - you are responsible for erasing the last piece of evidence of who they were. This woman's book collection was a record of her character: her interests, as close as anything she left to some kind of genetic inheritance. Perhaps that's why her nephew waited so long before asking us to look at the books, in the same way that people who lose a child often can't bear to remove anything from their bedroom for years."



I'm surely gonna put my name in the waiting list of the Open Book and visit Wigtown one day!

Thank you Shaun Bythell for the beautiful experience!

Read it in a day. A very funny book, recommend to anyone in need of a good laugh. Loved it. Everyone should read it. I belive it to be a sin to haggle over the price of a book or to leave a bookshop without a purchase. I suspect the author feels the same.

Loved this book, it made me laugh so much! As a former bookseller (Maybe again?.....) It's all so accurate, descriptions of customers, conversations while purchasing deceased estate books and the general good and bad of it all including Abe Books and Amazon. I particularly loved also the daily tally of books ordered - books found. Where do those bloody missing books go? Looking forward to visiting one day.

Just finished reading "The Diary of a Bookseller." Really didn't want to finish it as I've loved every day's entry! I hope to visit the Book Shop when I retire later this year.

I’m nearing the end of your book and already I’m feeling the withdrawal symptoms! What the book has given me is anew sense of loathing for my Kindle (didn’t like it much anyway and rarely bought any books through it). Thank you for making me laugh out loud and recommending William Boyd’s Any Human Heart.

Its such a delightful book that after reading it and lending it have just started re-reading after getting it back. Seems I missed some bits. Have bought it for two friends' birthdays. I love bookshops and unlike some of his 'customers' I buy books. Works as a travel book too; Wigtown has long been on my bucket list and has now moved way up the list.

I'm reading the book right now, and simply can't force myself to finish it: it's too intense, funny, smart, fascinating, bookish to let it go.

I can find only one flaw: now, I do want really bad to own and run a second hand bookshop, with a fireplace, tea and some sweets. Really bad.

Hope to visit the county and the shop, eventually.

I'm from India and I've never been to this shop but I'm giving the rating of 5 stars because I know this shop from "The diary of a bookseller" , I just loved this book. ��

I was supposed to have spent today doing three years of overdue tax returns...instead I read your book cover-to-cover, chortling madly. Your book was a delight from start to finish. Thank you. I will make the pilgrimage from Sydney ASAP!

Congratulations, with best regards

Lisa

I just finished reading The Diary Of A Bookseller by Shaun Bythell and I loved it! I am impressed with Shaun’s marketing skills even when he professed to not be marketing. Everything that was done to keep the bookstore afloat. Your love for literature is contagious. I felt that I was in your bookshop every day and even upon finishing would still like to know the little details. How is Captain? I would definitely be interested in reading a sequel. If I make it to Scotland again I would love to visit your shop.

I just finished The Diary of a Bookseller. Very funny, and spot on. I work in a secondhand bookshop in New Zealand and while we don't do anywhere near the business of The Bookshop, we do have our own cast of characters. One day I hope to visit Wigtown and the Bookshop, and hope Captain will still be around! (oh, and Shaun of course :)

I joined The Random Book Club & today received my first book ... The War of the Roses ... good choice for this Yorkist ... I thought I had posted this but cannot see it ... The Bookshop is the place where one wants to be (with a jumper on) wandering about, sending out for grub, taking stacks of chosen volumes to the counter ... sigh ... I am a Canadian stuck here in Cambridge (U.K.) ... I so long to meet Captain ... a cat of convictions! isn't he? are there postcards of him?

I have just devoured, with copious cups of tea and wine,your hugely entertaining Diary of a Bookseller. Our adored and revered Bookshop here in Tiny Tasmania (close to Antarctica so we also have a cool climate)is Cracked and Spineless, which is a smaller version of your obviously esteemed establishment and it was there that Richard placed your book in my eyeline to lure me in . I then liked your page, stalked all your videos and had a damn good chuckle or 2 or 3! Love your work - keep it up and hopefully one day I will be lucky enough to visit! Cheers from The Apple Isle �

I am currently in the process of reading Diary of a bookseller and I adore it. As a bookseller myself, it is all too relatable and I just wanted to say thankyou for writing such a wonderful book. I can't wait to come and visit the shop for real.

I also loved the book, and found it extremely funny and eminently readable! I have been prompted to read some of the books mentioned by Shaun that seem to have passed me by - of course acquiring them in print versions. It is a book to read in company, so you can read out passages, however annoying that habit may be to the listeners (who cares!).

As a former librarian, I sympathised about the comments on the condition of second hand books from those institutions but here in Australia, libraries are becoming less filled with print publications, delivering far more on-line, and often directly to the home computers of off-campus students. I also live in Tasmania, where our (very good) public library system has been stripped of the title of Library by bureaucrats, and instead they are labelled LINC which apparently stands for Library and Information Network. In my little town, I am often asked by bewildered tourists where the library is - and they are often standing outside the building!

Thankfully, book shops still abound, and we have some excellent ones around the state for both new and secondhand books. I look forward to the next book, whatever it may be! And to visiting The Bookshop whenever that may be!

First visit after hugely enjoying the book/diary by the owner. What a fabulous shop .... could spend hours there and still only scratch the surface.



Loved the shot and trophy mounted kindle device.



Everything about the bookshop screams quality, interest, love of books and a genuinely enthusiastic owner. Great prices too!



Worth at least double our 120 mile round trip and we will definitely be back !



Set an alarm, you could lose hours and hours here!